The Orange & Bee publishes all forms and styles of writing. They accept free verse, formal, and experimental poems, and short stories in all fairy tale genres.  They are especially interested in showcasing diverse perspectives.

So far, The Orange & Bee has published one online edition, released this year on Substack throughout March and April. Though the first issue features exclusively commissioned writing, their second issue will primarily showcase non-solicited submitted work.

Right now they are open to submissions for their second issue through May 31. They will open again to submissions for their third issue from August 1-14, and then again for their fourth issue from November 1-14.

Authors of fiction may submit one short story, 4,000 words or fewer, or one flash, 1,000 words or fewer. The word limits are firm. Poets may submit one poem of any length, though The Orange & Bee prefers poems of 50 lines or fewer. Authors should send only one submission during each submission window.

The Orange & Bee pays authors who are published in their journal. Authors of fiction receive $0.08 per word for short stories, and $80 per flash. Poets receive $50 per poem.

The Orange & Bee also accepts experimental and hybrid writing, including work that combines life writing with fiction or poetry. They pay the same rate for hybrid writing as they do for fiction.

The Orange & Bee accepts submissions via email, not online or by post. They do not accept simultaneous submissions, but they respond quickly, usually within two weeks. 

They do not accept previously published writing or writing generated or assisted by AI. They only accept submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you would like to learn more or submit to The Orange & Bee, please visit their website here.  

Bio: Ella Peary is the pen name for an author, editor, creative writing mentor, and submission consultant. Over the past five years, she’s written hundreds of articles for Authors Publish, and she’s also served as a copywriter and copy editor for a wide range of organizations and individuals. She is the author of The Quick Start Guide to Flash Fiction. She occasionally teaches a course on flash fiction. You can contact her at ellapeary@gmail.com.

If you belong to a limited demographic that is not listed here, this list might be helpful to you.

As long as a press/opportunity/journal is open to submissions we will continue to list it, so some of the content on the list is new, some overlaps with previous issues. This article is an ongoing collaborative effort by Emily Harstone and S. Kalekar. Please send us an email at support@authorspublish.com if you have any feedback or an opportunity/journal/publisher, to recommend.

Literary Journals/Magazines

Plentitude
They want submissions from LGBTQ2S+ writers only; their Submittable has separate submission slots for Canadian and international writers, please be sure to submit in the correct category. And, “All submission categories (hybrid/genre bender, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) are currently open to Canadian and US/international writers. Our new Genre Bender category is only open to Canadian writers at this time.” Every genre has a monthly submission cap. Pay is CAD60 per poem, CAD125 per prose contribution (fiction and creative nonfiction), CAD100 for book reviews and Genre Bender submissions. Details here and here.

Lucky Jefferson: Awake – How We Make Fire
Awake is a zine by Lucky Jefferson Magazine, which publishes work by Black writers and artists only; currently, they’re reading submissions of flash fiction (up to 1,000 words) and poetry (up to 3) on the ‘How We Make Fire’ theme. Pay is $15-50, and the deadline is 31 May 2024. Lucky Jefferson is reading submissions on other themes too; please be sure to submit in the correct category.
 
Lucky Jefferson: Wildflower
Lucky Jefferson wants submissions of flash fiction (up to 1,000 words) and poetry (up to 3) from autistic BIPOC writers and artists only, for the Wildflower theme. Pay is $15-50, and the deadline is 31 May 2024. Lucky Jefferson is reading submissions on other themes too; please be sure to submit in the correct category.

Room Magazine: Humor
This Canadian magazine accepts submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, reviews (see guidelines), poetry, and art from people of all marginalized genders, including cis and trans women, trans men, nonbinary and Two-Spirit people (see guidelines). They’re reading submissions on the ‘Humor’ theme. They have detailed guidelines, including, “Genocides, heat waves, floods, fascism, an ongoing mass disabling event:the world is burning and it’s no laughing matter. But humour can be a weapon, a coping mechanism, a sacred instinct that keeps us alive and living amid the most devastating conditions. … Send us works that uplift to role of laughter in resistance, break comedic genres, explore the uses and limits of irony, upend white supremacist and ableist origins of standup—tongue-in-cheek, deadpan, alive-pan, cringe, unbelievable, absurd.” Send fiction and creative nonfiction of up to 2,500 words, or up to 5 poems. Pay is CAD50 per page, up to CAD200; reviewers and web contributors are paid CAD75. Submissions on the Humor theme are open until filled. Details here and here.  

Canto Cutie: Childhood, youth, and experiences in school C
anto Cutie publishes the work of Cantonese writers and artists and the Diaspora. They want writing and art for Volume 8, which “will be about childhood, youth, and experiences in school. We are looking for work about growing up and adolescence.” They also say, “submissions are conducted primarily in English. Cantonese language art and writing are accepted and encouraged. Anonymous submissions are permitted for politically sensitive works.” Submissions are open until filled. Details here and here.

