Submission Sunday 1.19.25
The Kenyon Review, New Letters, The Hudson Review, SWING, Open Secrets Magazine, Archer Magazine, Elegant Literature, and PEN Emerging Voices
Happy Sunday, writers! Thank you for subscribing. Every other Sunday, you’ll receive eight literary submission opportunities, varying in audience and genre, that have been selected for quality and relevance.
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This edition of Submission Sunday has calls and contests from The Kenyon Review, New Letters, The Hudson Review, SWING, Open Secrets Magazine, Archer Magazine, Elegant Literature, and PEN Emerging Voices. More details below.
If you'd like to support the first responders and people who have been affected by the fires in Los Angeles, here are some options: California Fire Foundation Wildfire & Disaster Relief Fund, World Central Kitchen, California Community Foundation, Direct Relief, or any of the hundreds of GoFundMe campaigns.
The Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest (Deadline January 31)
The Kenyon Review was the vision of poet Roberta Teale Swartz and her husband, Gordon Keith Chalmers, who became the thirteenth president of Kenyon College in 1937. The inaugural issue, published in January 1939, included work by Delmore Schwartz, Ford Madox Ford, Randall Jerrell, and Robert Lowell (then a student at Kenyon, who had transferred from Harvard to study with Ransom). During Ransom’s 21-year tenure as editor, The Kenyon Review became one of the most influential literary magazines in the English-speaking world. The Kenyon Review publishes the winning story in print (with corresponding contributor payment), and the author is awarded a full scholarship to attend the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops.
New Letters Call for General Submissions & Literary Awards (Deadline May 19)
The mission of New Letters magazine is to discover, publish and promote the best and most exciting literary writing, wherever it might be found. We publish and serve readers and writers worldwide. In recent years, New Letters has won a National Magazine Award, the industry’s highest honor, plus multiple Pushcart Prizes, and is reprinted often in the Best American anthology series.
The first New Letters Literary Awards competition was held in 1986. Its purpose was to discover, encourage, reward, and publish fresh, new material from aspiring and accomplished writers. In the first year of the competition, over 1,600 entries arrived from established and emerging writers across the country and around the world. Today, the contest remains one of the most influential and has become a model for similar competitions sponsored by various literary organizations. Due to its continued commitment to anonymity and fairness, the New Letters Literary Awards has become one of the most respected literary contests in the country.
The Hudson Review Call for Nonfiction Submissions (Deadline March 31)
Founded in 1948, The Hudson Review is a quarterly magazine of literature and the arts published in New York City. Since its beginning, the magazine has dealt with the area where literature bears on the intellectual life of the time and on diverse aspects of American culture. It has no university affiliation and is not committed to any narrow academic aim or to any particular political perspective. The magazine serves as a major forum for the work of new writers and for the exploration of new developments in literature and the arts. It has a distinguished record of publishing little-known or undiscovered writers, many of whom have become major literary figures. Each issue contains a wide range of material including: poetry, fiction, essays on literary and cultural topics, book reviews, reports from abroad, and chronicles covering film, theatre, dance, music and art. The Hudson Review is distributed in twenty-five countries.
SWING Call for Submissions (Deadline April 1)
SWING is home for the emerging writer to the renowned, the discovered to the too-long neglected. We are creating a magazine with the energy and verve of its home city, Nashville, a town of vagabonds and roots, where new influences course through the old.
So make your mark with us! SWING wants the poetry, fiction (auto-, hybrid, very short, or regular but extraordinary), nonfiction (creative, travel, personal, hybrid, surely there are other variations), and comics that could only have been written by you. Because, even though art is not confession (and we firmly believe this), reading is intimate. We want to hear your voice, your complex, messy human voice, in our ears as we lean back. Then we want to be pushed. We read for that moment of flight, where we have no idea where we are going, but trust the hand on our backs pushing higher. This is hard to explain, most important things are, but don’t send us anything as-good-as—send us your best.
[Thanks to Stephanie Nelson, whose story “The Kitten” was recently published by SWING, for the tip.]
Believe in the Possibility of Your Story. Join The Workshop.
This eight-week virtual writing series supports writers in realizing their own best vision for their work. Led by award-winning author, journalist, and longtime instructor Samantha Dunn, The Workshop promises an inspiring, productive literary community. Begins February 1. Email queries to coordinator Cheryl Jacobs: cherjacob@aol.com.
The Macondo Writers Workshop Call for Applicants (Deadline February 23)
The Macondo Writers Workshop is a weeklong experience for professional writers that is made up of daily workshops with guest faculty, optional afternoon seminars, and evening public readings. We normally hold the workshop annually the last week of July in San Antonio, Texas. A limited amount of partial and full scholarships will be available to accepted participants to attend the workshop, with preference for first-time Macondistas.
