Reading · Submission Sunday

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 American Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Okay Donkey, Redivider, Debutiful, Navy Pen Literary Magazine, The Baltimore Review, and Bloedel Reserve. More details below.

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American Literary Review Awards (Deadline September 1)

The American Literary Review Awards offer three prizes of $1,000 and publication in ALR’s Spring online issue for previously unpublished work: Poetry, Short Fiction, and Essay. Finalists may also be selected for publication.
We feature poems, stories, essays, reviews, and interviews that reflect the diverse tradition of writers living in the United States and abroad. We aim to expand the notion of what constitutes American literature. We welcome work that speaks to American place, culture, history, and future, among other subjects.
We seek work that challenges the reader’s imagination through fresh language and precise imagery. We want writing that reveals the nuances and complexities of human experience, that surprises and moves us. We are particularly interested in writing that speaks to underrepresented and historically disadvantaged communities in the United States. Including such a diversity of perspectives in our journal is essential to our mission of expanding the breadth of American literature.

Prairie Schooner Call for Submissions (Open September 1–15 or closed at submission cap)

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. A project of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln English Department since its debut in 1927, Prairie Schooner is one of UNL’s most important cultural exports and research legacies. Not only has it published some of modern literature’s most notable writers, but it has also provided opportunities for generations of students to gain first-hand editorial experience.
The list of the thousands of authors who’ve published in Prairie Schooner includes multiple Pulitzer and Nobel prize winners, as well as winners of the MacArthur “genius” grant, the PEN Awards, the National Book Awards, Guggenheim fellowships, National Book Critics Circle awards, and other recognitions. Work that originated in Prairie Schooner has gone on to be published in hundreds of award-winning books.

Okay Donkey Call for Submissions (Deadline January 1)

Okay Donkey is a literary magazine that likes to read the odd, the off-kilter, and the just plain weird. We like work that’s funny, that’s sad, and that’s both funny and sad. We especially enjoy the experimental, the surreal, the magical realist, and the genre-bending. Do you like slipstream? Cool! We like it too. We publish one new piece every Friday, alternating between flash fiction and poetry.
Some of our favorite poets are Amy Gerstler, Danez Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Brenda Shaughnessy, Alison Benis White, Jericho Brown, Claudia Rankine, James Tate, Dean Young, W.S. Merwin, Russell Edson, and Ilya Kaminsky. Some of our favorite fiction writers are Amy Hempel, Lydia Davis, Ha Seong-nan, Bora Chung, Carmen Maria Machado, George Saunders, Brian Evenson, Shirley Jackson, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Mariana Enriquez, Miranda July, and Ben Loory.

Redivider Call for Submissions (Deadline December 1)

Redivider is looking for new and under-published voices. We crave fresh, off-beat, and inventive work that challenges what should be valued both within and across literary genres. Send us pieces that rupture our reality and reflect a moment caught in time. We want work that resonates, endings that stay with us long after the work has finished, emotional truths from complex characters that leave us with goosebumps, and explorations of the everyday examined from the side, rather than straight on. Send us what you’re scared to submit elsewhere; we might just enjoy it.
Redivider is run by graduate students at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. We are passionate about creating space for both emerging and established authors and artists to showcase their work. The journal was founded in 1986, originally as the Beacon Street Review, and renamed as Redivider in 2004. We currently publish online twice per year, as well as a yearly Blurred Genre summer mini issue.

From Manuscript to Market: Choosing Your Publishing Route (August 24)

There’s never been a better time to publish a book—or more choices in how you publish it. Should you pursue a traditional publishing deal, invest in a hybrid publisher, or take complete control through self-publishing? In this online Monday Masterclass, Reedsy Professor Noah Charney breaks down three publishing routes, comparing factors like costs, timelines, and creative control. $19.

Secrets in Boxes: Exploring Prose Poetry as Assemblage Art (September 8)

Secrets in Boxes is a two-hour generative workshop that considers prose poetry and ekphrasis, using the innovative art of Joseph Cornell as inspiration. Cornell, known for his intricate assemblage boxes, created poetic juxtapositions of everyday objects, inviting viewers to uncover hidden connections. In this Poetry Lab online generative workshop, you’ll explore how containment, juxtaposition, and amplification work within prose poetry. $12+.

📚 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. 📚

Debutiful Short Story Contest (Deadline November 13 or at submission cap)

Debutiful is a digital literary media outlet that exclusively covers emerging writers and debut books. Since its launch, Debutiful has helped introduce readers to hundreds of writers through curated lists, interviews, excerpts, cover reveals, and readings. Now, we want to help readers discover the best and most exciting short stories from established and emerging writers.
Two first-place winners of our inaugural Debutiful Short Story Contest will receive $100 and publication on Debutiful’s website and Substack. Two second-place winners will receive $50 and publication on Debutiful’s website and Substack.

Navy Pen Literary Magazine Call for Submissions (“Noise” – Deadline October 10)

Navy Pen was founded on a simple belief: good writing deserves to be read. We are not here to gatekeep or mimic the exclusivity of traditional publishing. Instead, we open the door.
This issue is interested in what gets heard, what is ignored, and who gets to decide the difference. We invite work about private noise and public noise, noise as avoidance or resistance, noise created by grief, desire, technology, memory, family, crowds, bodies, institutions, or the mind itself.
We are drawn to writing that listens closely, not only to what is said, but to what remains unsaid. Writing that explores the difference between what is merely loud and what carries weight. A piece does not have to be about sound to be about noise. It has to know what it is trying to drown out.

The Baltimore Review Call for Submissions (Deadline November 30)

The mission of The Baltimore Review is to showcase Baltimore as a literary hub of diverse writing and promote the work of emerging and established writers from the Baltimore area, from across the U.S., and beyond. The Baltimore Review was founded by Barbara Westwood Diehl in 1996 as a literary journal publishing short stories and poems in biannual print issues.
In 2012, The Baltimore Review began its new life as a quarterly, online literary journal. In our online format, we make that fine writing more accessible to the literary community and publish more frequently. We also explore new ways to share the world of writers and writing. But we never fell out of love with the printed book. Work accepted for online publication is also published in annual print compilations.

Bloedel Reserve Creative Residency (Bainbridge Island, Washington – Deadline September 1)

The Bloedel Reserve 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. As a Creative Resident, you will stay in a two-bedroom, two-bath home designed by noted Northwest architect Jim Cutler, tucked into the woods, tucked away from the trail used by regular Bloedel Reserve visitors.
Open to professional and emerging artists, composers, writers, botanists, landscape architects, researchers, and others exploring the themes of nature and the human connection with nature, the Creative Residency at Bloedel Reserve offers Residents a three week stay at a 140-acre internationally renowned public garden and forest preserve. Residents are responsible for their own meals. There is a smart car available for Residents’ use. In 2027, Domestic Residents will receive a $1,000 stipend in support of their Residency. International Residents may submit up to $1,000 of expenses for reimbursement. Residents stay one at a time, there is no overlap.

In case you’re really in need of a deadline, 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.

*This newsletter does not guarantee the unimpeachable behavior of all venues shared here but the odds are good.

Work with Chris

Submission Sunday 8.23.26

*This newsletter does not guarantee the unimpeachable behavior of all venues shared here but the odds are good.

Typewriter Photo by Ivan Evans

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