Opportunities for Writers – January 2023

Opportunities for Writers – January 2023

Opportunities for writers including writers conferences, workshops, contests, and submissions. Updated 1/16/2022.

Submit your opportunity to mail@indianawriters.org. Submit your opportunity by the 1st of the month to ensure it is included.

Have a short story, poem or other work you’re just dying to share?  Check out these publications, workshop and contest opportunities.  

*Advice on Writing Contests:  

When considering contests, look to see how they handled winners’ work from previous years: Is there a list of previous winners? Where you can go to read or have access to the winning pieces of writing? Who are the judges? Are they people who you would read yourself? If you win, what kind of audience would you receive for your work? Research contests and their reputations online. Use places like duotrope.com, Poets and Writers (pw.org), the New Pages (newpages.com), or The Review Review (thereviewreview.net), to see whether there is any other information about the contest from other sources.

PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship

The Emerging Voices Fellowship provides a virtual five-month immersive mentorship program for early-career writers from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world. The program is committed to cultivating the careers of Black writers, and serves writers who identify as Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+, immigrants, writers with disabilities, and those living outside of urban centers. Through curated one-on-one mentorship and introductions to editors, agents, and publishers, in addition to workshops on editing, marketing, and creating a platform, the five-month fellowship nurtures creative community, provides a professional skill-set, and demystifies the path to publication—with the ultimate goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries.

The Emerging Voices Fellowship grew out of PEN America Los Angeles’s forum “Writing the Immigrant Experience,” held at the Los Angeles Central Library in March 1994, which explored the experiences of first- and second-generation immigrant writers. In 1996, PEN America Los Angeles initiated Emerging Voices as a mentorship program designed to provide professional resources to writers seeking financial and creative support to pursue their craft professionally. Virtually accessible programs and an expanded cohort of fellows will further the goal of diversifying the publishing and media industries by enabling participation from writers across the country.

More info on PEN Fellowship here

Forms & Features Online: Organic Structures

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In this session, we focus on organic structures. The group will explore a wide variety of poems and conclude with a guided creative writing workshop, where participants will compose an original poem using organic structures. 

Registration is required; space is limited. To register, fill out this form.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023, 10:00 AM CST–12:00 PM CST
Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 2:00 PM CST–4:00 PM CST
Thursday, January 12, 2023, 6:00 PM CST–8:00 PM CS

Writing Motherhood: the Braided Essay

Jan 11 6:30 – 8:30 ** FAR Center for Contemporary Arts 505 West 4th Street Bloomington, IN 47404

This two-hour workshop will focus on weaving together memories and metaphor through the format of a braided essay. Writers will leave with a list of future writing ideas, 100-200 words of personal narrative, and encouragement and guidance for beginning a regular writing routine. Whether you are an expectant mother, or have decades of experience, you are welcome here.

About the Instructor

Adrienne Garrison is a writer and educator living in Bloomington, Indiana with her husband and their three little ones. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University and her short stories have been published in Literary Mama and LETTERS Journal. Her essays have appeared in Coffee + Crumbs, where she is a contributing writer, and New Millennium Writings.

Register here

Golden Haiku Poetry Contest

The Golden Triangle BID’s tenth annual Golden Haiku poetry submission period opens on January 9, 2023 and will close on February 5, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

Poets are invited to submit up to two original, self-authored haiku. Haiku are selected by the panel of judges, like this year’s winning haiku

Fourteen Hills: Stacey Doris Memorial Poetry Award

About Stacy Doris:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/02/with-respect-stacy-doris-1962-2012/
https://jacket2.org/reviews/longer-stay
http://www.thevolta.org/ewc17-mchernoff-p1.html
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/702

General Info:

  • Submission deadline: January 15, 2023
  • Submissions only accepted via Submittable
  • Maximum 1 poem per author
  • Poem must be a minimum of 3 pages; maximum 10 pages
  • Students currently enrolled at San Francisco State University are ineligible
  • Work must be previously unpublished
  • Poems submitted for the award will also be considered for publication in Fourteen Hills
  • Submission file must be in .doc or .docx format (Microsoft Word or Open Office)

Submit here

Yard Sale: Blink-Ink Issue #51

Yard Sale: Blink-Ink Issue #51

Be it the multi-family neighborhood tag sale, some pretentious “Estate Sale,” some jumbled pre-dumpster offerings in the driveway, or two pair of socks and half a bottle of strawberry shampoo for sale on your dorm’s front steps. All this could be yours. Bargains, treasures and oddities to be perused. Speaking of oddities, check out your fellow browsers. Tell us your best unpublished stories of approximately 50 words about yard sales and their kin. Submissions open December 1st, 2022, through January 15th, 2023. No attachments, poetry, or bios please. Send submissions in the body of an email to blinkinkinfo@gmail.com.

