March Submission Deadlines: 20 under $20

By Lisbeth Coiman

As part of our ongoing effort to encourage women to submit to top tier literary journals, Women Who Submit has put together a monthly submission call round up, hoping women writers find it useful and come back to it again and again. For our first list, we have included 19 publications with under $20 submission fees, and one publication with a slightly higher fee.

General

  1. The Indiana Review

Reading Period: Opening date not listed – March 10

Submission guidelines

What They Like:  They’ve received a ton of stories about cancer, so he could do without seeing any of those for a while and would prefer to see stuff that’s “different.”

  1. James Franco Review

Deadline: March 31

Submission guidelines

Genre: Poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction

Rotating Editors

Blind reading

  1. The Masters Review

Reading Period: January 15 – March 31

Submission guidelines

What They Like: Emerging fiction from new writers. They run year-round New Voices online editions and additional contests judged by the magazine editors and other writers.

  1. The Cincinnati Review

Reading Period: August 15 – April 16

Submission guidelines

What They Like: Realistic fiction, some humorous pieces
Responses: One submission, one form rejection

  1. Room Magazine

Deadline: for issue 39.4 : April 30

Submission guidelines.

Cost: $0

Featured: Sookfong Lee and Betsy Warland

Editor: Chelene Knight

Canadian publication. Recommended to read a couple of issues to get the feel of what they publish @ www.roommagazine.com/magazine. They are interested in poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction by women. They pay from CA$ 50 up to CA$120 depending on the number of pages. They accept one submission per genre per quarter and publish 80 to 100 pieces from a 2000 submissions slush pile.

  1. The Sun Magazine

Deadline: Open Call

Submission guidelines

Cost: $5

Hardcopy submissions only sent to

Editorial Department
The Sun
107 N. Roberson St.
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

They publish personal essays although they also accept interviews, fiction and poetry. Your immaculate personal essay competes against thousands of other great essays in the slush pile every month. They take up to six months to reply. The nicely printed rejection letters make for a good keepsake too. They pay from $100-200 for poetry up to $2000 for interviews. SASE required.

It is highly recommended to read at least a couple of issues to get a feel for the magazine content and what the editors expect.

  1. Arcadia Magazine 

Deadline: Open Call

Submission guidelines

Cost: $3

Genre: Fiction, Poetry, Non-fiction, drama, and blog

Query before submitting. Online submission only.

  1. Red Light Lit

Deadline: Open Call

Submission guidelines

Genre: Poetry, prose, and art for events and for the magazine.

Editor: Jennifer Lewis

Submit to: Jennifer@redlight.com also

Oakland based reading series and quarterly journal since 2013 publishes emerging writers and artists who delve in the senses with sophistication, humor, and wit.

                  Short Fiction Only

  1. The Paris Review

Reading Period: All year, but do not accept more than four submissions per year

Submission guidelines
What They Like: They seem a fair bit eclectic

10. The Atlantic

Reading Period: All year

Submission guidelines
What They Like: I’ve seen a little bit of everything, but they seem to prefer realism

11. The New Yorker

Reading Period: All year

Submission Guidelines: http://www.newyorker.com/about/contact
What They Like: I’ve seen a little bit of everything, from realism to magical realism to a few other types of fiction, but not too much “genre”
Responses; If you haven’t heard from them within three months, you’re just supposed to assume you’re rejected

  1. Glimmer Train

Reading Period: Open year-round, but with general submissions in January, May, and September

Submission guidelines

What They Like: Rural stories, coming-of-age stories

  1. The Mid-American Review

Reading Period: Open year-round

Submission guidelines

What They Like: I’ve read everything from the fantastical to the dystopic to the realistic to the WTF-how-did-this-get-published, so they seem rather eclectic

  1. The Missouri Review

Reading Period: Open year-round, as far as I can tell, but don’t quote me on that 

Submission guidelines

What They Like: I haven’t been overly impressed with what I’ve read, but they seem to like realistic, rural, small-scale stories 

Anthologies

  1. Tayen Lane Publishing

First Annual Articulated Press Short Story Anthology

Deadline: March 31

Cost: $0

Submission guidelines

Editors: Nora Boxer and Kelly Luce

Submit to

Chosen contributors receive $100, publication, and two hardcovers, two softcovers, and an eBook edition.

Procyon Science Fiction Anthology

Deadline: March 31

Cost: $0

Editor: Jeanne Thornton

Chosen contributors receive $100, publication, and two hardcovers, two softcovers, and an eBook edition.

Submit to

  1. Ideate Publishing

Where is My Tiara? Anthology

Deadline: March 31

Genre: Short fiction

Theme: Stories that feature multilayered female protagonist that illuminate and celebrate the many facets and complexities of being a woman

Submit to

Selected stories will receive a copy of the anthology and a stipend of $100.00

  1. Masters Review

Anthology Volume V

Deadline: March 31

Submission guidelines

Cost: $20

Genre: Fiction, literary non-fiction (7000 words)

Prize: $500

This yearly anthology is composed of 10 stories by emergent writers. Last year, the Masters Review won the Silver Medal for Best Short Story Collection through the INDIEFAB Awards. (Among the past judges: Lauren Groff and Lev Grossman; current judge is Amy Hempel.)

Contests 

  1. James Jones Fellowship Contest

Deadline: March 15, 2016
Submission guidelines

Cost: $33

Genre: Fiction (novels) only.

Prize:

  1. $10,000
  2. $1,000 x 2

Submit to: James Jones First Novel Fellowship

c/o M.A./M.F.A. in Creative Writing

Wilkes University

84 West South St.

Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766

Our most expensive publication on the list. This contest is seeking emergent fiction writers who have yet to publish a novel. The award honors the cultural and social values exemplified by late James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity. Contestants can’t have previously published novels, but are eligible with published short fiction and non-fiction work.

  1. Writers Community of Simcoe County

Word by Word – WCSC Short Fiction Contest

Deadline: March 31

Submission guidelines

Cost:       CAN$15

US$20

Judge: Literary Agent, Hilary McMahon of Westwood Creative Artists

Award:  Publication on WCSC website and

  1. $500 and commentary by Ms. McMahon
  2. $250
  3. $100
  1. Solstice, A Magazine of Diverse Voices

Solstice is a tri-quarterly magazine, with a response time of two to four months. It publishes fiction, non-fiction (essays and memoirs), poetry, and photography. It publishes both emergent and established writers of diverse backgrounds.

Solstice Annual Literary Contest

Deadline: April 20, 2016

Submission guidelines

Cost: $18

$500 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry

Judge: Richard Blanco

$1000 Fiction Prize

Judge: Celeste Ng. 

$500 Non-Fiction Prize

Judge: Michael Steinberg

Winners will be published in the Summer Award Issue in early August.

This is all for now. Hope to see you back next month, when we will try to compile another list of journals with plenty of details to help you plan and budget your submissions.


Headshot 2Lisbeth Coiman is a bilingual writer standing (unbalanced) on a blurred line between fiction and memoir. She has wandered the immigration path from Venezuela to Canada, to the US, and now lives in Oakland. Her upcoming memoir The Shattered Mirror celebrates friendship among women and draws attention on child abuse and mental illness. She also writes short fiction and poetry, and blogs “irregularly” at www.gingerbreadwoman.org

7 Replies to “March Submission Deadlines: 20 under $20”

  1. wow, the list is so amazing its got me pumped up to write something new and check everything I have written, but have been procrastinating over for submission. Awesome list! Thanks so much!

  2. Thank you for this wonderful list, very helpful. I wish I found it earlier but I’ll keep it for next year.

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