September Deadlines: 9 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—particularly contests for poems, chapbooks, and longer collections. 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!
Puerto del Sol is currently accepting entries to their 9th Annual Poetry Contest. Winners in both genres will receive $750 and publication in our next print issue; runners-up will receive $250 and either online or print publication. The $15 entry fee is collected to support our acclaimed judges. All submissions will be considered for publication. Submissions are limited to three poems. Give them the inventive, the fresh, the everything in-between.
Deadline: September 1 // Fee
Bear Paw Arts Journal
Bear Paw Arts Journal takes its name from the Bears Paw Mountains in north central Montana, known locally as “The Bear Paws.” Bear Paw Arts Journal seeks to publish poetry, flash fiction, and micro essays that, like the Bears Paw Mountains, surprise and delight with each new turn. They are interested in all poetry, including formal and experimental verse. Please submit 3-5 poems in one attachment (.doc or .docx). They do not publish sexually explicit material.
Deadline: September 1 // No Fee
Dogwood Poetry Prize
You are invited to submit to Dogwood’s annual contest, which awards $1,000 each for the best essay, story, and poem submitted during the reading period. Finalists are chosen by the editorial staff and accepted for publication; winners are then chosen from the finalist pool by a guest judge. All steps of the consideration process are anonymous. Submit one, two, or three poems (max ten pages) in one document.
Deadline: September 6 // Fee
Terrain.org 17th Annual Contest
Terrain.org welcomes submissions on place, climate, and justice from new and experienced authors and artists alike. Submit to the Terrain.org 17th Annual Contest, judged by Todd Boss with 1-5 poems per entry, maximum of 7 pages total. Combine all poems into a single document that does not contain your name or contact information. For poetry, they are seeking a single poem or set of poems to select as the contest winner.
Deadline: September 7 // Fee
Quarter After Eight’s 2026 Summer Chapbook Contest
Fueled by Bauhaus, moderately hydrated, and begging for something to feel the same sense of wonder you felt when you first watched Labyrinth, Quarter After Eight’s annual summer poetry chapbook contest is back. This contest is open to poetry (and things that sort of feel like poetry, sad-posts that you’ve later re-purposed into poetry, poetic collages that are primarily written language but your friends keep describing as “poetic,” poetic esoterica and/or ephemera including the screenplay you wrote where you shipped two unfortunate 90s actors together but now they’re just recurring characters in your monologue poems and you aren’t embarrassed at all etc.). Submissions should be 20-40 pages, should include a table of contents, and should have a title that seriously wows.
Deadline: September 15 // Fee
Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence
The Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence serves to honor the memory of Austin Clarke (1934-2016). Austin Clark’s vast body of literary work has “never been realist, nor has it ever been reportage: it is a polyvocal, hybridizing, experimental, introspective, satirical, patriarchal, offensive, provocative and—at times—outraged artistic reflection on life in Canada” which “demands” a stylistic account. Ex Puritan wants to encourage readers and writers to think through what it means to rebuke the Canadian cultural establishment. They want writers to continue Clarke’s legacy by reimagining the boundaries of Canadian literature. Equally important to this, however, is a focus on style. Each submission to the poetry prize can include up to 4 poems, or up to 4 pages (whichever comes first).
Deadline: September 15 // Fee
Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Contest
This annual poetry book contest was established in 2016 to foster the publication of excellent poetry in elegantly designed books. With the transition of Ex Ophidia Press to new ownership by Amy Haddad, a poet and educator, the contest was renamed in honor of Richard-Gabriel Rummonds who founded the press. This contest is open to poets at any stage of their career. The author of the prize-winning book receives $2,000, ten copies of the book, and an author discount on additional copies. Asterism Books, a well-known wholesaler of small literary presses, distributes our books.
Deadline: September 16 // Fee
The Miller Williams Poetry Prize
University of Arkansas Press invites submissions this publication series which will be published in 2028. Series editor Patricia Smith serves as the judge for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize. With the help of screeners, she awards to three authors publication in the series. Manuscripts must be between sixty and ninety pages. While tree of the books are announced as finalists for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize. One is further chosen as the winner of the prize and receives $5,000 in cash in addition to publication.
Deadline: September 30 // Fee
The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
Established in 1998, The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize highlights one full-length collection of poetry per year. Since 2024, the Prize comes with a $10,000 advance, TRP’s X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize Fellowship at Vermont Studio Center, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book. This year’s judge is Phillip B. Williams. The X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize is not a first book prize, though we welcome first books. The Prize is open to poets at any stage of their career.
Deadline: September 30 // Fee