Rough Cut Press: Dream
They want work from queer writers only. They want submissions in any genre of up to 650 words on the ‘Dream’ theme. Pay is $25, and the deadline is 27 May 2024.

khōréō: Point of View
They want speculative fiction (including flash) by immigrant and diaspora authors only, in the broadest sense of the term. Their general submission guidelines say, “our stories include fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and any genre in between or around it — as long as there’s a speculative element. We’re especially interested in writing and art that explores migration. Examples include themes of immigration, diaspora, and anti-colonialism, as well as more metaphorical interpretations of the term.” They’re reading submissions on the ‘Point of View’ theme: “Our theme for Issue 4.4 is “Point of View”. We are looking for unusual, unexpected, and uncanny takes on POV!” Some areas they are specially interested in are: unreliable narrators; first-person plural; second-person plural; experimental takes on third-person POV; non-human / more-than-human POVs with horror or ecological elements. They also accept translations. Length guidelines are up to 5,000 words for originals; up to 3,500 words for translations. Pay is $0.10/word. The deadline is 15 May 2024. Details here and here.

Heartlines Spec
This is a Canadian magazine of speculative fiction and poetry, focused on long-term relationships; they will publish at least 50% work from Canadian writers for each issue. “We’re looking for short fiction and poetry focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial. We don’t want the blaze of new love or the obsession of a new friend. We want pieces that show that comfort that develops when people know each other for years.
Give us deep space, dusty frontiers, or dreamy fantasy. We want stories and poetry with strong, confident relationships amid all the sci-fi/fantasy. While we are primarily looking for stories with happy endings (yeah, yeah), we also want endings that are earned. If things get a little teary or gory, that’s ok.
We are especially interested in stories featuring queer platonic relationships, ace/aro love stories, and polycules.” Their guidelines also say, “We are committed to addressing barriers and systemic discrimination faced by equity-deserving groups, which includes (but is not limited to): Racialized people, People with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, Indigenous people, Women, and Neurodivergent people. Length guidelines are 1,000-3,500 words for fiction; up to 5 poems. Pay is CAD0.08/word for fiction; CAD60/poem. The deadline is 31 May 2024. (They have listed all the reading periods for the year on their website, including early submission periods for equity-deserving groups.) Details here (guidelines) and here (submission portal)

Apparition Lit: Anachronism
This is a quarterly speculative fiction and poetry magazine. They will be reading submissions on the Anachronism theme during the second half of May. As part of their equity initiative, they have a one-week extra reading period for writers who self-identify as BIPOC in their cover letters; they will also accept simultaneous submissions from writers who identify as Disabled, BIPOC, or LGBTQIA+ (see guidelines). Their reading period is 15-31 May 2024 for general submissions; will extend by a week for BIPOC writers (see guidelines). They want stories of 1,000-5,000 words for fiction, and up to 5 poems. Pay is $0.05/word for stories, and $50/poem.
(Apparition Lit also has a themed flash fiction challenge, open on the first fortnight of every month – see guidelines.)

UBWALI Literary Magazine
UBWALI is Zambian literary journal that publishes fiction, essays, visual art and poetry. They are open to submissions from Zambian artists living every where in the world, during the months of January, March, May, July, September, and November.

Arcanum Magazine
Arcanum Magazine is a digital and print magazine for creative writing, visual art, cultural criticism, and journalism by and for the Black diaspora. They are a paying market that is open on a rolling basis to creative writing, cultural criticism, news, and journalism, as well as visual art.

Midnight & Indigo
They only accept work by Black women writers – speculative fiction, character-driven fiction, and essays. They pay $0.07/word for general and speculative fiction, and $100 for essays. They have rolling submissions for speculative fiction, and have deadlines for general fiction and essays. Details here and here.

Scarlet
A bi-monthly run by Jaded Ibis Press, Scarlet focuses on the presses larger mission to “uplift marginalized voices.” They are open to original works of poetry or prose of 1,500 words, or less. They pay $80.

Kopi Break
They publish one poem a week by poets affiliated with Singapore and the Singaporean diaspora, and pay SGD10 per poem.

Split Lip Magazine
Split Lip Magazine is a voice-driven literary journal with a pop culture twist. They publish online monthly and in print annually – memoir, flash fiction, short stories, poetry, and art, as well as interviews and reviews (for interviews and reviews, query first via webform – see guidelines). Length guidelines are up to 3,000 words for fiction; up to 2,000 words for memoir; and one poem. Pay is $75 for web contributions, $5/page for print, $50 for interviews/reviews, and $25 for mini-reviews for their web issues. Fee-free submissions for all writers are open during certain months, these can close earlier by category, if their Submittable cap is reached. Fee-free submissions for Black writers are open till end-June 2024. Details here and here.

