Tag: Submission calls

The Year’s Not Over Yet!

Published on by gilliampoet1 Comment

Looking to get some final submissions in before we say good-bye to 2025? Here are some places that are open for submissions! Click the link to be taken to their submission guidelines.

FREE

Posit is accepting prose and poetry until December 5.

Have a good sense of humor? Defenestration is accepting short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction and visual submissions and seeking humorous pieces through December 5.

Up the Staircase Quarterly is accepting poetry and visual art until December 10. They have a tip jar option for $3.

Southern Florida Poetry Journal (SoFloPoJo) is open to poetry, essays, and flash fiction until December 14.

Fish Barrel Review is open to poetry, prose, and visual art until December 15. Submissions are free, but they do also have paid option for expedited responses or feedback.

The theme for Spectrum‘s Vol. 69 is ‘consumption.’ You can submit fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art until December 31.

Psychopomp is accepting poetry, fiction, nonfiction until December 31.

PAID

For a $3, $5, or $10 donation, Passages North is accepting fiction, poetry, short-shorts, and nonfiction until December 13.

OnlyPoems is open to both free and paid submissions for poetry until December 15.

Red Ogre Review is accepting poetry, music, and visual art until December 31 for $3 or $5 donations.

For a $3 reading fee, Five Points is accepting very short fiction until December 31.

Arc Poetry is accepting poetry submission for a fee of $2 per poem until December 31.

Calyx is accepting poetry and prose until December 31 for a $5 fee ($3 if you are a student).

These are only a handful of the journals that are currently open to submissions. There’s still time to get your writing in before the end of the year. Start 2026 off strong by submitting before December ends!

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Seeking Sanctuary in what you Read

Published on by gilliampoetLeave a comment

For many of us, reading is a means of escaping the clamor of the real world for a brief time. The theme of the current issue of Instant Noodles is “Sanctuary.” If you’re seeking to give your brain a respite from the news feed, head on over to read the latest issue, curated by the members of Old Scratch Press!

Instant Noodles is open for submissions for our Winter issue! If you have a piece that fits our “Gravy” theme and is on the light-hearted side, please check out the submission guidelines here! We try to fill our Winter issue with fun and mayhem, so please remember that HUMOR, not melancholy is our ask for this issue!

Old Scratch Press is also seeking new members to join our collective! If you write short form pieces (like flash fiction, poetry, or flash memoir), and you’re interested in working with our collective to publish your collection of work, check out our submission guidelines at Duotrope to see if we might be a good fit! The submission window closes on August 31!

Do Poets and Writers of Short Prose Need an MFA?

Published on by Nadja Maril1 Comment

By Nadja Maril

Attend any writer’s conference or weekend of workshops and invariably a topic raised amongst the attendees, (those aspiring to be published writers), is a discussion on the value of an MFA.

Will an MFA is help me professionally?

Will graduate school provide me with useful introductions to members of the publishing industry?

Will the process of earning a Masters degree serve to teach me useful skills I couldn’t learn independently?

No simple answer exists, because every writer and their aspirations are different. And every MFA program is different.

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I found pursuing an MFA  to be a rewarding intellectual experience, as an older adult. I received my MFA  from the Stonecoast  Low Residency Writing Program at in University of Southern Maine in literary fiction in January 2020.  

Low residency didn’t start up with the internet or the pandemic. For decades, many scholars have recognized that much of a graduate student’s work consists of independent study and research under the tutelage of a mentor. Low residency programs convene in person each semester for one or two weeks and the remainder of communication is done by email, snail mail and video conferencing.  The set-up enables students to continue with another professional career and family responsibilities.

While I wished I ‘d attended grad school in my twenties or thirties, sometimes you appreciate something more when you are forced to wait.

When I asked some of my colleagues at Old Scratch Press if they could share some of their thoughts  about MFA’s,  Collective  member Robert Fleming  told me about Mark Fishbein, who he met at the Poetry Academy of the District of Columbia poetry critique workshop. To join contact Mark at mark@poetwithguitar.com

To Mark Fishbein, Robert posed the following questions:

Why did you choose an MFA?:

M.F.: As retired, the purpose at the age of 74 means deciding to buy your container of milk before or after your nap. As a young man I thought to live the life of poet/academician, but got sidetracked and spent my life differently. But as a lifelong poet, I now give lectures in poetry workshops and I would like to teach it. In order to do so I must have, at minimum, an MFA.

Mark began in the Fall, 2023 an in-person MFA in creative writing: poetry at Columbia College in Chicago, IL. This is a traditional residential full-time program.

Why did you chose this specific school? :

M.F.: The program is well received; it’s walking distance from home, the price is more reasonable and the vibe less full of itself as I have experienced. It’s in the heart of downtown. No campus fraternities.

Mark is the chancellor of the Poetry Academy of the District of Columbia and most recently published Reflections in the Time of Trumpius Maximus, by Mark Fishbein | Atmosphere Press

So what is your thoughts on the topic? We’d be happy to hear from you.

Thank you for reading. Check out the latest submission call from Instant Noodles Literary Magazine here.