July 2020 Deadlines: 11 Contests and Magazines With Deadlines This Month
New month, new courage: submit yourself to these fellowships, magazines, awards and internships. Remember, too, acceptances and rejections are by-products of this journey—crafting your authentic art is the goal. And as always, submit poetry for free to our New Voices.
Featured: Our 2020 Industry Prize
For this one, we want to award one poem the $3000 prize—selected by a panel of judges representing different unique pillars of our industry. Carmen Giménez Smith is the Co-Director of the fabulous community organization, Cantomundo; Daniel Slager is the publisher of the incredible dream press, Milkweed Editions; and Peter LaBerge is the wonderfully talented founder and editor of The Adroit Journal, where many of your favorite new poets find their first footing. The panel of these three judges will collaborate to select a single winning poem from a group of finalists for the $3000 prize and publication on Frontier.
Deadline: July 19 // Entry Fee
Barrow Street is accepting submissions for the 2020 Book Prize Contest .This year’s contest judge is Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux. Past winners include 2019 Simone Savannah collection Uses of My Body, chosen by contest judge Jericho Brown; Meg Day for Last Psalm at Sea Level; Page Hill Stazinger for Vestigial; and Ely Shipley for Boy with Flowers. Prize winner receives publication and $1500 cash prize.
Deadline: June 30 // Entry Fee
Orison Chapbook Prize
Accepting submissions of chapbook manuscripts (20-45 pp.) in any genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid). The winner will be awarded publication and a $300 cash prize and 20 copies of the chapbook, in addition to a standard royalties contract. Original English work only; no translations. Judged by Luke Hankins.
Deadline: July 1 // Entry Fee
Pleiades
Pleiades accept fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Please send 3-5 poems. They are particularly interested in work that embraces risk and is lyrically inventive.
Deadline: July 1 // Free
Charlotte Mew Chapbook Contest
Our first-prize winner will be selected by Vi Khi Nao and will receive a $300 honorarium plus 20 copies of the winning book. We may choose to publish other books from among the submitted manuscripts. Although we do charge a reading fee, we have always had a sliding scale, and no one will be turned away for lack of entrance fee. Please submit no more than 35 pages of poetry. The singular mission of our press is to promote and market lesbian-identified* poetry by publishing books of poetry by LBT poets (*Our definition of “lesbian” includes both women who identify as lesbians and people who identify with lesbians.)
Deadline: July 4 // Entry Fee
Oregon Literary Fellowships
This year, Literary Arts awarded two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships of $10,000 each, and thirteen fellowships of $3,500, for a total of $65,500. Fellowships are given annually to Oregon writers to initiate, develop, or complete literary projects in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. One Women Writers Fellowship and one Writer of Color Fellowship of $3,500 each are also given. Submit three copies of up to 15 pages of poetry or 25 pages of prose. Applications open in July.
Deadline: July 8 // Free
Los Angeles Review Awards
Prizes for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction award winners include a $1000 honorarium and publication via LAR Online and in the best-of annual print edition of The Los Angeles Review, issue no. 24, set to be released in spring 2019. Please submit full length prose pieces no longer than 2,500 words, flash fiction of no more than 500 words, or up to three poems of 50 lines each. Francisco Aragón will judge in poetry, Kristen Millares Young will judge in fiction, Ellen Meeropol will judge in flash fiction, and Aimee Liu will judge in nonfiction.
Deadline: July 14 // Entry Fee
Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers
Open only to writers whose work has not appeared or is not scheduled to appear in more than 2 publications. Submit up to 5 pages of poetry (one long poem or several short poems) or 5,000 words of fiction maximum (one short story or a self-contained excerpt from a novel). $500 prizes will be awarded in both the fiction and poetry categories, and the winning manuscripts will appear in the spring issue of Nimrod. Winners will have the chance to work with the Nimrod board of editors to refine and edit their manuscripts before publication.
Deadline: July 15 // Entry Fee
Gasher
Please submit up to 4 poems (maximum 8 pages), 6 pieces of art, 500-3,000 words of fiction or CNF (no more than 4 stories totalling 3,000 words. Each piece must have a minimum of 500 words). We accept simultaneous submissions. Please, let us know if your submission is accepted elsewhere.
Deadline: July 17 // Free
Broken River Prize
An annual poetry chapbook contest from Platypus Press. No submission fee. Winner will receive publication and $250/£200 prize money. Submissions should be between 20 and 40 pages in length. The contest is open internationally. 2020’s judge is Kaveh Akbar.
Deadline: July 31 // Free
Authors League Fund
Since 1917, the Authors League Fund has helped professional authors, journalists, poets, and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortune. Most of those we help suffer severe health problems but have inadequate insurance; some face eviction; many are older writers whose income has ceased through no fault of their own. The Fund exists to help professional writers continue their careers with dignity by providing no-strings-attached “loans” to pay for pressing expenses. Repayment of this emergency support is not required.
Deadline: July 31 // Free
