SlashnBurn is “an anti-art arts journal seeking to publish and bring attention to work outside the conveyor belt work coming out of most workshop-based MFA programs.” Currently accepting submissions in fiction, flash fiction, comics, creative nonfiction, memoir, poetry, reviews, and blended-genre. No hard genre work. High-concept is fine, but grounded in real human conflict and action. Deadline: Rolling.
Add a Comment
The Eden Mills Literary Contest is open for entries from new, aspiring and modestly published writers 16+. Categories: short story (2500 words max.), poetry (five poems max.). and creative nonfiction (2500 words max.) First prize in each category: $250. Winners invited to read a short selection from their work at the festival on Sunday, September 18, 2016. Entry fee: $15. Deadline: June 30, 2016.
Add a Comment
PRISM (BC) invites submissions for their Creative Nonfiction Contest. $1500 grand prize, $600 runner-up, $400 2nd runner-up. Length: 6000 words max. Judged By Rachel Rose. Entry fee: $35-$45 (includes subscription). Deadline: July 15, 2016.
The Cossack Review is looking for submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction and works in translation for their next print and online issues. Send 3-6 poems, one story, or one essay. Especially interested in thoughtful, diverse work.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 4/25/2016
Community
Crisp and golden, it’s propped in the middle of a silver platter that’s been in the family forever. A heap of crumbled bread forms a moat around the centerpiece. Stuck together with orange juice, flavored with parsley. The first cut slices the bird on its side. Succulent. Soft. A ladle filled with gravy. A spoonful of stuffing. Two helpings of pecan pie. Chocolate mousse. Whipped cream.
* * *
When Ellen Yin opened Fork Restaurant eighteen years ago, she wanted the
space to feel familial. The mosaic floor was laid down by a neighborhood tile guy. A local ironworker made the chandeliers. A fabric designer in the area crafted lampshades. Tony DeMelas says the restaurant instantly became “a community of artists and love.”
When Yin decided to revamp the restaurant in 2012, she called up Tony to create
a mural. Something to hang over the brown velvet couch that stretches across an entire
side of the restaurant. Tony was honored to be able to create something for the restaurant
he worked in.
When Tony was working on the mural, Chef Eli Kulp would drop by his studio.
Just to keep him company. Just to be there. “He was very hands-on,” Tony says. Kulp
was the only chef that has ever influenced Tony’s work. He was infatuated with the way
Kulp composed his plates. The way he could make a rib look like a log in the woods with
flowers blooming out of it and mushrooms growing from tiny cracks. His food was
sculpturesque. Tony says, “I’d look at [Eli’s plates] and go, ‘[If] you just blew this up and
abstracted it…and put it on a canvas, you could sell the hell out of this thing.’”
Tony’s mural hangs above the extra-long couch and reflects its color onto the
dark wood tables. Yellows and oranges and light greens and white and brown. A forest of
tree trunks, abstracted.
Tony used to walk past the painting hundreds of times every day as he hustled
from Fork’s kitchen to his tables, balancing plates in his arms. Customers would come in
and sit down and admire the mural. They would say things like, “Oh, it’s so much bigger
than in the pictures!” They would be waited on by Tony – with his square, tortoise-shell
glasses and eyes that feel like he’s staring into your soul – and they would have no idea
that the humble man taking their orders was the artist who painted that masterpiece.
* * *
Community can be built into a place. But it’s the people within that place who
decide whether community flourishes or dies.
SAD Mag, a Vancouver based arts & culture publication, is seeking poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction pieces. Theme: Secrets (personal and political secrets, unconventional ideas and lives — writers are encouraged to interpret creatively and broadly). Length: 1,000 words max. Accepted pieces published online alongside an illustration; some published in the print issue. Particularly interested in works by queer and emerging writers. Deadline: May 15, 2016.
Add a Comment
Online journal Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing is accepting submissions of poetry, literary fiction, creative nonfiction, features, and artwork for the Fall 2016 issue. Deadline: August 15, 2016.
Add a Comment
Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine (NC), which explores the wide spectrum of the senior citizen’s life, seeks pieces for the next issue. Open to poetry, short fiction, creative essay, memoir and book reviews from anyone, anywhere. Welcomes any topic, and in any voice or style. Main criteria: the work needs to be good: it should engage the reader/viewer, enrich our experience. Deadline: June 1, 2016.
Add a Comment
Submissions are invited for the Sequestrum Editor’s Reprint Award. Open to reprints of fiction and creative nonfiction in any original format (electronic or print). One $200 prize plus publication. Minimum one runner-up prize including publication and payment. Fee: $15. Deadline: April 30, 2016.
