Sorry We're Prosed: January writing opportunities
Themes this month include love, heritage, and flourishing
Hello again,
Well, here we are, full of hope and ambition for the new year. What are you trying to achieve with your writing this year?
I’ll be honest, I’m weary of goal-setting. It can feel like such a burden. And the sensation of being unable to do everything I want to do is oh-so-familiar. Why bother?
Despite my moaning, I probably will set a few goals for the year, in the privacy of my shiny new writing diary. But I think it’s also good to leave space to achieve things outside the framework of targets, to pursue a kind of spontaneous success.
What that means is just doing something. Not procrastinating, just doing it straight away. This is something I want to get better at this year, whether it’s in writing or work or life admin. On the writing side, the biggest part will be that when I spot an opportunity and know I have work that is ready and suitable to submit, I just need to do it.
I hope if any of you decide to pursue some of that same spontaneous success, that this newsletter provides some useful prompts. Let’s get ourselves in gear, and start sending things out.
Closing soon
The next deadline for Pomegranate London, a publication which features stories and essays about artists, has been extended to 15 January.
Works on ‘heritage and inheritance’ can go to The Hyacinth Review until 21 January. There are no strict guidelines on what kinds of prose and essays can be submitted.
TOLKA is open again until 22 January. They specialise in non-fiction so send memoir, essay, travel writing, etc.
One of those submissions windows I always keep an eye out for: The Ghastling is open until 25 January, and its theme is ‘Ghosts’.
Here’s your chance to bring your favourite tragic heroine back to life. Improbable Press is putting together an anthology on the theme ‘Anna Karenina isn’t dead’, and the idea is to write about women of literature who met untimely ends, giving them a new lease on life. The deadline is 31 January and payment is 5 cents a word.
Horror magazine Ram Eye Press seeks submissions on the theme of ‘Rituals’ until the end of the month.
If you have a lot of thoughts on a TV show, film game, or another piece of popular media, and you think you could expand it to a 20,000-word book, pitch it to the new series Peregrine Pocketbooks from Scottish independent publisher Peregrine Coast Press. The selected writer will get a £150 advance and 50/50 royalties.
For the Spring issue of Last Girls Club, a zine dedicated to horror from the female gaze, the theme is ‘Panic’. Send short and flash fiction by 1 February.
Open now
The theme for this year’s free-to-enter Writers & Artists’ Short Story Competition is ‘love’. Enter by 14 February for the chance to win a writing retreat.
Unpsychology Magazine is taking submissions on the theme of ‘Imaginings’ until 12 February.
Literary agency Aitken Alexander has put out a call for new talent. You can read about what their agents are looking for here.
If you write about cycling, and might have an idea for an essay that would suit The Road Book Cycling Almanack, have a look through what they’ve published before, and then drop a note to Ned Boulton.
Tamarind, a lovely-looking publication that takes fiction and non-fiction related to science, is looking for submissions to its next issue until the end of February.
The theme for free writing contest The Alpine Fellowship has been revealed. It’s ‘On Flourishing’. Make of that what you will. Top prize is £3,000 cash and two runners-up get travel expenses covered to go to the fellowship’s symposium in Sweden.
The next edition of the époque press é-zine is open on the theme of ‘Menace’ until the end of March.
The Bath Short Story Award is now open. It has a first prize of £1,200, costs £9 to enter, and is open to anyone writing in English.
Opening soon
Crawling, a new horror anthology from Hear Us Scream, will contain stories of terrors lurking under the skin. Send anything sub-dermal their way from 9 January. Authors get $15 and a contributor copy.
The much sought-after Emerging Writers Programme at The London Library opens for applications next week.
Seeking manuscripts of a speculative persuasion, Weird Little Press has an open novel submissions call starting at the end of January.
The next reading period at The Baltimore Review will open on 1 February.
Always open
New Lines Magazine accepts pitches for a range of different sections, including reviews, personal essays, and reportage. The global affairs publication is launching a print edition this year, so it’s a good time to get involved.
Here’s a new magazine for your perusal, Brooklyn-based Papers Publishing. As well as general writing, they have a section I love the look of called Dream Journal, where writers can document their strange dreams. It reminds me of one of my favourite (now dormant) Instagram accounts, @quarendreems.
For writers of historical fiction, short stories and novel excerpts can be sent to the Copperfield Review Quarterly at any time, though they do take some breaks from reading and are currently on one until later this month. They also accept book reviews of historical fiction or history-related non-fiction.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon with my year in review (I had intended to send it at the end of last month, but frankly was having such a lovely time not looking at any screens that weren’t showing episodes of Christmas University Challenge that I decided to wait). As ever, please share this email with anyone you think might like it.