Hello again,
As you read this, I will be pulling into the station for a long weekend in the Netherlands, having hopefully made a dent in the book I’m reading and not fallen asleep from the early start.
As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, I’d like to start using this space up top to shout out work published by subscribers. Reply to this email or let me know in the comments if you have something you’d like me to feature.
Congratulations to subscriber Nicola Varley, whose story The Bone Room was published by Litro Online. It’s a fabulously creepy story of a children’s game gone wrong.
As for my own writing, it’s been an unproductive month creatively, but I did review the new Margaret Atwood short story collection.
Now onto the opportunities. As a reminder, things listed here are generally not paid unless explicitly stated.
Closing soon
There’s still just about time to jump on The Fabulist’s latest brief submission window, closing on 8 April. They publish fantastical fiction and right now are particularly on the lookout for ecology, solarpunk, and anti-dystopianism. There’s a flat rate payment of $25.
The Evening Standard’s stories competition, open only to UK residents, is closing on 12 April. Short stories are invited on the theme of ‘belonging’. The winner gets mentorship, a masterclass, and passes for this years Stories Festival.
For the next digital edition at The Hellebore Press, the theme is ‘Our Pasts, Our Futures’ (I initially mistyped this as ‘our pasta’ — a sign that I should write a food-themed response to this theme?), with a range of forms accepted. Have a read of their helpful submissions page which has further prompts and some examples of the kind of writing they are looking for ahead of the 15 April deadline.
Irish literary journal The Pig’s Back is accepting submissions until 15 April. They pay a flat fee of €300 for accepted pieces.
Send fiction and nonfiction to the next edition of Pidgeonholes by 15 April.
Flash fiction and short stories on the theme of flora or fauna are invited by UK-based publisher and magazine Swim Press. Closing 16 April.
The Free Flash Fiction Competition — which actually costs £2/£3.50 to enter, despite the name — will close on 23 April. The winner gets £150 and publication of their very short story (no more than 300 words).
Two of the big UK short story prizes close this month, and they’re both open to international entries. First is the Bath Short Story Award, which costs £9 to enter and has a top prize of £1,200. Stories are limited to 2,200 words, with entries open until 24 April.
Then there’s the Bristol Short Story Prize, also £9 to enter (free submissions are available) and with a £1,000 top prize. This one has a longer word limit of 4,000, and closes on 26 April.
Submissions for bi-annual magazine The Frogmore Papers are open until the end of this month. If you are submitting from the UK, you must do so by post. Everyone else can use email. They accept stories, generally no longer than 2,000 words.
Horror and science fiction magazine Apex is putting together an anthology of very short stories told in the forms of user manuals. Payment is $10 and submissions close on 30 April.
General submissions to Martian magazine are open until the end of the month. They publish very short, 100-word stories known as drabbles, in the science fiction genre. Pay is 8 cents a word.
The deadline for the Desperate Literature Prize has been extended to 30 April. It costs €20 to enter and the top prize includes €1,500 cash, a residency in Italy, and a manuscript assessment.
Psychopomp is open this month for submissions of speculative novellas. They pay a $750 advance and have a long list of what they’re after that’s worth reading through.
There’s another theme over at Amsterdam Quarterly, this time it’s ‘On the Move’. They take articles, fiction, essays and other prose, and will close on 30 April.
During April, British indie publisher The Broken Spine is reading submissions of flash fiction for its website.
If you are a graduate of a university in the UK, Ireland, the Commonwealth or the USA and have not yet published a book, you can apply for the Harper-Wood Creative Writing and Travel Award for English Poetry and Literature, run by St John’s College Cambridge, which offers funding for an emerging writer to travel. The deadline is 4 May.
Fox & Windmill, which specialises in publishing writing by South Asian writers in the UK, has put out a call for essays and short stories on the topic of food for their next collection. Closing 5 May.
Open now
The next theme for submissions has been revealed over at Dear Damsels. It’s ‘pleasure’ and they’d like to see your poems, fiction and non-fiction by 9 May.
New lit mag alert! Saga City is open until 15 May for work including short stories. This might be a good one if you’re looking to place something longer, as the word limit is 7,000.
The Manchester Review is now open for submissions, accepting both fiction and creative non-fiction.
If you know a young writer aged 11-14 living in the UK, perhaps you could pass this on to them. The London Review Bookshop has launched the Martha Mills Young Writers’ Prize, and the first theme is ‘The Stranger’. Submissions can respond in any way but should be prose, and need to be sent in by 22 May.
Currently open to flash fiction, Small Wonders Magazine pays a professional rate of 10 cents per word.
Writing community and magazine Write or Die is looking for contributors of personal essays and articles about writing.
If you have an answer to the question of ‘how to focus in a world of distractions’, take a look at this year’s Fountain Magazine essay contest. The deadline is coming up at the end of May and there’s a $1,000 top prize. Anyone can enter. Be warned though: by submitting you give the magazine the right to publish your work even if you don’t win.
I love a creepy epistolary story, and Crystal Lake Publishing is assembling an anthology of just that, with the fitting title Dead Letters. Pay is 1 cent per word plus contributor copy. Read the full guidelines here. Deadline 1 June.
Entries for the Moth Short Story Prize are open, with a closing date of 30 June. It costs €15 to enter and there’s a top prize of €3,000.
Opening soon
The next reading window for Seaside Gothic runs from 10 April to 16 April so get those saltwater-inflected pieces of fiction and non-fiction ready. Pay is 1 pence per word.
And another gothic one, Fly on the Wall Press is putting together a ‘Modern Gothic’ anthology and will open submissions for just over a month starting 22 April. Contributors receive free copies and royalties.
From the beginning of May, entries will be open for the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. This is run by the University of Pittsburgh Press and awards $15,000 and publication for an unpublished short story collection. Entrants must have a track record of publication which includes either a previous collection or stories in three magazines or journals.
Barrelhouse will open for all genres for its next print issue from 15 May for about two weeks. Pay is $50 plus contributor copies.