Submission Sunday 8.3.25
Oxford Poetry, Wigleaf, Indiana Review, The Atavist Magazine, Feels Zine, Dominique, Purgatory Comics Press, and Sterling Lord Literistic
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! Paid subscribers receive an invitation to the Submission Sunday private chat, 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 Oxford Poetry, Wigleaf, Indiana Review, The Atavist Magazine, Feels Zine, Dominique, Purgatory Comics Press, and Sterling Lord Literistic. More details below.
Oxford Poetry Prize (Deadline August 31)
Oxford Poetry awards the annual Oxford Poetry Prize for a single poem in the English language. The 2025 Prize opens on 1 May 2025. This year’s guest judge is Rebecca Tamás. The winner of the Oxford Poetry Prize receives £1,000, the runner-up £200, and third place £100. The winning poets are also offered publication in the print magazine.
Founded in 1910, Oxford Poetry is the oldest dedicated poetry magazine in the UK, and one of the oldest in the world. The magazine was established by undergraduates at the University of Oxford and originally published by Basil Blackwell. Previous editors have included Kingsley Amis, W. H. Auden, Vera Brittain, Cecil Day-Lewis, John Fuller, Mark Ford, Robert Graves, Geoffrey Hill, Aldous Huxley, Robert Macfarlane, Louis MacNeice, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Stephen Spender.
Wigleaf Call for Submissions (Open the Final Seven Days of August)
We feature stories under 1000 words. Writers may send one or two stories in a single document. (If you have micros—each story < 250 words—you can send up to five.)
We post new stories at least once a week for nine months of the year. Our summer break runs from June to September. Over the break we put up our award annual, The Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions.
Indiana Review 1/2 K Prize (Deadline August 15)
Indiana Review currently runs four prizes annually. All prizes have a $20 entry fee, which includes a journal subscription. All entries are considered for publication, and the winner receives publication and a $1,000 honorarium. For the 1/2 K Prize, all genres are considered. Submit up to three pieces, each of which must be under 500 words.
The Atavist Magazine Call for Pitches
The Atavist Magazine publishes one incredible true story every month. We specialize in longform narratives, the kind you want to read to the very last word. Since the magazine’s founding in 2011, it has been recognized as a pioneer in digital storytelling. Our contributors have won numerous prizes, including a National Magazine Award and a Livingston Award, and have been nominated for many more.
The best way to understand our approach to storytelling is to read some of our most recent stories and/or the award-winning pieces in our archive. Atavist stories can be historical or current; they can be about crime or science, adventure or romance; they can be rooted in investigative reporting or in first-person experiences. What unites them is their narrative approach—our stories are plot- and character-driven, cinematic, the kind of yarns you don’t want to stop reading because you can’t wait to see what happens next.
I’ve extended the original deadline for three days. Take advantage of a 20% discount on websites and coaching by the end of the day (Sunday, August 3).
📚 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. 📚
Feels Zine Call for Submissions (“Hunger” – Deadline August 31)
Feels is a publication about feelings. It is a place to explore, to share, and to be honest. Having an open dialogue about what’s going on inside of us can foster meaningful connection and make us feel less alone, especially in the social-media era that asks us to curate and polish our lives and feelings before sharing them—if we share them at all. Feels believes there are no good or bad feelings—the value comes from how we relate to them, how we experience them, and what we learn from them.
Food can make us feel so many things: euphoria; disgust; curious; at home. What are our personal and cultural connections to food? How do we share it, value it, connect to it, and enjoy it? How has our relationship to it evolved over time, within families, and within communities? In Issue 25, we indulge in its goodness, respect its significance, and dive into its complexity (both literally and figuratively).
Dominique Call for Submissions
What we publish: Artistic stories, essays, and poetry that grapples with difficult and complex subjects, featuring nuanced and complicated characters, and written with skill and intention to keep us captive in suspended disbelief.
Our reading tastes include Roberto Bolaño, J.M. Koetze, Bernadine Evaristo, Han Kang, and Margaret Atwood. Send us work that you are proud of, and we will treat it with respect.
Purgatory Comics Press Call for Submissions (“Rot” – Deadline November 1)
Purgatory Comics Press is a comics publisher based largely on the East Coast. We are building a community of antifascist creators and artist-owned global media in a wide range of genres. Our comics and comics-related media explore discomfort, pleasure, pain, satire, and perversion. PCP is the semi-official home for the antifascists, the addicted, the mentally deranged, the queer, the parentless, the absurdists, the slothful, the wrathful, etc.
PCP is now accepting comics, strips, essays, collages, fake ads, and whatever else for our newest anthology under the theme “rot.” Rot is open to each individual’s interpretation: can be anything from brain rot to the stages of rot. I’ll be prioritizing new contributors, but if you’ve already been featured in PCP Vol. I, don’t feel discouraged from submtiting work!
Sterling Lord Literistic Open for Queries
Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. is defined by its rich heritage as well as the energy and commitment of agents who are passionate about the writers they represent. One of the most dynamic independent agencies in New York, Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. combines a long tradition of literary excellence with a diverse and successful client list unparalleled in the industry. We represent a wide range of authors, including National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestsellers, literary and commercial novelists, politicians, journalists, scientists, and noted writers in children’s literature. The winning combination of established authors and newly emerging voices attests to the past achievement and future promise of the agency.
Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. has deep roots in the world of publishing. In 1952, Sterling Lord founded his distinguished agency and counted such literary icons as Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey among his early clients. …With its sustained presence and impeccable reputation in the publishing industry, as well as its innovative approach to capitalizing on trends in today’s marketplace, Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. is equipped to represent every aspect of an author’s professional life.
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.
Barrelhouse Call for Book Pitches (For What It’s Worth – Deadline August 9)
F(r)iction Call for Submissions (“Censored” and “Fame” – Deadline August 30)
Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award and Edinburgh True Flash Award (Deadline August 31)
American Zoetrope Screeplay Competition (Deadline September 3)
The Masters Review Summer Short Story Award for New Writers (Deadline September 7)
HyeBred Magazine Call for Submissions (“Freedom” – Deadline September 22)
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Short Fiction Contest (“Write Before Midnight” – Deadline September 30)
The Reed Magazine Contests (Deadline October 1)
Ploughshares Call for Submissions (Deadline January 15)
*This newsletter does not guarantee the unimpeachable behavior of all venues shared here but the odds are good.