Forms & Features Online: Abecedarian

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop led by Maggie Queeney. In this session, we focus on the abecedarian, a poem organized by the sequence of the alphabet. The group will explore a wide variety of poems and conclude with a guided creative writing workshop, where participants will compose an original abecedarian.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 6:00 PM CST

Registration Required

Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

The magazine runs a short story contest thrice a year. Readers of this magazine are interested in music, social history, literature, politics, art, film and theater, particularly that of the counter-culture of mid-twentieth century America. While the writing should appeal to a reader with these interests, stories can be on any theme. Stories should be up to 3,000 words, but up to 4,000 words will be considered.
Value: $150
Deadline: 31 January 2023
Open for: All writers

Details here.

Deep Wild Graduate Student Poetry Contest

This is an international contest from Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry magazine – they want students currently enrolled in graduate studies to submit work for their 2023 Graduate Student Poetry Contest. “We seek work that conjures the experiences, observations, and insights of backcountry journeys. By “backcountry,” we mean away from roads, on journeys undertaken by foot, skis, snowshoes, kayak, canoe, horse, or any other non-motorized means of conveyance.” Writers can send up to 3 poems (see guidelines).
Value: $300, $200, $100
Deadline: 1 February 2023
Open for: Students enrolled in graduate studies
Details here and here.

Heartland Theater Company: 10-Minute Play Competition

Heartland Theatre Company (Bloomington, Illionois) is seeking eight 10-minute original plays to be considered for production in June of 2023 as part of our 20th annual 10-minute play festival. This year, the theme is THE WAITING ROOM.

Contest Guidelines

All entrants must complete and submit the

HEARTLAND THEATRE 10-MINUTE PLAY ENTRY FORM.

You must attach your script in MS Word format (preferred) or PDF when you send the entry form.

If you have any questions, please email playfest@heartlandtheatre.org

Cincinnati Lab Theater

Cincinnati LAB Theatre is now planning its tenth producing season and accepting submissions to fill three original play readings and two fully staged workshop productions for its 2023 New Works Festival.  Cincinnati LAB Theatre will be producing these scripts over two weekends in a rotating festival format summer of 2023.

Deadline: January 31, 2023

More info here

Fioretti Open for Submissions

Kings River Review Call for 2-Year College Student Submissions

The Kings River Review publishes artwork, creative nonfiction, short fiction, and poetry of current 2-year community college students.

Submission Deadlines: March 15 for the spring issue and October 15 for the fall issue. Submission requirements: up to 5 pieces of artwork and photography sent as .JPEG files; creative nonfiction and fiction of up to 3,000 words; and up to 5 poems. Go to kingsriverreview.com for full submission guidelines.

The Awakenings Review

Exploration and Catharsis: Mental Illness and The Awakenings Review

Deadline: Year-round

The Awakenings Review is an award-winning literary magazine committed to publishing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and photography by writers, poets, and artists who have a relationship with mental illness, either self, family member, or friend. Located in the Chicago area but international in scope, our hardcopy publication, soon to be published biannually (beginning in Spring 2023), is one of the nation’s leading journals of this genre. While we are most interested in works of recovery and healing, at The Awakenings Review we are not averse to providing a forum and liberating experience of all manners of work and a vehicle of insight for our readers. Refer to our submission guidelines at www.AwakeningsProject.org.

Butler Bridge Program — Youth Writing Club

The Butler Bridge Program is an engaging creative writing club for students in grades 3-12 led by Butler University MFA graduate student mentors.

Sat, January 21 1:00 – 3:00 PM EST

$20 per student. Register here!

Efroymson Center for Creative Writing:

530 West Hampton Drive Indianapolis, IN 46208


Young Writers: Watermelon University Open for Enrollment!

Each month on a Saturday, young scholars are invited to meet Professor Watermelon and Mister Smart at the Indianapolis Public Library. For three adventurous hours, the class dives into a themed topic, like a mythical forest, a spooky town or a harvest garden. These amusing settings are chosen to inspire a wealth of ideas and topics for young scholars to cultivate and use as springboards for creative writing and drawing. Young scholars research their topics by using the Dewey Decimal System and other valuable tools/resources found at the library. These academic skills are presented in a FUN and creative way, while children make stories, make art and make friends!

