June 2023 Deadlines: 10 Contests and Magazines with Deadlines This Month
New month, new courage: submit your work 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. This list is powered by the deadline service Literistic!
We are honored to create this space for women poets to step forward. Thanks to the past efforts of The VIDA Count and other initiatives to highlight gender disparity in literary publications, the poetry landscape has made progress toward equity in recent years. Still, more remains to be done to honor and uplift the work of women poets. Palette is yours as much as ours, and we are committed to making this journal an inclusive, welcoming space where women’s voices are amplified and offered tangible support. During the opening week of the contest, we offered a free submission window to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) women poets, which closed after the first fifty entries. At this time, none remain.
This contest only accepts submissions from women poets. All women are welcome to submit (cis and trans). The winning poet will be awarded $3000, publication, and a brief interview in Palette Poetry. Second and third place will receive $300 and $200, respectively, as well as publication. The top ten finalists will be selected by Palette editors, and Guest Judge Evie Shockley will then select the winner and two runners-up from among the ten finalists.
Deadline: June 15 // Fee
Poetry Submissions: Please send 3-5 poems. We are particularly interested in work that embraces risk and is lyrically inventive. Fiction Submissions: Pleiades is looking for exceptional fiction, with a focus on well-developed characters, memorable language, provocatively-wrought subject matter, and immersive settings. Creative Nonfiction Submissions: While we enjoy essays and nonfiction in all forms, here at Pleiades we are particularly interested in creative nonfiction that gazes out at the world rather than into the self.
Deadline: June 1 // Fee
The Common publishes pieces of literature that embody particular times and places both real and imagined; from deserts to teeming ports; from Winnipeg to Beijing; from Earth to the Moon: literature and art powerful enough to reach from there to here. In short, we seek a modern sense of place. We seek stories, essays, poems, and dispatches that embody a strong sense of place: pieces in which the setting is crucial to character, narrative, mood, and language. We receive many submissions about traveling in foreign countries and discourage writers from submitting conventional travelogues in which narrators report on experiences abroad without reflecting on larger themes. Submit only one story or essay per reading period.
Deadline: June 1 // Fee
A prize of $500 and publication by Finishing Line Press is given annually for a poetry book. Leah Huete de Maines will judge. Submit a manuscript of 40 to 99 pages with a $10 entry fee by June 2, 2023. Include cover letter with bio and acknowledgments. (Please keep bio and acknowledgments in cover letter only.) Manuscript should include title page and poems (and art, if any.) All forms of poetry are welcome including hybrid poetry. Artwork may be included (color is accepted). Please count each artwork as one page. All entries are considered for publication.
Deadline: June 2 // Fee
The University of Akron Press offers the Akron Poetry Prize, a competition open to all poets writing in English. The winning poet receives $1,500 and publication of his, her, or their book. Manuscripts must be a total length of at least 48 pages and no longer than 90 pages. Manuscripts must not include identifying information. This year’s final judge is Sandra Beasley.
Deadline: June 15 // Fee
Lighthouse Writers Book Project Fellowship
The Book Project Fellowship covers partial or full tuition for the entire two-year program, designed to help writers of book-length manuscripts the classes, advice, and moral support they need to draft, revise, and—most importantly—finish. Book Project Fellows will receive all the benefits of the program, including one-on-one mentorship with a published author, classes with fellow Book Project participants, weekend intensives and retreats, and publishing advice from our in-house expert.
Deadline: June 26 // Fee
Open Reading Periods Black Lawrence Press seeks innovative, electrifying, and thoroughly intoxicating manuscripts that ensnare themselves in our hearts and minds and won’t let go. During our June and November Open Reading Periods, we accept submissions in the following categories: novel, novella, short story collection (full-length and chapbook), poetry (full-length and chapbook), biography & cultural studies, translation (from the German), and creative nonfiction. Black Lawrence Press is happy to select many of our titles through our twice-annual Open Reading Periods in June and November. Beginning with our November 2015 Open Reading Period, we will ask all submitters to select one Black Lawrence Press publication at a discounted price ($12, including shipping for print editions). Proceeds from the open reading period will go directly back into supporting the activities of the press.
Deadline: June 30 // Fee
Next workshop: August 13-18, 2023, at Chico Hot Springs. The Elk River Writers Workshop embodies the idea that deep, communal experiences with the wild open the door to creativity. We bring together some of the most celebrated nature writers in the United States with students who are serious about fostering a connection with place in their writing. It all happens at Chico Hot Springs, a historic retreat just north of Yellowstone National Park. During our five-day workshop, we offer small classes with workshop faculty, excursions in and around Paradise Valley, and a chance to join a diverse community of writers, artists and conservationists whose work is situated in, and inspired by, the natural environment. Workshop classes take place in the mornings at Chico Hot Springs and are limited to 10 students each. In the afternoons, students may select from a menu of excursions with experts in local ecology, wildlife and archaeology, or take part in onsite workshops and panels. Evenings feature faculty and student readings.
Deadline: June 30 // Fee
Split Lip Magazine is a voice-driven literary journal with a pop culture twist. We publish online monthly and in print annually. We accept fiction (flash and short stories), memoir, poetry, art, and photography. Please read our guidelines and submit accordingly. We appreciate you taking time to check us out and look forward to reading your work! In an effort to promote Black voices, free submissions will be open for Black writers and artists in all genres all year (except when we are closed to all submissions in July and the second half of December). WE ARE A PAYING MARKET! Contributors to web issues will receive $50 (paid via PayPal; note that payment cannot be made by any other method than PayPal). Print issue contributor payment is $5 per printed page, minimum of $20, plus 2 contributor copies.
Poets are invited to submit full-length collections focused on a specific theme between May 1-June 30. For the 2023 submission period, that theme is: Dreams and the Subconscious, and the Guest Editor is Robert Krut. This is a reading period, not a contest–with your submission, please tell us a little about yourself, and share how your manuscript connects with the theme. The press is particularly interested in reading work by writers who have been historically underrepresented in, and/or marginalized, by traditional literary institutions. More details on the theme, and specifics on the submission requirements can be found at the Codhill Press web site.
Deadline: June 30 // No fee
