The Writing Submission Schedule Guide 2013

By Josh Karaczewski

When you are ready to submit your short masterpiece for publication, this guide will help you strategize where to place your submission. By organizing information on hundreds of literary publications' reading periods chronologically, you will immediately know who is ready to read your work, and as an ebook, you will have the clickable website links you need to immediately submit your prose or poetry.

Indie author Josh Karaczewski grew frustrated with how the process of researching markets to submit his short works ate into his limited writing time. So he set about making as comprehensive a month-by-month list as he could, to assist him in his future publishing. As he sifted through the plethora of print and online publication websites, he began to think that other authors might find the schedule he was building useful, and organized the information and links he had collected into a format that could itself be published, for the benefit of his fellow writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Josh Karaczewski
• Release date: Dec 16, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301386208

Josh Karaczewski

Josh lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (which is a catch-all meaning that he doesn't live in any of the cool Bay Area cities), and studied at Westmont College in Santa Barbara (though his degree is not in English). Josh is a husband (rapturously happy), father (blissfully proud), and teacher (public high school - I know, ouch). Josh enjoys reading (primarily fiction), writing (obviously), video games (especially shooters and platformers), art (creation and appreciation), film (just appreciation), and travel (9 out of 10 times this means Disneyland). On his writing, Josh writes literary fiction that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Book preview

The Writing Submission Calendar 2013

compiled by Josh Karaczewski

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012, 2013 Josh Karaczewski

Ways to interact with Josh include:

Smashwords: Profile

Blog: Oral Randomly

Book reviews & Groups: Goodreads Author Page

Social Media: Facebook

Discover other titles by Josh Karaczewski at Smashwords.com, including:

Alexander Murphy’s Home for Wayward Celebrities, a novel

My Governor’s House & other stories

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

How to use this guide

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Journals that accept year-round

Journals that accept whenever they feel like it

Journals of mysterious status

Farewell – Journals that have passed on

About the Author

Introduction

Let me be blunt, a writer’s time has many parasites: spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends, paramours, mistresses, parents, stepparents, grandparents, siblings, children, extended family, friends, acquaintances, customers, colleagues, enemies; jobs, careers, volunteering, religious institutions, community service, incarceration; commuting, traveling, exercising; lawn care, home improvement, sweeping, mopping, dusting, washing and folding laundry, recycling; shopping for, preparing, enjoying, and cleaning up after meals; showering, bathing, using the lavoratory, brushing teeth, ironing clothes, dressing, applying makeup, doing your hair, manicures, pedicures, shaving, manscaping.

For example, so far during my writing of this introduction I have listened to seven comments from my eldest son about his Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D game, fielded thirteen solicitations to do various activities from my youngest son of which I agreed to assist with three, spoke to my wife and daughter about several topics, prepared three lunches, read a story to my youngest son and put him down for a nap, picked up the foam letters from one of the various activities, cleaned up lunch dishes and trash, and used the lavatory once.

Now, I’m not going to debate that many of the abovementioned people and activities have their own flavor of merit, because I’m here in the capacity of Josh Karaczewski, the semi-pseudonym I use as an writer, and as a writer, the thing I crave above all else is more time to write. But then, when we have managed to write something we think others may enjoy reading, there comes the time-bleeding activities of publishing: formatting manuscripts, researching markets, and following directions for submission.

After publishing my novel, and then a collection of previously published short stories, I decided to use my limited writer-time to revise and submit some of my unpublished short stories for publication. I would enjoy revisiting a story, and finding ways to improve it with revision, but then fun would necessarily turn to business when I would try to find a journal to be a home for my story. When I first started publishing, this would mean pulling out that cinderblock of a book Writer’s Market 20XX; now it means visiting the even more overwhelming Newpages or Duotrope websites. My system for Newpages would be to head straight for the Big List of Literary Magazines, pick a letter at random to narrow the surfeit of journals to search, then click on whatever title first caught my eye; at Duotrope, I’d browse through the open themes. I would then sift through a journal’s website, browsing through any samples they had provided to see if my story might appeal to them. After searching through a dozen or so journals, taking anywhere from twenty minutes to over an hour, say I found one that I consider might be a fit: I would click on their Writer’s Guidelines or Submission Guide, or however else they decided to title their link, and find that the period when they accept submissions was several months away. I would then curse, maybe write a note on my calendar with the date I could submit, and start the whole frustratingly long process of journal research over again. Enough of this cycle occurred that I thought, Wouldn’t it be nice to have a schedule with all of these submission-period dates listed? A search of the internet informed me that if I wanted such an item, I would have to create it myself. Further thought, which occurred in the shower (a cliché I would never use in a story, but which occurs often), on what I would like in my schedule, led me to think that if I would like such a schedule, other writers probably would too.

