Happy June!
Can you believe the year is already halfway over? Time is flying—but let’s be honest, it hasn’t exactly been all sunshine and smooth sailing. Hopefully your weekend was calm and uneventful… unlike ours, which included an ER visit, a grandfather with a fractured shoulder, and some baffling tech issues (hello, edge server file corruption on CDNs 😵‍💫).

If you happen to spot anything strange on our site, please let us know! We’re working hard to get everything back in order, and your feedback—especially your location—helps us track down and squash those pesky bugs.

🗓️ New Month, New Goals

Don’t forget to check out our freshly updated Guide to Writing Contests—we’ve added all the June and July deadlines to help you stay on track with your submission goals.

We gave our Where to Submit Roundup a little makeover! It’s now easier to scan and plan your deadlines. Contests and calls are now listed together, but we’ve clearly marked all FREE submission opportunities to help you prioritize.

We hope you’re enjoying the Friday writing prompts and the cleaner calendar layout to support your submission strategy.

📚 In Magazine News

Looking for something new to read this summer? NewPages has just released our full list of lit mags with new issues! Plus, stop by the Magazine Stand to quench your literary thirst.

South Dakota Review 59.2
The latest South Dakota Review delivers a powerful mix of poetry, fiction, and hybrid work that speaks to our fractured times—anchored by a haunting cover from Editor-in-Chief Lee Ann Roripaugh.

Valley Voices Spring 2025
The Spring 2025 issue of Valley Voices honors the legacy of Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr. with a powerful themed collection, “River and Land: The Mississippi Delta,” featuring poetry, essays, interviews, and art rooted in place and memory.

Southern Humanities Review 58.1
The latest Southern Humanities Review explores Appalachian identity through poetry, fiction, and essays curated by guest editor Jeremy Paden—offering a powerful counterpoint to mainstream narratives.

Don’t forget to splash back into the blog during the week for the latest issues from Consequence and New Letters, plus discover a New Lit on the Block interview with KUDU.

📖 Book Pick of the Week

Occasionally, NewPages Editor Denise Hill highlights a standout title on the blog to share with our readers. This week’s Editor’s Choice is Remember Us to Life: A Graphic Memoir by Joanna Rubin Dranger (Ten Speed Graphic, April 2025).

Told through a genre-defying blend of illustrations, photography, and found objects, this memoir follows Dranger’s deeply personal investigation into her Jewish family’s history across three continents. As she uncovers forgotten stories and hidden tragedies, she also exposes the overlooked complicity of Sweden’s government during WWII. Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize, this is a haunting, visually rich tribute to memory, resilience, and truth.

Come back to the blog tomorrow to discover If I Had Said Beauty by Tami Haaland. And if your summer reading list needs a boost, don’t miss our roundup of new and forthcoming titles received in May!

🔍 In Review

As always, our reviewers are here to help you decide what to read next:

Twist by Colum McCann, reviewed by Kevin Brown
In Twist, Colum McCann crafts a modern echo of The Great Gatsby, following a disillusioned writer drawn into the enigmatic life of a cable repairman at sea. Through themes of disconnection, reinvention, and emotional repair, the novel explores what it means to mend ourselves in a digitally connected but emotionally fractured world.

Hesitation Waltz by Amie Whittemore, reviewed by Jami Macarty
In Hesitation Waltz, Amie Whittemore blends surrealism, lyricism, and sharp wit to explore vulnerability, identity, and connection through a chorus of poetic forms. This chapbook is a bold, tender meditation on our “ruined and beautiful” world and the strange dance of being human.

The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt, reviewed by Elizabeth S. Wolf
In The Girl in the Walls, Meg Eden Kuyatt delivers a moving novel in verse about V, an autistic girl navigating identity, family secrets, and supernatural echoes in a summer spent at her grandmother’s house. With lyrical precision and deep empathy, Kuyatt crafts a story that resonates with readers of all ages—especially those exploring neurodivergence and belonging.