Decolonial Passage
According to their website they “publish writing from writers of all backgrounds regardless of race, origin, or gender while simultaneously centering African, African American, and Black Diaspora writing.” Their mission statement goes into more details about this. They are open on a rolling basis to essays, creative nonfiction, short stories, and flash fiction. They are open to poetry only during the months of January, March, May, July, September or November.

Wishbone Words
An online creative writing magazine for chronically ill and disabled writers and artists, they publish a wide range of creative work. All contributors receive free copies. Their family and friends get a discount for that issue as well.

Bookish Brews
They describe themselves as a “book blog and a celebration of diverse books and authors (with a side of your favorite brew)”. They prioritize BIPOC writers but are open to submissions from other historically underrepresented groups also. They publish nonfiction, craft, and lifestyle essays as well as book reviews.

Mayday: Black
For Mayday: Black submissions, they want nonfiction pitches and drafts from Black writers – their website says, they are “committed to delivering a new experience for Black writers, including those seeking first-time publication. We welcome nonfiction work in opinions and analyses; personal, braided, and reported essays in contemporary and historical contexts. Bring your authentic, curious, courageous, well-rounded stories on life, living, love, loss, representation, race, racism, death, dying, Black plight and civil rights, neighborhood blight, gentrification, white flight, and more. (In no way is this an exhaustive list!)” They pay $50 for Mayday: Black essays of 800-3,000 words. Details here and here. (This magazine also occasionally accepts fiction, nonfiction, culture pieces, poetry, reviews, interviews, and translations from all writers, and pays $10-20 for these.)

Moko Magazine
A journal of Caribbean arts and literature, Moko publishes short stories, poems, interviews, essays, reviews of books, art, photography, and other types of visual media about the Caribbean and its diaspora. They are not interested in academic pieces.

Peril
An Asian-Australian journal focused on arts and culture, they pay $75-300 for pieces, but can only guarantee payments for Australian contributors (their submission guidelines have more details about this). The theme of their current issue is “You, where you’re at.” They are open to submissions in creative and new media interpretations of literature, including “those in video, audio and text format, graphic stories, sound or visual art, as long as it can be presented online and has a relationship to story. We accept prose, non-fiction, essays, creative non-fiction, opinion/blog posts, visual art, documentation of performance, videos, audio.” They ask for less than 1,000 words for text submissions and three poems for poetry submissions.

Zindabad Zine
This print and electronic publication is based in the UK. They are open to submissions on a rolling basis. Currently they are closed to submissions for the print issue but open to electronic ones. They only accept work from people “in a diaspora”.  They publish personal essays, articles, poetry, fiction, visual art and photography.

The T4T Project
A zine by and for trans writers and artists of color. They have rolling deadline and feature 20 creators per issue.

The Kalahari Review
A weekly African literary magazine interested in material exploring modern Africa and Africans in unique and avant-garde ways. They publish their work on Medium.

Transition
Born in Africa and bred in the diaspora, Transition  is a publication of the Hutchins Center at Harvard University, published three times annually. Transition publishes writing by and about Africa and the African diaspora, with an eye towards a global perspective. They accept submissions year-round on a rolling basis, and generally respond to submissions within four months. They are currently looking for submissions on the ‘Solidarities’ theme (see guidelines), as well as unthemed work.

Lavender Review
An international, biannual e-zine published in June and December, they are open to submissions of poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians (including whatever LGBTQ might appeal to a lesbian readership). Submissions are open year round.

Ricepaper
This publication offers Asian Canadian context to ongoing arts and cultural issues, new perspectives on emerging and established Asian Canadian artists, and challenges mainstream media perspectives, little-known facts of interest, or critical stories that haven’t been told elsewhere. They are open to submissions from Asian writers around the globe as long as the editors can see a link between the content and some aspect of the Asian Canadian experience.

Raising Mothers
Raising Mothers celebrates and centers the experiences of  Black, Indigenous, and Brown parents. Some sections have reading periods; columns are open year-round.

Prismatica Magazine
An LGBTQ fantasy and science fiction magazine that publishes short stories, poetry, reviews, interviews, and articles. They have very specific submission guidelines so please read those carefully.

Aurelia
Aurelia publishes the nonfiction work of marginalized genders: women, non-binary people and trans men. “Aurelia is a publication dedicated to personal thoughts, feelings and experiences. The things you think and the way you feel must be at the centre of your piece. All article submissions must be written in the first-person (“I think, I feel, I want…”)” Please send them pitches only, not unsolicited submissions. They pay £50. Details on how to pitch are here.

African Writer
They are open to all genres of literature from Africa and the African Diaspora. They do not allow simultaneous submissions.