So here we are! The guide you have before you is a tool to help you as a writer spend less time on the process of publishing, so you can spend more time writing. By organizing the information I have found and collected on the submission dates and periods for journals, magazines, contests, etc., I hope that you can be more strategic and successful in your publishing endeavors.

If you find a journal, magazine, contest, etc that I missed, send me an email and I’ll include it in an update. I’ll also recognize your contribution in the acknowledgement section, and send you a coupon code for one of my books. Send this information, with any other constructive comments or suggestions to: [e-mail]

Acknowledgements

My first thanks are due to my fabulous wife, who allowed me to use her (faster) work laptop to compile this schedule.

Those who deserve thanks for contributing feedback, ideas, suggestions, comments, etc. to this guide include:

Marjorie F. Baldwin, Catrina Barton, Hypervorean, Ingrid, Dennis Nord, Ted Summerfield, Miranda Weingartner.

How to use this guide

Say you have written something, revised it into something presentable, and then formatted it. Say it is October when this latest masterpiece is ready for submission to a literary journal. You fire up your trusty copy of Writing Submission Schedule Guide, and have several options for how to use it.

The First Way: you can click on October in the Table of Contents. This will take you to the Chapter where I have compiled every journal I have found that does not read year-round, but reads in the month of October. You will see there that on October 1st The Adirondack Journal has their 46er Poetry Contest going on. It says, reading period CONTINUES, meaning that the contest has already begun, but they are still accepting submissions in October. If you had clicked on September, under September 1st the same contest would have said reading period BEGINS, meaning that the journal began accepting submissions on that date; if you had clicked on January, and scrolled down to under the heading January 31st you would see reading period ENDS, meaning that the contest will stop accepting submissions on that date.

Got it? BEGINS = the journal has stated that they will begin accepting submissions on this date; CONTINUES = you can still submit for this journal’s reading period; ENDS means that you have either missed it, or will have to hustle with that submission if you want this journal to consider your writing this time.

The Second Way: say you want a sure thing, regardless of when the story is ready. In that case you would click on "Journals that accept year-round" in the Table of Contents. This will take you to a list of every journal and magazine I have found that will take your writing whenever you’re ready to submit it.

However, this leads to an explanation of K’s Notes. Occasionally there will be a little section in brackets where I will share some advice, or detail that I have found about a journal, to help you out. For example, about the journal Ascent you will find the following note:

[K’s note: they open submissions at the beginning of each month, and close when they reach 200 entries.]

Making them a K’s Note helps me from having to write out Karaczewski’s Note whenever I want to talk directly to you.

Now, my K’s Note about using the Journals that accept year-round would read thus: while some journals, particularly in the summer when colleges are on break, will accept your writing year-round, that doesn’t guarantee that they will read it right away. Some will let submissions pile up while they are on vacation, or have other commitments during certain time periods where they will not be able to read. So submitting your work to a journal with a limited reading period may ensure that your writing is read sooner after your submission— something you will want to consider if the journal does not accept simultaneous submissions.

The Third Way: say you’re feeling lucky. Go ahead and click on "Journals that accept whenever they feel like it." The journals here may be accepting submissions when you’re ready, or they may not be. You’ll just have to check for yourself.

The Fourth Way: say you’re feeling adventurous. Try clicking on "Journals of mysterious status." I couldn’t figure out how to submit to these journals, or even determine if some are still in existence, but you might be more savvy than I am. If they work for you let me know.

Other Notes that really only have to do with my personal style:

1. I have placed journals whose titles begin with numbers alphabetically based on the number’s spelling: for example, you can find 34th Parallel under T, for Thirty-Fourth.

2. I use hybrid for any cross-genre, mixed genre, or any other term that for a compound of prose and poetry.

3. I use drama for any short plays other than one-act plays, monologues, or screenplays.

4. As I am most interested in submissions of writing, I only listed when a journal accepts art or photography when I felt like it. Most times I felt like it, but I made no effort at being comprehensive in these listings.

