Submission Sunday 5.17.26
Prairie Schooner, The Offing, CRAFT, The Rumpus, Feminist Press, Feign, Reed Magazine, and Martin-Newens Literary Management
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.
Submission Sunday relies on the support of paying subscribers. If you enjoy this newsletter, please consider an upgrade! I’m planning some additional online events available to paid subscribers as well as the usual benefits: craft essays by writers, interviews with published authors about their submission process, interviews with editors about what they’re looking for, round-ups of articles about submitting and writing in general, and full access to the archives.
This edition of Submission Sunday has calls and contests from Prairie Schooner, The Offing, CRAFT, The Rumpus, Feminist Press, Feign, Reed Magazine, and Martin-Newens Literary Management. More details below.
Prairie Schooner Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest (Deadline August 1)
Prairie Schooner, an international literary magazine, publishes poetry, short fiction, and essays from around the world. In recent years, the quarterly has included authors from six of the seven continents (with subscribers in just as many). Historically, it is one of the nation’s five oldest quarterlies and will celebrate its centennial with the Spring 2027 issue.
Each year from May 15 to August 1, the Schooner accepts submissions to the Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest, open to all types of creative nonfiction essays, up to 5,000 words. Winner receives $1,000 and publication in the following Spring issue. This year’s guest judge is Orenda Fink, author of The Witch’s Daughter.
The Offing Call for Submissions (“Insights,” “Translation: Poetry,” and “Micro” – Deadline May 31)
The Offing is an online literary magazine publishing creative writing in all genres and art in all media. The Offing publishes work that challenges, experiments, provokes—work that pushes literary and artistic forms and conventions. The Offing is a place for new and emerging writers to test their voices, and for established writers to test their limits.
Insights: Creative nonfiction (usually personal essay) that centers one’s personal experience against the backdrop of art, literature, and culture. In essence, Insight essays are personal essay meets cultural criticism.
Micro: Ten- to 560-character (including spaces) works in any genre. You may submit one to five Micros in a single submission.
CRAFT 2026 First Chapters Contest (Deadline June 28)
There’s an unforgettable electricity that courses through the first chapters of a terrific novel. So much magic and mystery. So many potential paths for our protagonists. This summer, CRAFT wants to be transported by your early pages. The CRAFT First Chapters Contest encourages novelists to harness the energy of their openings for the opportunity to win a $2,000 award, excerpt publication, and a full manuscript critique by Artful Editor. Our annual contest is designed to reward and encourage the diligent novelist. Your manuscript need not be complete for you to enter your first chapters. We just want to see that spark. Here’s what Guest Judge Deb Olin Unferth would love to read:
I’m looking for a first chapter of a novel that, by the end of it, a few things are happening: I’m moved by the narrative voice—maybe it feels unique and inviting, or rebellious. Also, I’m deep into a character, I feel like I want to know them. And I need to be pulled along by the momentum of the story, promises are being made to me. The style needs to light me up, as well. Also, I’d like to know that this is all important somehow, that the story is about larger ideas, beliefs, global problems or philosophical ones.
The Rumpus Call for “Sunday Scaries” Submissions
Horror is life. You come in kicking and crying, lots of blood and screaming involved. Then it gets worse.
Jokes aside, horror is everywhere, and that includes The Rumpus. As editor of Sunday Scaries, I want to bring readers the best contemporary horror fiction has to offer. The genre can be very entertaining, but it has also always been a place to explore society and culture, to talk about politics, to explore identity, to protest against the status quo, and to chronicle history. Give me your zombies, ghosts, demons, werewolves, vampires, and cryptids, but also your grief, pain, fears, creepy encounters, and struggles. I want horror that punches, that says something. —Gabino Iglesias
McCormack Writing Center Speculative Online Workshop (October 3–12, 2026 – Application Deadline June 3)
We welcome writers working on speculative projects, in all its forms including speculative nonfiction, as well as writers who may be venturing into these genres for the first time or those simply needing community and a space to create. While speculative work is this conference’s overarching theme, we believe good craft is good craft. There’s always a benefit to learning with smart, thoughtful writers, regardless of genre.