Djed Press
This journal is based in Australia and they “prioritise submissions from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, on whose land we live and work and whose sovereignty has never been ceded.” They only accept submissions from “Australian and/or Australia-based Bla(c)k and other POC creators.” They really stress that work is likely to be edited and that you shouldn’t submit if you are not comfortable with that. Pay is AUD50-150 for text.

Afritondo
According to their website, “Afritondo is a media and publishing platform that aims to connect with and tell the stories of Africans and black minority populations across the globe.” They accept a wide range of work, including manuscript-length work.

Brittle Paper
Brittle Paper is an online literary magazine for readers of African Literature. They accept the following: “fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, book reviews, essays, literary commentaries, fun listicles, and any writing with a literary bent”.

Torch Literary Arts
Torch Literary Arts is a nonprofit organization. They publish and promote creative writing by Black women only; you can read more about them here. They publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers. “We are interested in work that challenges and disrupts preconceived notions of what Black women’s contemporary writing should be.” General submissions are accepted for Friday Features only, in which they publish fiction, hybrid works, poetry, and drama (including that accompanied by video or dramatic audio). Send up to 2,500 for fiction/hybrid works, up to 10 pages for drama, or up to 5 poems. Pay is $150. Submissions are accepted on an ongoing basis; you can submit here.

Tagg Magazine
Tagg is a US-based queer women’s publication. Their website has several themes they accept articles on, including personal essays, listicles, dating advice and fashion-related content. Articles are 350-1,000 words long and pay $75-175. They welcome pitches for article ideas. See the pitch guide for contributors here.

Bi Women Quarterly
BWQ features the voices of women “with bi+ sexualities (i.e., bi, pan, fluid, and other non-binary sexualities)” and they see “woman” as a broad category and welcome contributions those who identify as trans, non-binary, cis, etc. They publish articles, creative writing, musings, and more.

KOENING ZINE
They publish art, fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction submissions  primarily by Asians, but they are open to submissions from non-Asians. Their uniting theme is Asian Folklore. Submitters must be over 18.

POETRY SANGO-OTA
We only usually include journals currently open to submissions, but this list is always published on the third Thursday of a given month, and this journal is only open to submissions through the 1st to the 10th of each month, so we are listing it and encouraging you to set a calendar alert for when it reopens on the 1st of the next month. “We are interested in poems with a keen connection to a sense of place, nature, or otherworldly geographies.” They only publish African poets, and pay N2,500 per poem.

Afternoon Visitor
This is an online quarterly publication of poetry, hybrid text, visual poetry, and visual art, and they’re particularly interested in giving space to trans + queer writers in each issue.

Reappropriate
Reappropriate is an Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) race advocacy and feminism blog, focusing on race, gender, identity, Asian American history, and current events. Pay is $75-150 for work of 800-2,500 words.

The Gay & Lesbian Review
The Gay & Lesbian Review is a bimonthly magazine of history, culture, and politics targeting an educated readership of LGBT people, and their allies that publishes themed features (2,000-4,000 words), reviews, interviews, and departments. They have announced a few themed calls, and they also invite suggestions for future themes. — Sanctuary: The quest for safe spaces in LGBT history; — The State of LGBT Rights: What’s next for the movement?; and — LGBT Science: New research on gender & sexual orientation. Writers can send proposals or complete pieces. They pay for features ($250) and full-length book reviews ($100).

The Acentos Review
The Acentos Review publishes writing, art, music and multigenre work by Latinx writers. They are open to submissions all year long. Details here.

Craft
This respected literary journal is open to creative work from authors of all backgrounds, but they offer free submissions + fast response times to BIPOC and other mis- and underrepresented writers, here. Craft pays $100 for flash and $200 for short fiction and creative nonfiction.

Aloka
They want work by non-native English speakers only – poetry, translations, fiction, and hybrid work. Send up to 5 poems, or up to 2 prose pieces, up to 2,500 words each.

The Lighthouse / Black Girl Projects
The tagline of The Lighthouse is, “Cultivating spaces of solidarity and safety for southern Black girls to shine through focused programming and research.” They have an extensive guide for pitching articles, including “We … are always looking for thought-provoking stories and other content from marginalized communities, Black girls, (in particular, but not exclusively) and gender non-conforming people. In addition to story and long-form story pitches and op-eds, they accept photography and original artwork for their online blogging platform, The Black Girl Times, and their monthly newsletter, The Black Girl Times Redux. Also, “Each month, we have an editorial theme board (kind of like the mood boards interior designers use) we post on our social media accounts (@luvblkgrls). The theme board is intended to be an inspiration and provocation of thoughts, ideas and feelings. Your response(s) can be literal or abstract and loose. And again, it might not have anything to do with anything we’ve seen.” Pay is $0.25-$1/word. Pay for art (graphic design, cartoons and photo essays) is $150-1,000.