Coming soon: Reviews of Craig Thompson’s Ginseng Roots and Judy Karofsky’s DisEldery Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice.

✍️Inspiration Prompt: Warped Relativity

Einstein once explained relativity like this: sit on a hot stove for a minute and it feels like an hour; sit with someone you love for an hour and it feels like a minute. But what about the moments that defy even that logic?

Write about a time when the clock ticked forward, but your experience of it didn’t match. Maybe it was a season of grief that passed in a blur, or a long recovery that dragged on despite no dramatic events. Explore how time can feel warped not just by joy or boredom, but by numbness, uncertainty, or quiet endurance. How does time behave when life is neither thrilling nor tragic—just quietly, stubbornly hard?

Calls, Contests, & More

Below is a small preview of this week’s 48 writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events.

Submissions Open for Housatonic Book Awards

Deadline: July 18, 2025
The Housatonic Book Awards are now accepting submissions of all books published in 2024. Authors or agents are welcome to submit poetry, fiction, and nonfiction manuscripts for consideration in the HBAs. All manuscripts will be reviewed by a committee and the winners will be notified in October 2025. Each award carries a $1,000 honorarium and $500 travel stipend in exchange for the author appearing at either WCSU's fall or summer writing residency. Entering a title implies the author’s willingness to attend the WCSU MFA residency to host a 2-hour workshop. We look forward to considering your work! Learn more here.

Darrel Alejandro Holnes judges Poet Hunt 30!

Deadline: June 15, 2025
The MacGuffin’s Poet Hunt 30 awards a $500 grand prize and publication! Up to two Honorable Mentions also published. Guest Judge Darrel Alejandro Holnes will make the final selections. Entrants receive one copy of the issue containing the selected poems. Send five poems per $15 entry fee. Include your contact info and poem titles in a cover letter or via the Submittable form. Personally identifiable information should not be included on the poems themselves to preserve the anonymous review process. Enter via Submittable; or to enter by post, see full rules at our website.

Swan Scythe Press Announces its 2025 Poetry Chapbook Contest!

Deadline: June 15, 2025
Swan Scythe Press announces its 2025 poetry chapbook contest. Entry fee: $18. We are accepting submissions from March 1 to June 15 (postmark deadline). Winner receives $200 and 25 perfect-bound chapbooks. The 2024 winner is Aida Zilelian for Dissonance. For full guidelines, visit our website and submissions manager.

Made from Midnight: Poetry and Short Fiction Wanted for Anthology

Deadline: June 6, 2025
Poets in the Pines welcomes you to our debut anthology, Made from Midnight. We are a small collective of writers, poets, and editors seeking short prose and poetry for this upcoming collection. Themes like death, rebirth, aging, grief, transitional spaces, the supernatural, or whatever else death evokes for you are all welcome. Exceptional writing, vivid imagery, and bone-chilling emotions wanted; magic desired. Please see our detailed submission guidelines, FAQ, and more information on our submission form located through the link below. Fate is unfurling a timid, open hand out to you... will you take it? Submit here.

Plant-Human Quarterly Seeks Poems and Essays for Upcoming Issues

Deadline: Year-round
Plant-Human Quarterly reads year-round. We seek unpublished or published poetry and essays that explore the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world—whether through heavily researched pieces, keen observation, or more intuitive ways of knowing—that attempt to communicate across boundaries and approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world. Send no more than 5 poems or an essay of no more than 1500 words (flash essay or essay excerpt) in a single word document. Past contributors include Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Arthur Sze. View submission guidelines at our website.

North Street Book Prize

Deadline: July 1, 2025
11th year sponsored by Winning Writers. Submit self-published or hybrid-published books to win $10,000. Additional benefits for entrants and winners from our co-sponsors. $22,000 in total cash prizes. Eight categories. Any year of publication eligible. Entry fee: $85. Everyone who submits online can receive feedback from a judge at no extra charge. Deadline: July 1. Learn more at our website.