Learn more and sign up!

Speed City Sisters in Crime

We have opened submissions to our chapter’s ninth short story anthology, to be published in November of 2023 in time for our chapter’s 20th anniversary in 2024.

Submissions are open to all who are Speed City chapter members in 2022/2023.

Attached to this email are the complete submission guidelines for our new publication.

Title: Amber Waves of Graves
Editors: Lillie Evans, Tony Perona and Stephen Terrell
Theme: Rural settings, country graveyards and small-town life in Indiana can be beautiful. And deadly.

The complete submission guidelines are also available online on our website.

Rialto International Poetry Contest

The RSPB and The Rialto are additionally working with BirdLife International, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the University of Leeds Poetry Centre. There’s a fantastic range of prizes on offer and prizewinners will be invited to read their poems at an event with Ian McMillan at CCI in June 2023.

The closing date for entries is midnight on 1st March 2023.

As well as offering poets the chance to win considerable cash prizes and publication of their poems, the competition supports conservation and poetry. We are working in partnership with leading independent UK poetry magazine, The Rialto, as we feel the magazine will be the perfect place to showcase the winning entries.

Prizes

1st PRIZE £1000
2nd PRIZE £500
3rd PRIZE £250

Our judgeis celebrated poetIan McMillan.

Ian McMillan is a writer and broadcaster who presents The Verb on BBC Radio 3 every Friday night. He’s written poems, plays, a verse autobiography Talking Myself Home and a voyage round Yorkshire in Neither Nowt Nor Summat. His new book with Bloomsbury is My Sand Life, My Pebble Life a memoir of a childhood and the sea (pub.9 June 2022). Ian’s most recent collection is To Fold The Evening Star – New and Selected Poems (Carcanet).

The entry fee is £7 for the first poem and £4 for each subsequent poem.

Full details and the facility to enter online can be found on The Rialto website

The Flying Island

Flying Island, the Online Literary Journal of the Indiana Writers Center accepts submissions on a rolling basis from Indiana residents and those with significant ties to Indiana.

  • Fiction: up to 5,000 words
  • Nonfiction: up to 3,500 words
  • Poetry: up to three poems, no more than 50 lines each.

Visit the journal and submit your work.

Please follow this link to carefully read their guidelines and submit your best work – the competition will be extraordinary as they have some key pieces from very well known authors already.

More than a publication; a community.

Of Rust and Glass is a literature and arts publication featuring talent from all across the Midwest United States, including writers, artists, photographers, videographers, musicians, and everything in between. It is a celebration of the thriving creative spirit within our wonderful community.
Currently seeking submissions for themed releases:

“Fall” Submissions open through 9/15/2022

For more information on these themes visit our submissions page.

Old Iron Press open to submissions!

Old Iron Press is a female-led small press dedicated to retooled classics and new voices innovating the familiar. Existing apart from traditional publishing with an entirely different set of values, we are focused on originality over sales. 

Submissions for our inaugural anthology, “Playing Authors,” will go live on May 1, 2022 and run until October 1, 2022. Selected contributors will receive one free contributor copy and an honorarium..

Inspired by the classic game of Authors, originally published in 1861, we are asking what it means to be an author—and an Author.

For more information, visit our submission guidelines at www.oldironpress.com.

The Paper 24-7.com accepting articles

We are two small local newspapers – one in Crawfordsville and the other in Noblesville. We have an electronic Sunday edition in Crawfordsville that is similar to newspapers of yesteryear – pages devoted to food, health, home, etc. We also have a Voices section and get submissions from writers from all over.

How to submit for Sunday Voices:

E-mail your article to Tim Timmons at ttimmons@thepaper24-7.com. Do not attach the article, simply include it in the body of the e-mail. Also include a brief bio and jpeg mugshot and note that you agree for Sagamore News Media to publish your piece. Although SNM does not pay for submissions, we do have a paid Sunday readership and your work will be available to our circulation base and also on our website. SNM does not accept third-party submissions. Each one must come from the author.

Authors Publish 32 Magazines that Publish Flash Fiction

These magazines publish flash fiction; a few also publish micros. Many of them publish longer work too, as well as other genres, like nonfiction and poetry. Most, but not all, of these are open for submissions now. They are a mix of genre and literary outlets, and listed in no particular order.