Singapore Unbound: SUSPECT
Their website says, “SUSPECT grew out of SP Blog, the blog of the NYC-based literary non-profit Singapore Unbound.” They want poetry, literary fiction, essays, and any kind of writings that do not fall into these categories, written or translated into English by authors who identify as Asian. They also publish reviews of books by Asian authors and interviews with Asian writers and artists. Pay is $100, and there is no deadline listed.

Breath & Shadow
Breath & Shadow only publishes work from people with disabilities. This is how they define disability: “We use the term “disability” broadly to encompass anyone with a physical, mental, emotional, cognitive, or sensory impairment that significantly affects one or more major life functions.” They accept writing on any topic in terms of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and drama. Pieces do not have to be about disability. The academic or article type nonfiction, including profiles, interviews, and opinion pieces, do have to relate to disability in some way. They pay $20 for poetry and $30 for prose.

Screen Door Review
They only publish work by individuals who are Southern and queer. You can learn more about how they define Southern here. They publish flash fiction and poetry.

Emergent Literary
An exciting new literary journal that accepts a wide range of submissions from Black and Brown authors.

LatinX Lit Audio Mag
LatinX Lit Mag is a safe space for literary work written by authors who identify as Latinx or Hispanic.

Presses/Anthologies

Ache: Fit Notes – feminist writing on illness and work Their website says, “Ache is an intersectional feminist press publishing writing and art on illness, health, bodies, and pain. Since 2017 we have published a literary magazine, books, and art prints by women, transgender and nonbinary people that explore the complexities of living with illness and pain.” They’re reading submissions for a fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry anthology, ‘Fit Notes: feminist writing on illness and work’, and they want submissions from women, transgender and non-binary writers only. They have detailed guidelines, including, “We are looking for work that explores the themes of illness and work in varied and interesting ways. We are particularly interested in reading work from writers who identify as working class.” Send prose of up to 2,500 words, or up to 3 poems. Payment is £60, and the deadline is 15 May 2024.

Atomic Carnival Books: Eat the Rich Anthology This is a speculative fiction anthology; they want stories about billionaires (see guidelines) being eaten. They want stories from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, chronically-ill/disabled, and writers from other historically marginalized groups only. “Give us carnivores, cannibals, kaiju, cryptids, and, of course, capitalist comeuppance. So long as some kind of obnoxiously wealthy fuck gets eaten — somewhere, somewhen, somehow — the sky’s the limit.” Pay is $0.05/word for stories of 100-8,000 words. The deadline is 15 May 2024.

Bannister Press: Other – the 2024 fantasy short story anthology Bannister Press specializes in supernatural and fantasy stories loved by adults and young adults. For this fiction anthology, they only want submissions from writers who identify as women. “We are seeking international short story submissions by writers who identify as women for an anthology with a focus on what it means to be on the outside looking in, or comfortably or uncomfortably out of step with the world(s) at large, and with a fantasy element (either subtle or writ large). The story can be visually focused, or character/narrative focused, as long as it leaves the reader thinking about the story long after closing the book. We don’t want a lesson, we want an experience that makes us come alive. Humour is fine as long as it’s not about the mic drop.” Send stories of up to 3,500 words. Pay is $0.08/word. The deadline is 1 June 2024.

Fourteen Poems
A small press that is sometimes open to solo chapbooks and also publishes a thrice yearly of LGBTQ+ poets. They have a rolling submissions window but the deadline for the next issue is May 15th 2024. You’ll hear back from them by mid-July. They pay £25 for each poem published.

Phoenix
Phoenix is a new speculative imprint launched by Nigerian publisher Ouida Books in collaboration with Nnedi Okorafor and Lọlá Shónẹ́yìn. Phoenix is dedicated to publishing African speculative fiction and fantasy (Africanfuturism and Africanjujuism). You can learn more about it here.

The Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series
This opportunity, from Black Lawrence Press, is for immigrants living in the US – for manuscripts of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid writing. “Poets and authors, at any stage of their careers, who identify as immigrants are welcome to submit a book manuscript of poetry or prose or a hybrid text for consideration. Submissions are accepted year-round. However, selections are made in June and November for a total of two books per year. In addition to publication, marketing, and a standard royalties contract from Black Lawrence Press, authors chosen for the Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series will receive a travel stipend of $500, which can be used for book tours or in any manner chosen by the authors.”

North Dakota State University Press: Contemporary Voices of Indigenous Peoples Series
The goal of this series to feature the authentic stories, poetry, and scholarly works of Native Americans, First Nations, Maori, Aborigines, Indians, and more to give voice to contemporary Indigenous peoples. NDSU Press considers book-length manuscripts of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for publication in this series.