HEART Poetry Award $500.00 - Deadline June 30

Deadline: June 30, 2025
Going strong since 1986! The HEART Poetry Award is open to entries of unpublished reflective modern prose poems through June 30! $10 fee to enter up to 3 poems. Winner will be awarded $500 and publication in HEART 20 (Fall/Winter 2025). This year’s judge is Grey Held. Visit Nostalgia Press to view the judge’s bio and submit.

2026 Press 53 Award for Poetry

Deadline: July 31, 2025
Publication, $1,000 advance, and 53 copies will be awarded to an outstanding, unpublished poetry manuscript. If Runner-Up is also selected, publication, $500 advance, and 25 copies. Press 53 Poetry Series Editor Tom Lombardo is the only reader and judge. Prizes awarded upon publication. Deadline July 31. Winner and finalists announced by November 1. Reading fee $30. Complete information at our website.

Slate Roof Press 2025 Elyse Wolf Prize $500

Deadline: June 30, 2025
Member-run Slate Roof Press, now in our 21st year, is pleased to announce the 2025 Elyse Wolf Prize for our annual poetry chapbook contest. The winner receives $500, becomes an active member of the press, and will have their chapbook published by Slate Roof. The runner up receives $100. We publish limited edition, art-quality chapbooks with letterpress covers. Winners make a 3-year commitment to Slate Roof, including monthly meetings, and share work responsibilities for many aspects of publishing. Submit no more than 28 pages of poetry. $10 reading fee; sliding scale available. Deadline June 30. Full guidelines at our website.

Sky Island Journal: Issue 32 Call for Submissions

Deadline: June 30, 2025
Sky Island Journal is an independent, international, free-access literary journal publishing the finest poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. Accomplished, well-established authors appear side-by-side with fresh, emerging voices. We provide over 150,000 readers in 154 countries with a powerful, focused, advertising-free literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. Our average response time is 9 days, and every submission receives a respectful response detailing what we appreciated. We have a family of over 1,000 contributors, and writing we published won the Pushcart Prize and BOTN last year. Enjoy our previous issues for free at our website, and submit to Issue 32 before June 30th.

The Branches Fall 2025 Call for Submissions - VOICE

Deadline: September 13, 2025
The Branches is seeking submissions of previously unpublished written and visual work for our fall 2025 theme VOICE. We are especially interested in cultural criticism, personal essays, and book/movie discussions and also publish poetry, short fiction, art, and photography on the theme of VOICE. We recommend reading some of our previous issues (click issues on our website) to get a feel for what we publish. Give us your big ideas and small thoughts, the ways you’re interacting with and understanding the world. We love Joan Didion, C. S. Lewis, Ada Limón, Susan Sontag, Flannery O’Connor, Patti Smith, and (hopefully) you! Off-theme submissions welcome. Visit website.

International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition! Prize: $1000 and publication

Deadline: July 1, 2025 (11:59 PM EEST)
Small presses have potential for significant impact, and at Vine Leaves Press, we take this responsibility quite seriously. It is our responsibility to give marginalized groups the opportunity to establish literary legacies that feel rich and vast. Why? To sustain hope for the world to become a more loving, tolerable, and open space. It always begins with art. That is why we would love for you to enter your manuscript into the 2026 International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition! Prize: $1000 and publication in 2027. Learn more here.

2026 Embracing Our Differences Exhibition Featuring

Deadline: July 1, 2025
Embracing Our Differences is seeking submissions for an outdoor exhibition featuring 50 billboard size images and original quotations created by local, national and international artists and writers reflecting the theme "embracing our differences." The exhibition will be on display mid-January through mid-April 2026 in two outdoor parks in Sarasota and Pinellas counties in Florida. Cash prizes totaling $10,000 will be awarded. Call is open to artists and writers of all ages. Quotation submissions must be 20 words or less. Learn more here.

Please note: only paying subscribers get access to all 48 submission opportunities! You can become a paying subscriber for only $5 a month and get early access to submission opportunities and events before they go live on our site.

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