July 2026 Deadlines: 10 Contests and Magazines with Deadlines This Month
There’s plenty of opportunities to submit your work this month, and there’s a wide variety of options—contests for select poems, chapbook prizes, and magazines with open calls. It’s prime time to share your work with the world! Don’t forget that acceptances and rejections are by-products of your publishing journey—crafting your authentic art is the ultimate goal. We want to see your poems in the world, wherever they emerge; and as always, submit poetry for free to our New Voices. This list is powered by the deadline service Literistic!
Frontier Poetry is thrilled to announce our biggest writing contest of the year: the 2026 Frontier OPEN. While we primarily serve as a platform for new and emerging writers, the OPEN is meant to support and elevate the poetry community as a whole. Every year, we look forward to this prize, for which emerging and established poets are considered in equal measure and as a result are often published side by side in Frontier Poetry. We’re awarding one exceptional poem that demonstrates impact, risk, experimentation, and craft excellence—regardless of theme or subject—with a $5,000 prize.
Deadline: July 12 // Fee
The Bellevue Literary Review Prizes award outstanding writing related to themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. Winners are published in the spring issue of Bellevue Literary Review. For each genre, first prize is $1000 and honorable mention is $300. They encourage poems that are accessible to a wide audience. Characteristics they look for are vivid writing, strong narrative, and rendering the familiar new. They encourage you to peruse back issues in their archive to get a sense of their ethos. Natalie Diaz is this year’s prize judge.
Deadline: July 1 // Fee
The Bennett Nieberg Transpoetic Broadside Prize awards a single poem written by a trans poet who has yet to publish their first full-length book. The prize consists of $500 plus 5 limited edition letterpress broadsides of the winning poem. Gasher is looking for work that surprises them with its language, voice, and authenticity. They are excited by work that is deeply engaged in the nuances of craft, uniquely original in voice, and pushes creative boundaries. This prize is reserved for writers who identify as a trans writer. This may include those who identify as non-binary, genderqueer, agender, trans-masc, trans-femme, bigender, two spirit, gender fluid, or intersex people. Submit only 1 unpublished poem on any subject/theme.
Deadline: July 3 // Fee
Sixth Finch is an online journal of poetry and art founded in 2008 and updated quarterly. Please submit up to eight poems within a single file. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but if work is accepted elsewhere, please add a note to your submission. Previously published work will not be considered. Sixth Finch takes pride in bringing your poems to a wide audience, and your work will become a part of their permanent archives, so please be sure to send them your best.
Streetlight Magazine‘s mission is to publish exceptional talent, both new and established, from their region and across the country. Send them up to three of your best, previously unpublished poems. Any subject. Competition winners will be announced July 27th, 2026. Only winning authors will be contacted. However, all entries will be considered for general publication in Streetlight. If your poetry is a good fit for a subsequent issue, they will get in touch to see if it is still available. Winners will be chosen by Streetlight staff led by poetry editors Sharon Ackerman and Fred WIlbur.
Deadline: July 13 // Fee
Driftwood Press seeks prose poetry, experimental poetry, and poetry with a visual component (color images accepted) for their chapbook contest. Submit 15-40 pages of poetry (this does not include title, section break, or acknowledgement pages). The winner will receive $750 dollars and 20 copies of their chapbook. A print run of the winning chapbook will be sold on Driftwood’s website, through affiliate bookstores, and will be nationally and internationally distributed. The winner will also have the opportunity for an interview to be published in the chapbook following the poems. The managing poetry editor may offer a runner-up full publication.
Deadline: July 15 // Fee
2026 Rattle Poetry Prize
The annual Rattle Poetry Prize offers $15,000 for a single poem to be published in the winter issue of the magazine. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. Additional poems from the entries are frequently offered publication as well. With the winners judged in an anonymized review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection, an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and a large Readers’ Choice Award to be chosen by the writers themselves—Rattle has designed their prize to be one of the most inspiring contests around.
Deadline: July 15 // Fee
The Cincinnati Review invites submissions for the annual Robert and Adele Schiff Awards. One poem, one piece of fiction, and one piece of literary nonfiction will be chosen for publication in their prize issue, and winning authors will receive $1,000 each. All entries will be considered for publication in The Cincinnati Review. Writers may submit up to 8 pages of poetry (up to 5 poems total within those pages). Results will be announced on October 1. Winning entries will be published in the summer issue, which comes out in May.
Deadline: July 15 // Fee
The Letter Review is an internationally celebrated literary journal that believes in poetry, in literature, and in the importance and magic of new writing. The literary mission of The Letter Review includes fostering accessibility to the professional writing industry, and supporting writers at all stages in their efforts to be published, performed, and produced. The Letter Review Prize contributes to this mission by assisting writers to gain further publication opportunities. The top 2-4 winning entries of the Prize for Poetry are declared the Winners, and share equally in the prize pool of $1000 USD. Winning entries are published by The Letter Review online, and in their Winners Anthology, with an attractive, bespoke, newly commissioned artwork.
Deadline: July 29 // Fee
Porkbelly Press’ chapbooks are produced in small & open edition. They seek micro chapbooks that are 8-10 pages in length. They welcome works from writers all along the identity spectrum; we’re queer friendly & feminist. BIPOC authors welcome. Their catalog favors poetry leaning heavily toward fabulism, folklore, & magic—often confessional or intimate poems or personal lyric essay. All work should be tightly linked. They enjoy both lyrical work and narrative, leaning heavily to a combination, and have an affection for confessional poetry.
Deadline: July 31 // No fee
