Sorry We're Prosed: 25+ writing opportunities for October
Places to send your essays, short stories and best ideas
Hello again,
Not as many spooky submission opportunities as I might have expected this month, but a decent selection nonetheless.
My apologies that this email is coming a day later than I usually send it. Having moved this week, I’ve been thrust back into the London life, and had forgotten how consuming it can be — though the good news is all the time on public transport has boosted the amount I’m reading thricefold.
I had been thinking of trying out a different day to send this newsletter anyway, so let me know what you think. When would it be most useful? As motivation on a Monday? to take stock on a Sunday?
As ever, opportunities are included based on my personal whims, and pay is listed where I could find it.
Closing soon
Last reminder of the tiny submission window that will start tomorrow at Luna Press Publishing, a Scottish indie press that only publishes speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy. Send short stories for a new anthology by 8 October.
Essay submissions are open at Cutleaf Journal until they hit their limit. Payment is between $100 and $400.
NYU publication Washington Square Review is looking at submissions of fiction and non-fiction until 15 October.
Uncanny Magazine is open to speculative short story submissions until 16 October. Payment is 10 cents per word.
Canadian project Carte Blanche Magazine is still open in a range of categories including fiction and non-fiction, French to English translations, and comics. They pay a $75 (CAD I assume) honorarium for accepted work. Submit by 15 October.
The deadline approaches for responses to The Griffith Review’s latest themed callout, ‘Past Perfect’, which examines our love affair with recycling our history. Read more details here.
The theme for the next issue of Arboreal Mag is ‘Fresh Hell’, with submissions open until 15 October.
The deadline for the ALCS Tom-Gallon Short Story Prize is coming up on 31 October. It is for UK, Commonwealth or Ireland residents, and writers need to have published at least one short story before. Free to enter and the top prize is £2,000.
This year’s Fiction Factory Short Story Competition closes on 31 October. Entries cost £7 or there are multi-entry pricing offers. The top prize is £500.
Always an exciting one, pitches for the next series of 404 Ink’s Inklings non-fiction series are open until the end of the month. There’s lots of info about what they’re looking for available, and it’s a good idea to read something from the series to get a sense of it. I enjoyed Katie Goh’s The End.
Fiction submissions at The Offing are open until 1 November. Accepted pieces are paid between $25 and $100.
Kelp Journal winter issue submissions will be open until 1 November.
Curtis Brown Creative is running a free Breakthrough Mentoring Programme for Disabled Writers, with an application deadline of 5 November.
Open now
Writers for the Albion Review have to be undergraduates. The submissions for the 2024 issue are open until 24 November.
General submissions will be open at Stonecrop Magazine until 8 December.
The Yale Review is now accepting pitches on a rolling basis. They are seeking essays and criticism on various cultural topics.
The reading period at Folio Literary has just started and will continue until 3 December. The theme for the next issue is ‘Metamorphosis’.
BIPOC-focused journal Honey Literary has a reading period running until 15 December. They will take a broad range of writing including essays, interviews, rants and raves, and valentines.
The famous New York Times column Modern Love is open again for new essays until the end of December.
One Story’s Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship is a mentorship program which grants one writer a package of benefits to boost their career, including free classes, stipends, and membership to the writer’s circle. Apply by 1 January.
Here’s one for Australian residents only. The Local Word Writing Prize is for both fiction and non-fiction and is open until 27 January, with a top prize of $2,000.
Entries are now open for the Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, which awards £3,000 for a piece of culture writing. It costs £10 to enter.
And if contests in honour of legendary 20th century authors are your thing, there’s also the Orwell Society Dystopian Fiction Prize, though this one is only open to UK-based university students I’m afraid. It’s free to enter and open until 29 February.
Opening soon
Legendary Irish literary magazine The Stinging Fly will next open for submissions on 13 November. Pay ranges from €150 for flash and short essays to as much as €1,200 for longer fiction and nonfiction.
The next submission window for Seaside Gothic opens on 9 October.
North Devon’s Parracombe Prize should open for entries on 1 November. It costs £5 to enter with a top prize of £150, plus a special prize for a local writer.