📚 Every other week, I’ll be making space for up to three online writing classes or programs (and the occasional retreat or conference). Learn more about getting your own classified ad. 📚
Feminist Press Call for Manuscript Submissions (“Genre Fiction” – Deadline June 5 or at submission cap)
We’re looking for novels, novellas, and short story collections that bring a literary depth and flair to genre fiction—specifically sci-fi, horror, fantasy/romantasy, and speculative fiction.
Please consider how your submission is aligned with Feminist Press’s decolonial feminist mission. If you use the conventions of sci-fi to script an alternative world, does your plot interrogate its kinship to empire? How might your horror story mirror and warp the grim details of our global slide towards fascism, or the queer and racial politics of monstrosity?
If your work spikes genre with social critique and moral reflection in the vein of María Fernanda Ampuero, K-Ming Chang, N.K. Jemisin, Megan Milks, Carmen Maria Machado, Ted Chiang, Alison Rumfitt, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, or other comparable voices, please send it to us!
Feign The Reign Prize (Deadline June 30)
Feign is an online literary magazine for fiction and operates out of Reno, Nevada. Inspired by the city’s gambling roots, Feign notices fiction that takes risks. Feign seeks stories that entertain, surprise, and devastate. Feign wants stories that are inventive, and they may even arrive with their cards face down. Imaginative stories, ones that hurt like nearly drawing that royal flush. Stories that make us go all in, leaving us either gutted by a lost chance or soaring with luck. They may bluff to throw us off, but ultimately through the pretense, we see the joker’s heart.
The REIGN Prize 2026 Excellence in Fiction seeks short story submissions up to 7500 words. $777 grand prize, online publication, and print run. This year's Guest Judge is John Calvin Hughes.
Reed Magazine Call for Submissions (General + Contests – Deadline October 1)
Reed Magazine is California’s oldest literary journal. Tracing its heritage to 1867, the journal started as a mere pamphlet published by students of the California State Normal School, the precursor of San José State University. In more than a century and a half of publication, the journal’s name evolved until the end of World War II. Then in 1948, we adopted The Reed, which was later shortened to just Reed, the title we have proudly held ever since.
Awarding one of the richest purses among literary magazines—$1,000 for the winning story—the John Steinbeck Award recognizes exceptional works of fiction. The Gabriele Rico Challenge for Nonfiction recognizes outstanding works of nonfiction, awarding $1,333 to the author of the winning entry. We are looking for creative nonfiction, such as personal essays and narratives, not scholarly papers or book reviews. With an award of $1,000 for the winning poem, the Edwin Markham Prize honors outstanding works of poetry.
Martin-Newens Literary Management Open for Queries
Martin-Newens Literary Management, formerly Martin Literary Management, founded in 2003, is a full service literary and media management agency. We focus on representing authors of adult nonfiction, fiction, and books for children and young adults. Our clients’ titles have appeared on the New York Times bestseller and other national bestseller lists, earned strong reviews, received many awards, and garnered national media attention. Many of our clients’ works have been optioned and developed for film and television projects and have helped promote speaking engagements.
We pride ourselves on providing thoughtful and considerate management of our clients. We also pride ourselves on being a modern literary agency capable of developing the many potential ancillary opportunities that exist outside of the book world.
Here’s a reminder of the deadlines coming up from previous posts. Hot tips:
If you go into the archives and revisit posts from this time of year during previous years, you’ll find additional calls that are open annually.
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.
The New Letters Literary Awards: $2,000 Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry, $2,000 Robert Day Award for Fiction, and $2,000 Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction (Deadline May 18)
Kweli Call for Submissions (Deadline May 30)
AGNI Call for Submissions (Deadline May 31)
The Iowa Review Veterans’ Contest (Deadline May 31)
2026 Whiting Nonfiction Grant for Works-in-Progress (Deadline May 31)
Black Fox 2026 Spring Fox Tales Writing Prize (“First Chapters” – Deadline May 31)
The 2026 Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize (Deadline June 1)
The Masters Review Call for Anthology Submissions (Best Emerging Writers 2026 – Deadline June 7)
The Moth Short Story Prize (Deadline June 15)
Prairie Ronde Artist Residency Call for Applications (Vicksburg, Michigan – Deadline June 15 for Fall Session)
Narrative Spring 2026 Story Contest (Deadline June 26)
*This newsletter does not guarantee the unimpeachable behavior of all venues shared here but the odds are good.
