Sorry We're Prosed: 30+ writing opportunities to submit to in March
Contests and journals ready to read your fiction, memoir, essays, and more
Hello again,
No ramble today because I want to try something new up here, sharing a few bits of news. My hope is that, in future, you — my dear subscribers — will let me know about your publication successes and I can include links to them in this part to direct more people to find your work.
For now I just want to mention I have an article about writing and alcohol in the new edition of Mslexia, a writing magazine I adore and even pay international postage to receive.
Also, my friend Nasim has published a poetry pamphlet! It’s called Nemidoonam and I can’t wait to get my hands on my copy. Check it out here.
Finally, for anyone following the unnerving phenomenon of is AI submissions overwhelming top sci-fi magazines, I thought Lincoln Michel’s take on the whole thing was worth a read.
For new readers, let me just repeat the usual caveats. I pick opportunities based on what I like the look of. If no pay is mentioned, there probably isn’t any. And I try to avoid journals with submissions fees, though I do include competitions that you have to pay to enter.
OK, let’s get started.
Closing soon
Last call for this year’s Fitzcarraldo Editions/Mahler & Lewitt Studios Essay Prize. The winner receives £3,000, publication with Fitzcarraldo, and a residency in Italy. There is no fee to submit, and submissions are due by 13 March.
The Rumpus is open for essay and fiction submissions until 16 March. They divide $300 between all contributors though at the moment they seem not to have a good way of paying non-US writers.
Writers from one of the UNESCO cities of literature (check the full list here) have until 16 March to apply for an eight-week residency in Wonju, South Korea. See the full details and how to apply here.
Phoebe, a publication associated with George Mason University, has a Spring contest which is closing on 16 March. There are categories for both fiction and non-fiction. It costs $7 to enter and the top prize is $500*.
If you have a real-life story about a time you have experienced romance while travelling, write it up for the Intrepid Times ‘Romance on the Road’ travel writing competition. The top prize is $200 and it’s free to enter, with stories due by 18 March.
Spill the secrets of your diary entries to Exit Press’s new zine ‘notes to self’. Once costs are covered, contributors will receive a share of whatever is left.
One of Scotland’s coolest indie publications, Gutter Magazine, is open for submissions until 24 March. They are keen to read both Scottish and international writing, and pay a flat fee of £25 per accepted piece of work.
Until 26 March, Manchester-based Lunate is looking for fiction, non-fiction, and things in-between. This one is only for UK and Ireland-based writers, and they only want writers they haven’t published before. Those selected get a fee of £100 plus a copy of the journal.
It’s the final month to submit your work in progress to the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award, which is free and has a top prize of £10,000 for an unpublished writer from a Commonwealth country or Ireland. The deadline is 31 March.
Lots of publications open until the end of the month. First up Banshee, which welcomes both Irish and international writers. Pay is €250 for a story or essay and €75 for flash fiction.
Split Lip Magazine is having one of its free submission periods until the end of March. Stories, memoir and flash are all paid $75.
And Oranges Journal is seeking fiction, mental health and lifestyle writing.
Here’s a really interesting new publication. The Deeps, published by Spindle House Press, seeks to revive the communal storytelling element of horror. Submissions for the first issue are open until 31 March, and pay is 1 cent per word.
Submissions for the 2023 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing are open until 31 March. The prize alternates between fiction and non-fiction, and this year it’s the latter. Candidates must be first-generation residents of their country, and have at least 25,000 words of the work already written along with a synopsis.
The next deadline to contribute a scary story to The Other Stories podcast is 1 April, on the theme ‘dark magic’. They have many more upcoming themes if that one’s not your cup of tea.
Open now
As flagged last month, the Paris Review is now open to prose submissions until it reaches capacity, so you may want to be hasty with this one.
High-concept stories of wonder and suspense, that’s what Assemble Artifacts Magazine is seeking. No information on the submissions page about pay, but Duotrope says they offer professional rates (5 cents a word or more).
Working on anything about rivers? The next issue of About Place Journal will focus on this theme, and invites a wide range of responses. Closes 15 April.
Scratch Books is holding its first short story prize, the Scratch A4 Competition. It is for stories that fit on only one piece of paper, and costs £4 to enter. No obvious location restrictions but you need to be free to read your work at a pub in London if you are shortlisted, so bear that in mind. Send work by 30 April.
Entries are open for the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award until 30 April. See the contest rules for more on what they want, and a few things to avoid. The winners are handsomely rewarded with book bundles.
Short stories and essays on the theme of ‘beauty’ can be sent to the Bloom Writing Contest, which costs just €3 to enter and has a prize of €500 for each category. Winners will also be showcased in The European Literary Review, the quarterly magazine of the prize’s organisers, the European Society of Literature.
Writers who were born in, or are citizens of, any African country can enter the Kendeka Prize for African Literature until 15 May. The competition is for an unpublished short story, with a top prize of 100,000 Kenyan shillings (£650/$787).
Celebrate the English countryside with a piece of non-fiction for Field Magazine’s Nature Writing Competition. This one is just for UK and Ireland residents. It is free to submit and the top prize includes £750, a very fancy pair of binoculars, and lunch with the magazine’s editor at a countryside pursuits show. There is also a dedicated category for under-17s.
Two mentorship schemes for UK-based short story writers from The Word Factory are now open to submissions. One is dedicated to those based in the north of England, while the other is for someone whose work has a political impact. The former closes on 1 May and the latter on 31 May.
Indie publisher Northodox Press champions authors from the North of England, and is open for novel submissions. If you’re a Northerner with a potentially suitable manuscript, check it out.
Entries for the Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Award are open until the end of August. At £18 for a short story, it’s at the pricey end, but has a top prize of £2,500 for the winner of each category, plus several extras including subscriptions and a residential course.
This year’s Shooter Short Story Competition is open now, with a deadline of 24 September. Run by UK-based magazine Shooter, the contest has no theme and costs £7 to enter, or you can bump it up to £10 to submit two. The top prize is £400.
Opening soon
The winner of the Green Stories Superhero Competition will bag £500 and get a scene from their story turned into a comic strip by a professional artist. Stories should be about a superhero who can save the planet. Entries are open worldwide but see the entry page for a list of countries from which submissions are particularly encouraged. The submissions link will be live from 1 April, and the deadline is 15 April.
Submissions should open again soon at Mid-Level Management Literary Magazine. Follow them on Twitter for the announcement of a theme.
Oh boy, it’s happening. A dark academia anthology! General submissions for Wilted Pages will open on 8 March, with a deadline a few weeks later. And it’s paid professionally at 5 cents a word. Praise be to saint Donna Tartt.
Keep an eye out for the next theme from Australian horror publication Nightmare Fuel. They only accept work that is 666 words or fewer.
As Meryl Streep once said: That’s all. Please consider sharing this post with a friend.
*An earlier version of this post stated that there appeared to be no entry fee for the Phoebe Spring contest. This was in fact a brief fee-free window which has now closed.