Authors Publish 5 Paying Literary Magazines

These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre markets.

Inked Voices

A Platform for Writing Groups and an Online Space for Writers

With Inked Voices, writing groups and workshops can collaborate intimately despite distance and strange schedules. We are not a giant critique forum, but a collection of small workshopping communities.

Join the community and check out the plans

The Glacier: Poetry for the Coming Ice Age now Accepting Submissions

The Glacier is an online literary magazine based out of Indiana University South Bend. The magazine is accepting submissions of poetry, visual art, and fiction for its inaugural issue.

Curated by poet and artist David Dodd Lee and managed by editor and poet Austin Veldman, The Glacier is a sister press to both 42 Miles Press and Twyckenham Notes, both also of South Bend, Indiana.

We seek the best art possible. Accepted work will be presented in a clean online aesthetic. For an idea about how your work will be presented, please visit the latest issue of Twyckenham Notes.

Indiana Pandemic Poetry Project

COVID-19 has created a time in history like no other; students, specifically, have faced many unique challenges because of this. With this poetry project, we hope to assemble a collective reflection in response to the trials and time at home we have faced, as we work towards the end of the Pandemic together.

Indiana students in the years of study of 4th-12th grade or the undergraduate, graduate, or doctorate levels are all welcome to submit one original poem.

Storm Cellar: A Literary Journal of Safety and Danger

Storm Cellar is a nationally distributed, independent literary arts magazine rooted in the Midwest, appearing in print and ebook editions. This is a journal of safety and danger. We want your prose, poems, chimeras, and ideas penned on envelopes in buses and train cars. The magazine aims to publish amazing work by new and established writers and artists, present a range of styles and approaches, and cure (not merely displace) boredom. If you write one thing to be read while waiting for the all-clear to sound, send it here.

-La Libreta- Open for Submissions

-La Libreta- is published online three times each year. We publish the work of intergenerational writers and artists of color from the Bronx and beyond that identify as women.

– December 1st deadline – for publication on January 30
– April 1st deadline – for publication on May 30
– August 1st deadline – for publication on September 30

Please read and follow submission guidelines. 

Cutleaf Journal Open to Submissions

Cutleaf publishes a new issue twice a month. We welcome unsolicited original prose (both creative nonfiction and fiction) and poetry from established and emerging writers. 

Work published online in Cutleaf may be chosen for inclusion in the print Cutleaf Reader.

You can find updated submission guidelines here.

Acre Books open to submissions

Acre Books, the book-publishing offshoot of The Cincinnati Review, aims to build on the excellence that its parent publication has become known for. Like CR, our small press will focus on surprising, imaginative, and absorbing works—of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, and hybrid forms—that are expertly crafted and beautifully polished, and that engage readers aesthetically as well as emotionally. We are devoted in particular to finding, and bringing to a broad readership, remarkably talented newcomers. Initially we will bring out 6 titles annually, but we intend in the coming years to expand our lists and our staff. Visit our home page to subscribe to our mailing list.

Acre’s titles are distributed by the CDC (Chicago Distribution Center).

Submit here.

The American Poetry Review Seeks Submissions

Seeking poetry submissions, submissions for first book prize, and prose writing related to poetry such as book reviews and interviews. Visit them on Submittable to learn more.

Seeking Submissions for Meditation Anthologies

Hazelden Publishing is the leading publisher of addiction recovery and self-help resources. Part of the?Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit treatment provider, we offer a variety of accessible and life changing materials–from daily meditations to evidence-based programs. 

In the past, our meditation-a-day format books have been written by a single author. Now, we are taking the opportunity of using the 365 days in a year to expand the number of voices we can uplift and recognize.?The more people who hear about the call for submissions, the more inclusive, reflective of the community, and useful the final books will be.  

Complete information about How We Heal: Meditations for Reclaiming Our Voices from Addiction and Sexual Trauma is available here: https://www.hazelden.org/store/publicpage/meditations-anthology-writing-detail 

Complete information about Leave No One Behind: Daily Meditations for Service Members and Veterans in Recovery is available here: https://www.hazelden.org/store/publicpage/meditations-anthology-writing-leave-no-one-behind 

Washington Post Seeking Op-eds

In our effort to bring in more voices from across America, the Washington Post’s op-ed department would like to hear from writers with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests and outlooks. The one constant should be that they are good writers with strong viewpoints, and value facts and reasoned argument over invective. We’ll welcome one-off submissions, or pieces on breaking news events that we solicit, but we also hope that some writers will develop into regular contributors.