Add a Comment
The Lake Winnipeg Writers’ Group invites entries from adults and youth for the 2016 Write on the Lake Contest. First prize: $100. Categories: Poetry (3 pages or 1500 words max), fiction (2500 words max.), and creative nonfiction (2500 words max.) Entry fees: Adult – $20 and youth (under 18 years) – $10. Deadline: July 31, 2016.
Add a Comment
Chrysalis (Canada) is creating a gardening zine, “Kill Your Lawn”, with the first print edition set to be released in late May. Seeking creative writing (of any kind), how-tos, and art about gardening, permaculture, self-sufficiency, and homesteading. Also accepting submissions on an ongoing basis for both print and online content. Send submissions to [email protected]. Deadline: May 16, 2015.
Add a Comment
The Papermachine, an online multi-genre arts and literature publication, is seeking short fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction entries for its inaugural issue. Particularly interested in work that explores themes of place, “home,” and displacement. Word length: up to 3000 words per entry. No fees for submission. Deadline: April 16, 2016.
Add a Comment
JONAHmagazine (Canada) seeks stories of life challenges, successes, and failures: Transitions, beginnings, endings, and bends in the road. Accepts poetry, prose, fiction, creative nonfiction, essay, memoir, and translation. Like stories that “come from the soul, or that steal it.” Submit one prose piece (2500 words or less) and/or 3 poems. Deadline: April 15, 2016.
Add a Comment
Poetry Breakfast seeks submissions on an ongoing basis. Seeking poems and poetry-related creative non-fiction (letters to and from poets, essays on poetry, etc.). Submit 3-10 poems or creative nonfiction (150-1000 words).
Add a Comment
Understorey Magazine seeks fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and spoken word for special issue on women and justice (Women and Justice in Canada). Welcomes diversity of voice, experience and perspective. Length: 1500 words or 5 poems. Open to Canadians (including residents) who self-identify as women. Honorarium available for accepted pieces. Deadline: May 1, 2016.
Add a Comment
The Los Angeles Review welcomes entries for four new awards: Flash fiction (500 words max.), poetry, creative nonfiction (1500 words max.), and short fiction (1500 words max.) Winners receive $1000 prize and publication in LAR. Entry fee is $20. Deadline: May 1, 2016.
Add a Comment
Soliloquies Anthology, Concordia University’s undergraduate literary journal, is accepting writing in the following genres: Poetry (max. 5 pages), fiction (max. 3500 words), and creative nonfiction (max. 3500 words). Open to emerging and established writers around the world. Deadline: February 5, 2016.
Add a Comment
The Paragon Journal are looking for submissions from young authors for their second online literary magazine. Open to poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and plays. Deadline: March 18, 2016.
Add a Comment
Momma Tried is accepting submissions of non-fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry for their third issue. Works containing nudity or sexual themes are welcome, but not a requirement. Deadline: May 30, 2016.
Add a Comment
Room Magazine invites entries from writers who identify as women or genderqueer for their annual creative nonfiction writing contest. First prize: $500 + publication. Entry fee: $35 (includes subscription). Deadline: March 8, 2015.
Add a Comment
Fox Adoption Magazine is celebrating their first anniversary and is seeking submissions. Publishes one piece per week. Welcomes prose (including flash, short stories and creative non-fiction), poetry, and art. Deadline: Rolling. Guidelines.
Add a Comment
Online quarterly Lunaris Review, a Journal of Art and the Literary (Nigeria), publishes work that brings “together creative minds to a common platform of artistry and beauty while providing the audience a satisfying read”. Publishes fiction (flash fiction and short story), creative nonfiction, essays, and poetry. Accepts international submissions. Deadline: Rolling. Guidelines.
Add a Comment
University of Windsor’s Generation Magazine is accepting poetry, prose and creative non-fiction from Canadian graduate and undergraduate students. Submit up to 5 double-spaced pages. Payment: Two copies of the magazine and $2 per published piece. Email to [email protected]. Deadline: December 1, 2015.
Add a Comment
great weather for MEDIA (New York) seeks poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction for their annual print anthology. Focus on the fearless, the unpredictable, and experimental. Welcomes submissions from international writers. Deadline: January 15, 2016. Guidelines.
Add a Comment
Bougainvillea Road Lit Mag is a new online journal looking for literary flash, short stories, poems, vignettes, standalone excerpts from longer work, and creative non-fiction pieces. Looks for writing that is eclectic, alive, and intrepid. Length: 2000 words max. Three pieces max. per submission. Send to [email protected]. Deadline: Rolling.
Add a Comment