One last quick note before I let you go, to protect myself and you. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. This schedule has been compiled to the best of my ability, but I am a one man show here. As some of this was compiled very late at night, or under the distraction of children and/or students, and owing to the fact that I am a fallible human being, it is possible that I have made mistakes. I apologize in advance. The mature and professional way to deal with potential mistakes in the listings is to inform me of my missteps so that I can correct them. Time spent writing attacks against me is time taken away from your creative work and publishing. Even sites like Newpages and Duotrope get it wrong sometimes (I certainly found mistakes on both sites while compiling this guide), and rely on users to assist in corrections/updates.

On the topic of comprehensiveness, I don’t pretend to have every literary journal listed. And with new journals continuously popping up, or adding contests or calls for submissions, it would be impossible to keep up with them all. I found zines that the staff(s) at Newpages didn’t have on Duotrope, and vice versa. If a them can’t do it, an I certainly couldn’t either. But this I is committed to getting as many markets added as possible, because this I is motivated to finding good homes for his own writing.

Also, by the transient and tenuous nature of many literary journals, deadlines can shrink or expand, zines can die at the roots and still give the appearance of health, technological gremlins can merrily wreak havoc with websites, and editors can fail in their articulation. I will update this guide with corrected or updated information monthly at the least (unless I have no corrections/updates to make), but understand that everything I have posted in this schedule I assumed (and in some cases, inferred) to be correct at the time of its posting. I take no responsibility for deficiencies of communication and technology, or the whims and circumstances of editors.

That’s all there is to it. All that’s left for me to say now is Good luck, and happy submitting!

January

January 1st

Acorn reading period begins [haiku poetry]

The Adirondack Review – 46er Prize for Poetry – reading period CONTINUES [poetry]

Agni reading period CONTINUES [poetry, fiction, essays]

Alaska Quarterly Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, drama, poetry, photo essays, and literary nonfiction]

American Letters & Commentary – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, essays, poetry]

American Literary Review – reading period CONTINUES [poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction]

and/or - reading period BEGINS [fiction, flash fiction, poetry]

The Antigonish Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, essays, poetry, book reviews]

The Antioch Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, poetry, nonfiction]

Arc Poetry Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [poetry, essays, reviews]

Arroyo Literary Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essays and memoir, translations, drama.]

Arsenic Lobster - reading period CONTINUES [poetry, essays & reviews on poetry]

Artful Dodge – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, narrative essay, poetry, translations]

Arts & Letters – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, drama, poetry, creative nonfiction]

Ashville Poetry Review’s The Williams Matthews Poetry Prize – reading period CONTINUES [poetry]

Assaracus – reading period BEGINS [LGBT poetry]

Atlanta Review International Poetry Competition – reading period CONTINUES [poetry]

Barely South Review – reading period BEGINS [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art]

Barnwood – reading period CONTINUES [poetry; K’s NOTE: the link wasn’t working the last time I tried it, so good luck]

Barrow Street Journal – reading period CONTINUES [poetry]

Basalt Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, poetry, hybrid]

Bateau Lit Mag – reading period CONTINUES [flash fiction, flack nonfiction, playlets, poetry]

Bayou Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Belladonna Publishing-Black Apples Anthology – reading period CONTINUES [gothic fairy tale fiction starring the classic fairytale princess]

Bellevue Literary Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry related to our themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body]

Bellingham Review Contest – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Big Bridge – reading period BEGINS [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

The Binnacle Ultra-Short Competition – reading period CONTINUES [fiction up to 150 words, poetry up to 16 lines and 150 words]

The Bitter Oleander – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, poetry]

Black Lantern Publishing – reading period CONTINUES [macabre fiction, poetry]

Blackbird – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry]

Blood Orange Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art]

Blue Earth Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

The Blue Pencil – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama by writers aged 12–18]

The Blue Pencil’s Elizabeth Bishop Prize – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, poetry, and playwriting]

The Blue Route – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, poetry]

Bomb Magazine – reading period BEGINS [fiction, poetry]

Booth Journal – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, comics]

Boston Review – fiction reading period CONTINUES [nonfiction, poetry read year-round]

Boulevard Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Bound Off – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, flash fiction in audio]