Random House Canada
The Canadian arm of Random House changed their submission policy have opened their policy exclusively to LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC writers, as well as those from other traditionally underrepresented communities. They are particularly looking for “High quality commercial fiction in the following genres: literary, romance, speculative fiction, historical fiction, and mystery. Please note that we do not currently accept screenplays, stage plays, young adult fiction, children’s fiction, or picture book queries. All non-fiction submissions must be submitted via a literary agent.” They are open to submissions internationally, this is not limited to Canadians.

Somos en escrito Literary Foundation Press
They publish a literary magazine as well as books, they are “dedicated to publishing raza authors to express the narratives and needs of our communities, which typically get overlooked by the mainstream presses. We intend to be the institution nobody else will build for us.”

Tundra Books, Puffin Canada, Penguin Teen Canada
These children and teen focused Canadian imprints are open to direct submissions by underrepresented authors and illustrators only. Authors need not be Canadian.

Arsenal Pulp Press
A Canadian independent press that publishes a wide variety of work,  prioritizes work by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC authors. We have reviewed them here.

Blind Eye Books
Blind Eye Books publishes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists. They are a print publisher and their book covers are beautifully designed and really stand out. The books they have published have won and been nominated for a number of awards, including the Lambda. We have reviewed them here.

Lily
A small poetry press that publishes work of varying length. Submitting shorter work is free for everyone, but submitting poetry manuscripts is free only for poets who identify as Black. They are always open to these submissions.

Sourcebooks
We’ve reviewed Sourcebooks here, and their adult nonfiction imprint and their romance and horror imprints are always open to all submissions, but they also deserve to be on this list because their fiction imprint, their mystery imprint, their young adult imprint, and three of their children’s book imprints, all say “Our submissions are currently CLOSED to unagented projects, with the exception of works that directly promote diversity, equality and inclusion. For more information please email InclusiveFiction@Sourcebooks.com.” So if you have work that matches that description in those genres, please reach out to them.

Forever
The romance imprint of Hachette Book Group and Grand Central Publishing is open to direct submissions from BIPOC-identifying authors.

Angry Robot
A great science fiction publisher that only accepts direct submissions from Black authors.

Scholastic Canada
They are open to direct submissions from Canadian authors or focusing on Canadian content, who are from underrepresented communities, including Black writers, Indigenous writers, writers of colour, writers with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ writers and writers who identify with other marginalized groups.

Heartdrum
Heartdrum is an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, which is edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, and is in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Native and First Nations writers and writer-illustrators are welcome to query her directly via a form on her website. Native and First Nations illustrators are also invited to reach out.

Opportunities/Support/Contests

Creative Future Writers’ Award
This is an award for underrepresented writers in the UK, for fiction, creative nonfiction (prose up to 2,000 words) and poetry (up to 50 lines). Writers can submit one piece of writing. Apart from cash prizes, winners also get various non-cash prizes, like mentorship. The theme for this year is ‘Reveal’; they also say, “The theme is a creative prompt, not a requirement.” The prizes are £75, £50, £25 (more about the prizes here). The deadline is 19 May 2024 (and postal submissions must be received by 20^th May).

The Irene Adler Prize
The competition is open to women worldwide, commencing or continuing to pursue a bachelor’s, master’s, or Ph.D degree in journalism, creative writing, or literature at a recognized post-secondary institution in 2024-25. Applications include a 500-word essay on one of these five topics on the website:
— Which story in the news in 2023 impacted you the most and why?

— Write about a place – either human-made or natural – and show why it means a lot to you.

— What do you think our world will look like in 2074?

— Tennis star Billie Jean King said: “Champions keep on playing until they get it right.” Tell a story that exemplifies this statement.

— What motivates you?
The prize is intended to be applied to educational expenses such as tuition fees – please see the rules. The award is $1,000; and there are two prizes of $250 each. The deadline is 30 May 2024. Details here (download 2024 submission guidelines and rules).

Speculative Literature Foundation Grants: Older Writers Grant
They have some upcoming reading periods for grants. The one open now is their Older Writers Grant, for a writer who is 50 years of age or older at the time of grant application, and is intended to assist such writers who are just starting to work at a professional level. The writing application sample could be of fiction, poetry, drama, or creative nonfiction, of speculative literature. A writing sample (up to 10 pages of poetry, 10 pages of drama, or 5,000 words of fiction or creative nonfiction — if sending a segment of a novel, novella, or novelette, include a one-page synopsis as well) is part of the application. The grant is $1,000, and the deadline to apply is 31 May 2024.

(They also have other grants application periods coming up later – Diverse Writers and Diverse Worlds Grants during July; Working Class Writers Grant during September; Gulliver Travel Research Grant during November; A.C. Bose Grant for South Asian and Diaspora writers in January 2025. Links to all Speculative Literature Foundation grants can be found here.)

