August 2025 Deadlines: 11 Magazines and Contests with Deadlines This Month
Have you spent the summer crafting daring, splashy lines to match the season’s bold spirit? Looking to get that writing out into the world? Consider sending your poems out to these contests and publications. This month, we prioritized free and low-cost submissions so there’s even fewer hurdles! We can’t wait to see your work come bright and shining into the light. And as always, submit poetry for free to our New Voices. This list is powered by the deadline service Literistic.
Judged by Stephen Kuusisto, five finalists and three prize winners will be published in 2025 Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine. A letterpress broadside of the winning poem will be printed by Gary Young at Greenhouse Review Press. Submit up to three unpublished poems in a single manuscript. Each poem must fit onto one 8.5 x 11 inch page. Do not include any personal identifiers in the manuscript, manuscript file name, and the title line when submitting; Short bio acceptable, not required. Simultaneous submissions accepted, but please notify immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. The contest is open to all styles of poetry from national and international participants writing in English except individuals who are employees and/or board members for Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine and Poetry Center San José.
Deadline: August 1st // Fee
We encourage pieces that echo the hybrid nature of the Swamp Ape, works that subvert our expectations of both content and form and unsettle our assumptions of what is possible. We are especially interested in publishing the work of writers from under-represented backgrounds and identities. We publish an annual print and quarterly online issues. Both our Print Issue and online content will include a special South Florida Feature, highlighting South Florida writers and artists. All work will be considered for both the print and online issues. If your work is meant to function in both formats (i.e. collaboratively in print and online), please indicate this in your application. (We would love to see submissions of this nature.) Submit up to five poems.
Deadline: August 1 // No Fee
All around us, we see and hear calls for freedom from many different voices and different directions. Some of these calls are frightening; some are inspiring. How are we to understand this “freedom” moment? We’re also interested in work that engages freedom as a process. Freedom requires cultivating “habits of freedom” (Snyder)—daily practices that sustain and expand our capacity for liberty. Author Maggie Nelson also understands freedom not as a fixed state but as an ongoing practice. Submit up to 3 pieces of poetry which do not exceed 50 lines each. Acceptable file types include doc, docx, odt & rtf. If your poetry submission contains special formatting, we suggest submitting a PDF in addition to your Word doc.
Deadline: August 2 // No Fee
We are interested in work that engages imagery and sound, and braves the challenge of describing what seems indescribable with a bold, authentic voice. Send us writing that leaves the reader with a revelation, a feeling, a new way of experiencing the world. Please share up to 5 pages (maximum), formatted so that each poem begins on its own page.
Deadline: August 15 // No Fee
We will consider most forms of structured poetry, including rhyming couplets, haikus, sonnets, odes, etc. Please do not submit prose poetry. Additionally, we ask that the poems convey a coherent message and are of a high literary standard. When it comes to poetry, we love to feel things, so make us laugh, make us cry, and make us think. While we are not a genre-specific magazine, we do prefer certain themes. We love poetry that tackles real, raw, and hard-hitting topics. Note: Please only include ONE poem in your submission document. Submissions that contain more than one poem will automatically be rejected. If you’d like to submit more than one poem, please submit them separately.
Deadline: August 15 // Fee
Send 3-5 poems, and your cover letter (as the first page) in the same file. Each submission should be followed by your 150-500 word account in a new file. The account is like a short artist’s statement. What to say is up to you, but it should be something you want to tell the reader—a peek behind the curtain into your mind or your process while writing this piece. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we must be notified immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.
Deadline: August 22, or 200 submissions // No Fee
The Inquisitive Eater: Eat the Rich
Dismantle the recipes of social dynamics. The Inquisitive Eater’s Fall 2025 issue is based on the theme EAT THE RICH. This issue is centered on the relationship between food and capital. We are looking for submissions that complicate and subvert conventional understandings of food and class. Submissions may inspect consumption, excess, cannibalism, accessibility, privilege. We encourage all artists to interpret and play with the theme as they see fit.
Deadline: August 30 // No Fee
For this issue, F(r)iction seeks to uncover the redacted with Censored! Let’s investigate the burning of books, witches, and bridges as we delve into all things sanitized. What are the secrets a family withholds about their past? What histories do we bury, whitewash, or blackout? What voices are lost to time, imprisoned, and expunged? Bring us stories, poetry and creative nonfiction that wants to hide truths, or protect others from them. Join us as we contemplate blacklists, consider authoritarianism, and debate the trade off between freedom and safety. Imagine a microchip in a person’s brain that keeps them from talking about certain things… and how it might go wrong. Ponder a dress code that erases identity completely. Or maybe the part of yourself you obscure to fit in. Question a person scouring their socials to delete their younger self for a job. Send us your writing that interrogates obfuscation, from without, and within.
Deadline: August 31 // No Fee
The Humanity Issue … because, could there be a time of greater need? “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. And so, as artists, your voices are needed, now. Voices that speak to humanity; to the good that is there, and can be again. Submit up to five poems.
Deadline: August 31 // No Fee
3Elements Literary Review is a themed literary journal, and all THREE elements (the specific words, Cherry Tree, Surveillance, Menu—art & photography excluded) given for the submission period must be included in your story or poem for your work to be considered for publication. NO EXCEPTIONS WHATSOEVER. Your story or poem doesn’t have to be about the three elements or even revolve around them; simply use your imagination to create whatever you want. You can use any form of the words/elements for the given submission period. For example, if the elements are: Flash, Whimsy, and Seizure; we would accept the usage of Flashed, Whimsical, and Seizures.
Deadline: August 31 // No Fee
Oxford Poetry awards the annual Oxford Poetry Prize for a single poem in the English language. This year’s guest judge is Rebecca Tamás. The winner of the Oxford Poetry Prize receives £1,000, the runner-up £200, and third place £100. The winning poets are also offered publication in the print magazine. The competition is open to poets age 18 or over (on the date of their submission) living anywhere in the world. Submitted poems must not have been previously published elsewhere, in print or online (including, but not limited to, blogs, websites, and social media).
Deadline: August 31 // Fee
