Submission Sunday 5.31.26
Granum Foundation, Atticus Review, Granta, University of Georgia Press, Pleiades: Literature in Context, Broadsided, Thimble Literary Magazine, and Headlands Center for the Arts
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 (see below for the Submission Sunday Summer Support Group!) 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 the Granum Foundation, Atticus Review, Granta, University of Georgia Press, Pleiades: Literature in Context, Broadsided, Thimble Literary Magazine, and Headlands Center for the Arts. More details below.
Granum Foundation Prizes (Deadline August 1 or when submission cap is met)
The Granum Foundation Prize will be awarded annually to help U.S.-based writers complete substantive literary works—such as poetry books, essay or short story collections, novels, and memoirs—or to help launch these works. Additionally, the Granum Foundation Translation Prize will be awarded to support the completion of a work translated into English by a U.S.-based writer.
Funding from both prizes can be used to provide a writer with the tools, time, and freedom to help ensure their success. For example, resources may be used to cover basic needs, equipment purchases, mentorship, or editing services. Competitive applicants will be able to present a compelling project with a reasonable timeline for completion. They also should be able to demonstrate a record of commitment to the literary arts. The Granum Foundation is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
Atticus Review Call for Submissions (“Song” – Deadline June 28)
We’re looking for work that comes out of “song.” It might be a particular song, or it might be a group of songs. Maybe it’s an era of songwriting. In any case “song” should be the launching point. Birdsong, waxing lyrical, harmony, chorale. We’re looking for pieces that treat song not only as “music,” but as a gateway to memory, confession, protest, or revelation.
We’re most interested in writing that explores “song” as backdrop or as metaphor. Or maybe a song or songs is what gives a structure to your piece. We welcome essays, fiction, poetry, hybrid work, video, or audio. We are not interested in “music reviews.” The analysis should be personal or cultural, not about the song itself. Prose should be no longer than 3500 words.
Granta Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
Granta magazine and Granta Books share a remit to discover and publish the best in new literary fiction, memoir, reportage and poetry from around the world.
The magazine was founded in 1889 by students at Cambridge University as The Granta, a periodical of student politics, badinage and literary enterprise, named after the river that runs through the town. In this original incarnation it published the work of writers like A.A. Milne, Michael Frayn, Stevie Smith, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.
In 1979, Bill Buford and Pete de Bolla transformed Granta from a student publication to the literary quarterly it remains today. Each themed issue of Granta turns the attention of the world’s best writers on to one aspect of the way we live now.
University of Georgia Press Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction (Deadline May 31)
More than seventy short-story collections have appeared in the Flannery O’Connor Award series, which was established to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership. Since the first prize-winning book was published in 1983, the award has become an important proving ground for writers and a showcase for the talent and promise that have brought about a resurgence in the short story as a genre.
Winners are selected through an annual competition that attracts as many as three hundred manuscripts. Winners of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction include such widely read authors as Ha Jin, Antonya Nelson, Rita Ciresi, and Mary Hood.
Starting Sunday, June 21, we’ll meet from 9:00 to 10:00 AM Pacific time online through August 30 (with no meeting on July 5). We’ll have a quick check-in, a sneak preview of that day’s new post of eight opportunities if there is one or a reminder of some submission tips, and then spend the rest of the hour off-camera sending out work before a final wrap-up. I’ll be available for one-on-one breakouts to discuss any issues you’re running into, and we’ll keep a group Google sheet of our submissions and results.
If you are an annual paid subscriber, send an email to submissionsunday@gmail.com to sign up and we’ll make this summer a memorable one! If you’re a monthly paid subscriber, all you need to do is switch to an annual plan and send me an email. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have. Let’s do this!
Pleiades: Literature in Context Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
Pleiades: Literature in Context is a nationally recognized literary magazine published by the University of Central Missouri. Each issue includes a guest-edited folio that highlights literature within a specific cultural or geographic context. These folios, beginning 2026, are re-published on our website. Our tagline, “literature in context,” reflects our commitment to publishing work that engages with place, community, and the diverse conditions that shape creative expression. We publish original poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, works in translation, book reviews, and interviews. Our print issues are published twice per year, Spring and Fall.
Over the years, Pleiades has made a point of publishing well-established writers alongside unknown writers. Among the journal’s literary “discoveries” (poets and writers who published work in its pages before their first books were released) are Amina Gautier, Zachary Mason, Alexander Weinstein, Tiphanie Yanique, Adrian Matejka, Ken Chen, Joy Katz, Arielle Greenberg, Christine Sneed, Mark Bibbins, Randall Mann, Hadara Bar-Nadav, and Michael Snediker.
Broadsided Call for Submissions
Broadsided seeks poetry and prose that is evocative, riveting, and not too esoteric. Broadsides are out on the streets, and we hope that they compel all kinds of people to stop, read, and consider. We want them to draw in readers, not push them away. That said, we want smart, difficult work. Work that challenges and speaks strongly.
Real people on our all-volunteer editorial team read each and every submission. We are honored when writers we know and admire send work our way, we also leap with glee when a writer who has not yet been published blows our collective editorial minds. This is to say: your work gets a fair and real read at Broadsided.
If accepted for publication, a Broadsided artist will respond to your work visually, and then words and art will be made into a broadside. You will not be in conversation with the artist during this process, which is why we also publish a brief author/artist Q&A along with the broadside to lift the curtain and let people peer into the process behind a creation. We nominate work published at Broadsided for consideration in national prizes, such as the Pushcart.
Thimble Literary Magazine Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
At Thimble Literary Magazine, we believe armor can be found in the oddest of places, whether that’s facing a hard truth head-on or reframing it so you can better understand it. We believe the stories we tell ourselves to be the most powerful protection for our edges.
Thimble Literary Magazine is primarily a poetry journal, but we happily publish plenty of short prose and art. We are not looking for anything in particular in terms of form or style, but that it speaks to the reader or writer in some way. Meaning, we’re not huge fans of abstractions. When selecting your poems or prose, please ask yourself, did writing this poem help me create shelter?
Headlands Center for the Arts Residency Program (Sausalito, California – Deadline June 1)
The Artist in Residence (AIR) program awards fully sponsored residencies to approximately 50 local, national, and international artists each year. Residencies of four to ten weeks include studio space, chef-prepared meals, housing, travel and living expenses. AIRs become part of a dynamic community of artists participating in Headlands’ other programs, allowing for exchange and collaborative relationships to develop within the artist community on campus. Artists selected for this program are at all career stages and work in all media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, new media, installation, fiction and nonfiction writing, poetry, dance, music, interdisciplinary, social practice, arts professions, and architecture.
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.
AGNI Call for Submissions (Deadline May 31)
2026 Whiting Nonfiction Grant for Works-in-Progress (Deadline May 31)
The Offing Call for Submissions (“Insights,” “Translation: Poetry,” and “Micro” – Deadline May 31)
The 2026 Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize (Deadline June 1)
Feminist Press Call for Manuscript Submissions (“Genre Fiction” – Deadline June 5 or at submission cap)
Prairie Ronde Artist Residency Call for Applications (Vicksburg, Michigan – Deadline June 15 for Fall Session)
CRAFT 2026 First Chapters Contest (Deadline June 28)
Feign The Reign Prize (Deadline June 30)
Prairie Schooner Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest (Deadline August 1)
Reed Magazine Call for Submissions (General + Contests – Deadline October 1)
*This newsletter does not guarantee the unimpeachable behavior of all venues shared here but the odds are good.