Fitzcarraldo Editions: 2024 Novel Prize
This is a biennial international prize for a literary fiction manuscript of at least 30,000 words. The competition is open to unpublished and published writers around the world. Writers based in Africa and Europe should submit to Fitzcarraldo Editions. Writers based in the Americas should submit via New Directions. Writers based in Asia and Australasia should submit to Giramondo. The award is $10,000 advance and the deadline is 1 June 2024.

The Africa Institute: Global Africa Translation Fellowship
The fellowship welcomes applications from across the Global South for a grant to complete translations of works from the African continent and its diaspora, into English or Arabic. This is a non-residential fellowship. Projects may be retranslations of old, classic texts, previously untranslated works, poetry, prose, or critical theory collections. The project may be a work-in-progress, or a new project feasible for completion within the timeframe of the grant. Application includes a translation sample. The award is $1,000-5,000, and the deadline is 1 June 2024.

The Hudson Valley Writers Center
This established center has four is proud to offer four scholarship opportunities: the Altman Writers of Color Scholarship, the Need-Based Scholarship, the Karen Finley Need-Based Scholarship for Women and Non-Binary Writers, and the Limp Wrist LGBTQIA+ Scholarship. You may apply to more than one of the scholarships if you meet the eligibility criteria and if you are over 18 and living in the USA. For this session the deadline is May 15th.

The Academy of American Poets: Literary Seminars
These new seminars from the Academy are taught by respected experts. Scholarships are available with varying deadlines, the first being May 15th, but most are further out. Click on the individual course offerings to learn more.

Pulitzer Center: Connected Coastlines Grants
This is an opportunity for US-based journalists. The Pulitzer Center is seeking applications from journalists who want to report stories as part of Connected Coastlines, a nationwide climate reporting initiative in U.S. coastal states. This initiative is building a consortium of newsrooms and independent journalists across the U.S. to report on the local effects of erratic weather patterns on coastal populations using the latest climate science. “This opportunity is open to all U.S.-based journalists with a plan to publish or broadcast their climate stories with a newsroom based in a U.S. coastal state or region. We strongly encourage proposals from journalists and newsrooms who represent a broad array of social, racial, ethnic, underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds.” And, “We are eager to receive proposals from staff journalists and freelancers who wish to report on coastal stories, underpinned by recent climate science, data, or research, for publication or broadcast by small and regional news outlets in U.S. coastal states.” They prioritize proposals that can be completed, including publication, in 1-4 months. The ideal range for most awards will be $2,000 to $8,000. Grants are open now and approved on a rolling basis.

Society of Authors: Dursilla Harvey Access Fund
These are small grants for UK-based/British writers, giving authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats. “Usual grants will be £150 or less, but fair consideration will be given to all proposals.” Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. (Society of Authors also has awards for works in progress as well as contingency funds – all their grants are here.)

The Writing Barn Scholarship
The Writing Barn has a small but budding scholarship program available for our programming. Scholarships are awarded on the following criteria: seriousness of purpose, talent and financial need. They also offer specific Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity scholarships for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Neurodiverse writers, and writers with disabilities.

Forward Funds: Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Creator Fund
The crowdsourcing platform for creatives, Kickstarter, now has Forward Funds. Their website says, “Forward Funders are foundations, nonprofits, and organizations that back Kickstarter campaigns related to their visions and missions around a more creative and equitable world. Each Forward Funder makes a public commitment and then backs projects just like anyone else—through single pledges that bring the works one step closer to reality.” One such fund is the $500,000 Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund. This backs projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators in the US on the crowdfunding platform – “Effective immediately, funds will be awarded on an ongoing basis to creators with active projects across all of Kickstarter’s categories: Arts, Comics & Illustration, Design & Tech, Film, Food & Craft, Games, Music, and Publishing.” Projects launched on Kickstarter following their rules are eligible, and creators can nominate themselves for specific Forward Funds via a form. This is for both, creators and organizations.

BIPOC scholarship for Emily Harstone’s classes at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish
Each time Emily Harstone offers a solo class through the Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish, there is now an opportunity for one to two writers who identify as BIPOC to take it for free. If you registered last year, please note that the form re-set in January, and you are encouraged to fill it out again.

Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.

My main struggle with writing fiction has always been coming up with a plot. I believe in writing the kind of stories one likes to read, but it’s not always easy to actually put that into practice. For example, I love reading about fantasy shops, scholars, palaces, and small villages. Yet it wasn’t clear to me how I could take these unspecific locations and characters and create complete stories out of them.

I’d read hundreds of articles on plotting over the years, but the only time I actually understood the mechanics of a story that has a beginning, middle, and end was when I watched (and followed along) a guest lecture by the SFF author Mary Robinette Kowal.