Brilliant Corners – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

The Cape Rock Vern Cowles Prize for a Trinity of Poems reading period CONTINUES [series of 3 poems]

Callalo – reading period BEGINS [scholarly articles, book reviews, interviews, nonfiction essays, short fiction, poetry, and visual art by and for African Americans]

Carbon Copy Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short drama, art]

The Chattahoochiee Review-The Lamar York Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction – reading period CONTINUES [prose up to 5000 words, $15 entry fee, $1000 prize each for fiction and nonfiction]

The Cincinnati Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, reviews, translations, poetry, art]

The Claremont Review Annual Contest – reading period CONTINUES [13-19 year olds only. 3 cash prizes each for fiction (one 5000 word, or three 500 word pieces) and poetry (three poems, one poem per page); $20 entry fee; $25 if submitting to both fiction and poetry]

Colorado Review-Colorado Prize for Poetry – reading period CONTINUES [48-100 pages of poetry; $28 entry fee]

Colorado Review-Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction – reading period BEGINS [up to 15 pages; $15 entry fee]

The Comstock Review – reading period BEGINS [poetry]

Confrontation Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, memoir, poetry, drama]

Connecticut Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, essays, poetry, interviews, translations, art]

Contemporary Haibun – reading period BEGINS [haibun poetry]

The Country Dog Review-The Argos Prize – reading period BEGINS [poetry; $500 prize; $10 fee for each entry of 3 poems]

Crab Creek Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, novel excerpts, creative nonfiction, poetry]

Crazyhorse – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Crazyhorse Fiction Prize, Nonfiction Prize, and Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize – reading period BEGINS [$2000 prize in each category; $20 per entry fee (includes a subscription)]

The Cream City Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Cumberland River Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, essays, poetry, art]

CutBank – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Defenestration – fiction and poetry reading period CONTINUES [nonfiction open year-round]

Delmarva – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, short reviews]

Ducts – reading period BEGINS [fiction, essays, memoir, poetry, humor, reviews, profiles, drama]

Ecotone – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, novel or memoir excerpts, nonfiction, poetry]

Emerge Literary Journal – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, flash fiction, poetry]

The Emerson Review – reading period BEGINS [fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Enizagam – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Enizagam-Writing Contest – reading period CONTINUES [fiction and poetry categories; $1000 prizes in each category; $20 fee per entry]

Epoch – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

The Examined Life Journal-Contest – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, and poetry categories. $300 and $150 prizes for each category; $25 fee per entry]

Exit 7 – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art]

Fact-Simile – reading period BEGINS [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Faultline – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, translation, art]

Feile-Festa – reading period CONTINUES [flash fiction (up to 500 words), articles] … our preference is for creative work related to Irish and Italian/Sicilian themes… Mediterranean cultures…or the diasporas to America, Canada, etc.  We are also interested in writing that evokes life in New York City.]

Fiction – reading period CONTINUES [fiction]

Field – reading period CONTINUES [poetry]

Florida English – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, book reviews]

The Florida Review-Editor’s Award – reading period CONTINUES [$1000 prize in prose and poetry categories;$15 entry fee (includes subscription)]

Flyway – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art that delve into place or environment]

Foliate Oak Literary Magazine – reading period CONTINUES [flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry]

Folio – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art]

Folio-Folio Poetry Contest – reading period CONTINUES [poetry; $500 first prize, two $150 prizes; $15 reading fee includes subscription)]

Fourteen Hills – reading period ENDS [fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, experimental/hybrid]

Fourth River – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry]

Fox Cry Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry]

Fugue Journal – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Georgetown Review- Poetry Manuscript Contest – reading period CONTINUES [$1000 prize for 48-80 page poetry manuscript. $20 entry fee]

Georgia Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, essays, book reviews, poetry, graphics]

Gertrude-Chapbook Contest – reading period CONTINUES [$100 award in fiction and poetry categories; 16-20 pages of fiction or poetry; $15 post / $17 online submission entry fees]

The Gettysburg Review – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, essays, poetry]

Ghost Town – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, flash fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry]

Gigantic Sequins – reading period CONTINUES [fiction, nonfiction, poetry]

Glass: a Journal of Poetry – reading period CONTINUES [poetry]

Glimmer Train – Standard reading period BEGINS [fiction]; Glimmer Train-Very Short Fiction Contest – reading