📚 Every other week, I’ll be making space for up to three online writing classes or programs (and the occasional retreat or conference) to advertise their upcoming offerings here. Learn more about getting your own classified ad. 📚
Open Secrets Magazine Call for Personal Essays on Climate Change and Climate Issues (Deadline May 31)
In response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and other recent climate-related events, Open Secrets Magazine is launching a new vertical called Climate. In addition to our weekly Monday essays, we will run at least one personal essay per month in 2025 on the impact of climate change and climate issues, provided we receive enough submissions. We may run more than one essay depending on submissions and available funds.
Like all Open Secrets Magazine essays, these will not be op-eds or rants or educational articles about climate change. These will be memorable, revealing personal essays from authors anywhere in the world about how the modern climate has impacted their lives. This could be about climate-related disasters such as wildfires or floods, the impact of droughts or food shortages, how climate change has impacted your personal life, health, and/or decision-making, or any other approach. Essay writers from marginalized groups will be given priority. Read this post for tips on how to get your personal essay published in Open Secrets Magazine.
Archer Magazine Call for Pitches
Archer Magazine curates first-person narratives on topics around sexuality, gender and identity, with a focus on intersectional voices and those often left out of the media. Individual voices are nurtured and individuals are respected. Archer is published twice-yearly in Melbourne, Australia, with a focus on lesser-heard voices and the uniqueness of our experiences. Archer accepts story and photography pitches. We are a print magazine and an online publication.
The Archer website and print edition feature articles that:
Argue a point
Educate on or explore universal and personal concepts
Capture a point in time and culture, in an entertaining and concise manner
First person speech and accounts of personal experience are encouraged.
The Elegant Literature Award for New Writers: “Crossroads & Consequence” (Deadline January 31)
Stand at the fork, paths splitting in every direction. One holds what you desire, the others… well, best not to dwell on that. Your life hangs in the balance, along with all those you love. Now, it’s time to make your choice…
Life is a series of crossroads—every choice is destiny, or chance. Decisions define us, propelling forward or pulling back. The villain was once a hero. Fate or free will? A flip of the coin alters the future. A kingdom saved, a planet destroyed. High stakes and uncertain outcomes. Can you live with the responsibility, the repercussions? Leave it to others more qualified, or just more powerful. Intersections everywhere, from the world stage to the lover’s heart. Courses determined by one, by many, by the machines, the effects rippling out in waves. I hope you brought a reliable guide, for life’s long journey is riddled with junctions offering promise and peril, and the regret of the road not taken. So, which path will you walk, and what price are you willing to pay?
This $3000 contest invites you to explore Crossroads and Consequence, whatever that means to you. Fantasy, contemporary, romance, crime. All genres are welcome. Contest only open to new writers.
PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship Call for Applicants (Deadline January 31)
The Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Through curated one-on-one mentorship and introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, in addition to workshops on editing, marketing, and creating a platform, the five-month fellowship nurtures creative community, provides a professional skill-set, and demystifies the path to publication—with the ultimate goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries. An iteration of the fellowship, the Emerging Voices Workshop, offers an intensive in person week-long workshop, offered twice annually, in Los Angeles, California.
Here’s a reminder of the deadlines coming up from previous posts. Please note that archived posts might also include calls that are open year-round. If you sign up for Substack Notes, I also post deadline reminders there. Remember: If you submit to any of the Submission Sunday calls and publish or win, let me know and I’ll broadcast your success in a future post.
Faber Action! Prize (Deadline January 30)
The Iowa Review Awards (Deadline January 31)
Split Rock Review Call for Submissions (Deadline January 31)
The Paris Review Call for Poetry Submissions (Deadline January 31)
Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund Call for Applicants (Deadline January 31)
The 2025 American Short(er) Fiction Prize (Deadline February 1)
DUM DUM Zine Call for Submissions (“Music” – Deadline February 1)
Catamaran Call for Submissions (Year-Round & Special Issue: “Fashion” – Deadline February 1)
Southern Cultures Call for Papers: “Country Music’s Mythology” (Deadline February 3)
The Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction (Deadline March 2)
The Coachella Review Call for Submissions (“Good Trouble” – Deadline April 4)
The Threepenny Review Call for Submissions (Deadline April 15)
Redivider Call for Submissions (Deadline May 1)
Poetry Call for Submissions (Deadline June 14)
The Black List 2025 Unpublished Novel Award (Deadline June 27)
*This newsletter does not guarantee the unimpeachable behavior of all venues shared here but the odds are good.