The Washington Post maintains a high bar for acceptance: We receive a large volume of op-ed submissions and have limited space, so even worthwhile op-eds might not be accepted if they don’t meet our needs at the moment. But our having a designated venue for op-eds from across the country does expand the possibility that your submission could find a home here. (A good target length for op-eds is 750-800 words.)

Here are some examples of writing that would fit into this category. As you can see, the range of topics is broad – political, personal, analytical, humorous, legal, business-oriented, you name it. What ties them together is that they don’t originate in Washington or universities or think tanks or other common sources of opinion articles. They bring first-hand experience or on-the-ground knowledge to bear on matters that may be local to the writer but could easily be of interest to readers everywhere.

Extra note: It’s best to send pieces in both an attachment and pasted into the email (reading in the email is fastest, but if there are links within the text, they convert more easily from a document).

Send op-eds to Mark Lasswell, Mark.Lasswell@washpost.com

Write for Sixty Inches from Center

Sixty welcomes writers and artists of all experience levels to pitch ideas for traditional and experimental arts writing around topics, and practices that are relevant to the cultural landscapes of the Midwest.

Priority will be given to writing by, about, and for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, artists with disabilities, and the long list of writing, art-making, and cultural practices that have been neglected in mainstream conversations and canons about art and culture. We publish writing, photography, art, archive materials, video, and conversations that are thoughtful, generative, experimental, and relatable to a variety of readers.

Once a pitch is accepted, writers have full and free access to our editors, transcribers, translators, photographers, and illustrators to support the creation and completion of the final piece.

To see what type of articles they publish and other guidelines, visit the link.

Driftwood Press Submissions Open

John Updike once said, “Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” At Driftwood Press, we are actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better. Driftwood Press is a bi-annual literary magazine founded in Tampa, FL in 2013.

As of 2018, we pay our contributors (see guidelines for rates) for each contribution made to our magazine.

At Driftwood Press, we are actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better. We are excited to receive your submissions and will diligently work to bring you the best in full poetry collections, novellas, graphic novels, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, photography, art, interviews, and contests.]

Visit their website for more information and to submit your work.

Extinction Rebellion Creative Hub Open for Submissions

Welcome to the Extinction Rebellion Creative Hub: an anthology of songs, fiction and poetry that’s inspiring, meaningful and original, and that reflects the principles, concerns and values of the Extinction Rebellion from a global, regional or local perspective.

This collection is a voice and a resource for Extinction Rebellion members everywhere, and a contribution to the global XR profile in the wider world.

Find out more and submit your work.

blankcoverpress.com 
Submissions open in all genres!

For submissions, email: submissions@blankcoverpress.com 
https://blankcoverpress.com 

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: A Force Outside Myself: Citizens Over 60 Speak


Deadline: Rolling
If you are 60 or older, we’re interested in your thoughts right now and hope you can write a short first-person narrative. (100-500 words) Send entries to Kitania Folk at aforce@mcsweeneys.net and watch our site for ongoing updates.

Awakenings Review Seeks Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, Photography, and Art

Established in 2000, The Awakenings Review is an annual lit mag committed to publishing poetry, short story, nonfiction, photography, and art by writers, poets and artists who have a relationship with mental illness: either self, family member, or friend. Our striking hardcopy publication is one of the nation’s leading journals of this genre. Creative endeavors and mental illness have long had a close association. The Awakenings Review publishes works derived from artists’, writers’, and poets’ experiences with mental illness, though mental illness need not be the subject of your work. Visit www.AwakeningsProject.org for submission guidelines.

Complete Guide to 2022 Artist Grants & Opportunities

A list of the top international open calls, residencies, fellowships, and awards that we believe will benefit artists during the upcoming year! The complete list is broken down into six categories: grants, residencies & fellowships, calls-for-entry, publications, COVID relief funds, and opportunity sites.

This list will be updated throughout the year, so make sure to bookmark the page, check back often. View the list.

Poets & Writers: New Writing Contest Deadlines!

For information regarding writing contests and deadlines: Go Here

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR OPPORTUNITY LISTED HERE? Email the details to: mail@indianawriters.org

Did you find the Opportunities for Writers blog useful? Please share with your community!

Like this article? Share it with your peers!

Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Pinterest

Stay in Touch

Would you like to receive updates from the Indiana Writers Center?
Join our mailing list!

Copyright © 2020 Indiana Writers Center | All rights reserved.