Submission Sunday 8.17.25
The Sun, Quest, Black Fox, The Branches, University of New Orleans Press, The Black Ordinary, Stepping Out: Writings on Infidelity, and Bloedel Reserve
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 The Sun, Quest, Black Fox, The Branches, University of New Orleans Press, The Black Ordinary, Stepping Out: Writings on Infidelity, and Bloedel Reserve. More details below.
The Sun Readers Write Call for Submissions (“Pockets – Deadline September 1 and “Bars” – Deadline October 1)
Readers Write is a feature in The Sun where readers share their personal writing on a given topic—a unique fixture of the magazine since the section’s inception in 1978. Send us your true story on an upcoming topic, and if we publish it you’ll receive a complimentary one-year subscription.
Pockets
Due September 1
Pockets are where we safeguard some of our most important belongings: wallets, phones, the key to the new car, the rings for our best friend’s wedding. Sometimes that approach backfires: Ever been pickpocketed or “lost” something in the coat you only wear once a year? Are your pants always weighed down with kids’ snacks, pet treats, or tools? Did you ever snoop in your parents’ or spouse’s clothes and find something you didn’t expect? Dig deep and send us your true stories about pockets by September 1.
Bars
Due October 1
Pole vaulters propel themselves over high ones. Limbo dancers squeeze beneath low ones. Law school graduates must pass the bar exam, and those convicted in a courtroom may have to stand behind them. And then, of course, there are many that attract thirsty revelers. They have several compositions—chocolate, gold, sand—and numerous definitions: a unit of measurement, a segment of music, the biggest button on your keyboard. Send us your true stories on “Bars” by October 1.
Quest Call for Submissions (“Thresholds” – Deadline September 15)
Quest is a new online magazine publishing literary, visual, and critical work that uses sci-fi and fantasy to reflect the world around us. Quest is a space for readers to explore and contributors to experiment.
We’re currently inviting early collaborators to help shape the launch of Quest by submitting work or signing up to be part of our artist roster. In this issue, we want stories, essays, comics, poems, art, and criticism that explore our take on “Thresholds”: moments of inflection, tipping points, etc.
Black Fox Literary Magazine Summer Fox Tales Prize (“Feast” – Deadline August 31)
Black Fox is accepting submissions for our Summer 2025 Fox Tales Prize. The theme for this round is “Feast.” We are open to loose interpretations of the theme in any genre, as always.
It’s true that food is the way we fuel our bodies. But it’s also at the center of many of our lives. Food can be tied to culture, ritual, memory, gatherings, relationships, conflict, connection, and more. It can be the lopsided pancake that marked the end of a relationship, the chocolate chip cookies that saved a friendship, or the pasta that sparked a reunion. What is the story behind a bowl of soup eaten in solitude or a chaotic family dinner? We are looking for work that explores the emotional and sensory capacity of food. Our main requirement is that food plays a part in some way. Sweet or savory, cold, or warm, we want to create a literary feast at the Black Fox table!
The Branches Call for Submissions (“Voice” – Deadline September 13)
The Branches is dedicated to exploring our beliefs, our influences, and our contexts through word and art.
Instead of making silos for creative expression, theological meditation, popular media, and intellectual thought, The Branches is interested in the fluctuating overlap of all of these and seeks to provide a space for earnest engagement, curious reflection, open-minded dialogue, and mutual betterment.
Submissions are open for the Fall 2025 issue on the theme VOICE. We are especially interested in cultural criticism, personal essays, and book/movie discussions and also publish poetry, short fiction, art, and photography.
Dialogue as Engine, or How Subtext Drives a Story (September 5, 4:00-5:30 PM Pacific Time)
The Masters Review Assistant Editor Jen Dupree has developed an engaging and informative class for prose writers to study the craft of dialogue by workshopping selected excerpts, analyzing specific techniques, and putting those techniques into practice with some generative prompts.
Clarion Workshop: Beyond Worldbuilding—Showing off Your World in Story with Kate Maruyama (September 18 & 25, 6:00–8:00 PM Pacific Time)
This class will help you tighten the quirks, characteristics, and operational realities of your ghost story, faraway planet, future universe, or fantastical world, not only making it adhere to form but helping it vibrate through your characters, themes, and leitmotifs to make your short story or book come together swiftly.