In the lecture, Kowal explains how most stories contain one or more MICE threads—Milieu, Inquiry, Character, Event. To help students understand how to write with these threads, she works with them on a 250-word story, going a few sentences at a time. Before they begin, Kowal gives them three items to work with:

• Genre: Science Fiction
• Character: Jockey (radio jockey, disc jockey, or any other interpretation)
• Thing: Coaster (tea coaster, roller coaster, or any other interpretation)

The MICE threads, the 250-word limit, and the three elements above provided everyone very specific constraints to work with. It’s well-known that constraints enhance creativity—after all, wouldn’t you find it easier to write a story with the above limitations, than to write “a science fiction story”? The more the constraints, the more we’re able to create something unique.

As I followed along the exercise, the entire process of plotting was finally demystified for me. But it didn’t lead to me writing hundreds of stories. I needed someone to give me a character and an item to get started. (I knew I wanted to write flash fantasy stories, which took care of the word count and the genre).

There are random word generators online, but these didn’t work for me, because they often gave me things or characters I wasn’t familiar with or interested in. I wanted to write the kind of stories I’d enjoyed reading. So, this is what I did instead:

Brainstormed lists

I first took a look at my favorite stories and books, and then brainstormed four lists:

1. Nouns: For example–bell, fire, notebook, jar, smoke, paintings of gods, peacocks, gold, etc.
2. Professions: For example–healer, herald, cook, scholar, scribe, student, goddess (yes I know), priest, etc.
3. Settings: For example–palace courtyard, market stall, tower roof, river bank, library, cave, river bank, big tree, fair, etc.
4. Things that end: Stories are about changes, about something ending or beginning. This list included items like life, month, pregnancy, storm, protest, supply, patience, strength, rope, show, punishment, obsession, etc.

I loved reading fantasy stories about scholars, so my lists were heavy on terms I associated with those stories. The items would have looked very different if I were interested in stories about robots in post-apocalyptic settings, for example.

Brainstorming can sometimes feel difficult, so I recommend setting a timer for 5 or 10 minutes to come up with these lists.

Picked one random item from each list

I made these lists in a Google Sheet, then used a random number generator to pick an item from each, giving me combinations such as:

1. Door, carriage driver, cottage, job
2. Pearl, student, university doors, punishment
3. Orange, goddess, market, draught

I have to admit that I sometimes wasted time generating random numbers over and over again because I wasn’t happy with the item I’d landed on. If I had to do it all over again, I’d put each item on a chit of paper, and make four boxes of such chits, so that I could pull one chit out of each and just start writing.

Wrote with a time-limit

I now had a noun, a setting, a profession (i.e. a character), something that would begin or end, a genre (fantasy), and a word-limit (1,000 words). Getting started can often be difficult because even with these, you might try to first come up with a premise that combines the elements above and only then start writing. This can quickly become discouraging—what if you could come up with a better idea if you gave it 5 more minutes? Or you might think that this whole exercise is pointless.

I knew I was prone to such rapid rejection of ideas without giving them a try, so I worked with a time-limit, just like Kowal and the students did during the lecture. This helped immensely, because when there’s a clock counting down, you can’t do anything but start—and then get to the ending as soon as possible, preventing you from going on tangents or writing unnecessary descriptions.

In the beginning, I followed along with the lecture, writing a few sentences at a time. Eventually, I ended up memorising the bits about plot that Kowal explains during the breaks, so I switched to writing on my own with a 15-minute timer. You can also go with 30 minutes if you’re not a fast typer or are writing by hand. I wouldn’t give myself more time than that, because it’s long enough to make me start second-guessing my ideas or give up altogether.

Finished more, submitted more

This method resulted in two big benefits: Firstly, the more I wrote, the better I understood how plot worked. I wrote one flash story every day and most of them had a beginning, middle, and end. (Of course, I still had the occasional bad writing day, hence “most.”)

This was a new development for me, because I was prone to quitting drafts when I couldn’t figure out where the story went next. Earlier, I only completed stories on the rare day when the Muse generously blessed me with a perfectly-plotted tale that I only had to put into words—an unreliable strategy if you want to write and get published frequently.

Secondly, because I finished more stories, I was able to submit more. I no longer had incomplete stories languishing in my folder, waiting for the day when I’d finally have enough time to finish them.

More importantly, even when a story wasn’t good enough to be published by a magazine (because they had different tastes or because I often wrote stories that only I enjoyed), I ended up writing some of my best stories, often surprising myself with the quality.

I used to be a devoted pantser and believed in the power of inspiration and serendipity to carry me through a story. I couldn’t bring myself to plot a tale beforehand because if I knew what was going to happen, why bother writing?

The method I described above changed this, by letting me have the best of both approaches: working with specific elements and letting those limitations take me to unexpected, surprising places.

In short: I wrote, I finished, I had great fun.

Bio: Ratika Deshpande (she/her) is currently writing an online book on the art and craft of writing, one blog post at a time.