By Lisbeth Coiman
Here is our submission call list for May. Today I bring you five deadlines and five open calls all but one under $15. Polish your piece, submit, and track. Find support in your community to celebrate each other’s success, but make time to hold your writing buddies through rejections. Keep writing. Submit hard.
1.Gloom Cupboard
Deadline: May 15, 2016
Submission Guidelines:
http://gloomcupboard.com/https://gloomcupboard.com/submission-guidelines/
Reading fee: $3
What they like: They are “willing to work with authors on pieces that intrigue us but may yet be fully polished.”
2.Lit Fest Press
Deadline: May 20, 2016
Submission Guidelines: festivalwriter@gmail.com
Reading fee: $0
What They Like: Discuss “why you write outside the lines, and why you write at all.”
3. The Baltimore Review
Deadline: May 31, 2016
Submission Guidelines: https://baltimorereview.submittable.com/submit
Reading fee: $0
What They Like: Up to three poems, one short-story, or a piece of non-fiction up to 5,000 words.
4. Minerva Rising Literary Journal
Deadline: June 1
Submission Guidelines: http://minervarising.com/submissions/submissions-journal/
Reading fee: $15
What They Like: The theme is Fathers.
5. Gravel
Deadline: May 31
Submission Guidelines: https://gravel.submittable.com/submit
Reading fee: $0
What They Like: Fiction and non-fiction up to 2,500. This is cute: “We cannot pay you, but if it makes you feel better, we’re not getting paid either.
6. Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest
Deadline: Not listed
Submission Guidelines: https://www.pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/guidelines
Reading fee: $24
What They Like: They promote “up-and-coming writers.”
7. Monthly Fiction
Reading Period: From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31
Submission Guidelines: www.monthlyfiction.com/submissions/
Reading Fee: $0
What they Like: They are looking for stories that can be broken into 30 strong segments. Mystery “seems to fit the format.”
Contact Info: Matt Hall monthlyfiction@gmail.com
8. Qu Literary Magazine
Reading Period: Starts on May 15
Submission Guidelines: www.qulitmag.com/submit
Reading Fee: $0
What they like: They publish fiction, poetry, essays and script excerpts.
Contact info: Mesha Maren marenmesha@gmail.com
9. RESTLESS
Reading Period: Jan 1 to Dec 31
Submission Guidelines: www.wildagepress.com/submissions/
Reading Fees: $0
What they like: hybrid work and marginalized writers
Contact Info: editor@wildagepress.com
10. Contrapuntos
Reading Period: Ends Oct 15
Submission Guidelines: https://contrapuntosindiepublishers.submittable.com/submit
Reading Fees: $0
What they Like: Foreign Languages
Contact info: Marcos Pico Rentería marcos@digitusindie.com
Lisbeth 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