📚 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. 📚
The University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize (Deadline August 31)
We are looking for the best unpublished novel or short story collection. The Publishing Laboratory at the University of New Orleans seeks to bring innovative publicity and broad distribution to authors. We collect submissions from March 1 to August 31, deciding on 15-20 finalists. The finalists are read by students from The Publishing Laboratory in the fall, and one is chosen for publication.
The selected author will receive a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) advance on royalties and a contract to publish with the University of New Orleans Press. The work does not have to be regionally focused. There is no word limit. There is no restriction on subjects covered. The contest is open to all authors from around the world, regardless of publishing history. Works of fiction (novels and short story collections) only. The University of New Orleans Press is based at the University of New Orleans and distributed by Hopkins Fulfillment Services. Abram Shalom Himelstein is the editor-in-chief.
The Black Ordinary Call for Pitches (Deadline August 30)
The Black Ordinary welcomes pitches from artists, archivists, historians, researchers, and writers of all backgrounds and experience levels to pitch ideas for writing topics relevant to the preservation of Black-American* histories and culture.
*How we define "Black-American": While the histories of the entire African diaspora are closely intertwined, The Black Ordinary's work is centered on the histories and cultures of direct descendants of enslaved peoples forcibly brought to the modern-day United States from the continent of Africa via the transatlantic slave-trade. Please be mindful about whether this experience mirrors your own.
The Black Ordinary welcomes pitches that fall within the following categories: poems (or a collection of poems), short stories, archive and collection highlights, curated selection of digitized archive materials, archivists writing about Black-American archives (from organizations or projects that are not connected to large institutions, public libraries, or museums), interviews, essays and reviews of art exhibitions, performances, talks, screenings, conferences, public art, current ideas, artist books, or catalogs, and photo essays. We will also publish hybrids and experimental writing in any of the fields above.
Stepping Out: Writings on Infidelity Call for Anthology Submissions (Deadline August 31)
Romantic relationships have evolved enormously in modern society, from the broad acceptance of unmarried couples living together to an increase in polyamorous arrangements, yet infidelity has remained the bête noire of both married and unmarried couples. Before the 1970s in our part of the world, there was a marked gender gap in the rate of infidelity, i.e. many more men than women had extramarital affairs. Now, some fifty years later, the gap has almost closed: nearly as many women have affairs as men. So-called “cheating” is a popular subject in sociology, magazine articles, reality TV, and of course everyday gossip, but our collection of essays about infidelity will feature those who have personal knowledge of it, or thoughtful opinions about it.
This book will look at the subject of infidelity from many perspectives, including the viewpoints of those who have “cheated” or wanted to, as well as those who have been “cheated on.” We hope for diversity in voices, and we are open to writers of any gender, sexual orientation, age, or marital status.
Bloedel Reserve Creative Residency Program (Bainbridge Island, Washington – Deadline September 1)
The mission of the Creative Residency program at Bloedel Reserve is to foster creative thinking that is inspired by nature and that explores the connection between humans and the environment. What exactly do Creative Residents do while they are staying at Bloedel Reserve? For some, it is an intensely private time of rest and reflection, a chance to recharge their creative juices. And for others, it’s a chance to experiment, play, begin new projects or continue developing works already in progress.
Established in 2015, the program has welcomed 70 Creative Residents from a wide variety of disciplines, giving them the time to nurture their passions and deepen the connection between creativity, nature, and humanity. The Creative Residency program provides artists and innovative thinkers with a three-week stay in a home on the Bloedel Reserve grounds. Residents have unlimited access to the Reserve’s 140 acres of sculpted gardens, forests, meadows, and wildlife habitats.
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.
F(r)iction Call for Submissions (“Censored” and “Fame” – Deadline August 30)
Wigleaf Call for Submissions (Open the Final Seven Days of August)
Oxford Poetry Prize (Deadline August 31)
Feels Zine Call for Submissions (“Hunger” – Deadline August 31)
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)
Purgatory Comics Press Call for Submissions (“Rot” – Deadline November 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.
