Blue River Press is a publisher based in Indianapolis. They released their first book in 2004 and have now published over 200 titles, mostly nonfiction, and now appear to be open to fiction submissions. They have distribution through the Cardinal Publishers Group, and their books are available in bookstores, libraries, as well as gift shops. I’ve encountered a number of their books over the years, particularly books in their All About series, which is a series of books for kids about famous individuals.

Their book covers range from good to dated. Their website is clear and easy to use although their new releases section is a little out of date, other pages like their blog makes it pretty clear that they are still actively publishing.

To get a good feel for what they’ve published in the past, go here.

They accept submissions via proposals. Your manuscript need not be complete. To learn more about their proposal process, go here and click on the link to the PDF guidelines. According to their PDF they are also open to fiction  proposals. Although based on their guidelines and their website it’s hard to get a feel for what kind of fiction they are looking for. Do not submit unless you feel like your book would be a good fit.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2022 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

Small Wonders is looking for writing that invites the reader into the wonder of other worlds. To get a sense of what they publish, you can read their first issue online, published in February this year. The publication features writing from nine contributors.

The magazine is edited by two authors, Cislyn Smith and Stephan Granade. Cislyn is a Rhysling-nominated poet, and she’s been published in top SF&F magazines like Strange Horizons. Stephen is an award-winning game designer and published author.

Small Wonders accepts reprints of flash fiction, but not of poetry.

Authors of flash fiction may submit one speculative story—fantasy, science fiction, or horror–1,000 words or fewer. Small Wonders also accepts reprints of 1,100 words or fewer. They like stories with “big feelings,” and they don’t mind stories that aren’t plot-focused. They prefer writing that doesn’t rely on twists or gimmicks like the “gotcha” ending.

Poets may submit up to three narrative poems (poems that tell a story). They accept poems of any length, even longer poems over 50 lines. They prefer poems that don’t rely on rhyme, though they do accept poems in traditional forms. They like “playful language and big feelings”.

Small Wonders pays authors: $0.10 per word for original flash fiction, and $0.01 per word or $10–whichever is more–for reprints. They pay $60 per poem.

Small Wonders accepts submissions online, not via email or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions. Authors whose work is not accepted should wait seven days before submitting again.

Small Wonders only accepts submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online. Please read these guidelines in full before submitting. Small Wonders does not accept writing generated by AI.

If you would like to learn more or submit to Small Wonders Magazine, 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.

I’ve always loved to write stories. Prior to 2020, I had written a few short stories and personal essays – and when I was in high school, had even written a long, meandering tale I liked to think of as a ‘novella’ – but it wasn’t until January 2020 that I really began to take my writing seriously. This was when I took my first novel writing course, and when I began writing every day.

In some ways, it was an unlikely time for this to happen. 2020 was the start of a global pandemic. Our children were very young – 2 and 4 – and attending an exceedingly enthusiastic and responsible nursery, who felt they needed to provide them with an unending stream of online lessons and activities. Learning materials had to be picked up every two weeks so that our children would be able to continue doing science experiments, art projects, and of course, the usual Chinese, English, and mathematics worksheets.

I was also teaching full-time, so during the day when I wasn’t with the kids, I was in our bedroom teaching Zoom lessons. There was no real work/home division anymore, at least not during the day. It was busy – but strangely, with no daily commute, no going out on the weekends and in the evenings, and no social obligations of any kind – both my husband and I eventually realized that there was some time to spare in the evenings. He watched movies. I did at first, too. But eventually, I started writing in earnest.

I began writing for an hour every night. I poured myself into the story; through my characters, I explored love, cultural differences, familial obligations, motherhood, and this city I call home, Hong Kong. My usual time was 11PM to midnight, and this worked for me because I no longer had to wake up early to catch a bus to work; I could go directly from the breakfast table to my first Zoom lesson in our bedroom. I remember going into the office one day, finally, when we were allowed to again, and proudly announcing to my coworker, I’ve got 20,000 words! It was more than I had ever written.

That year, I kept sending chapters to a trusted writing mentor and she kept giving me encouragement and feedback. She helped me tremendously on my writing journey. I learned two important things about my writing self that year: 1) regular feedback is essential to my writing process and 2) I need small, achievable goals (5,000 words at a time is much more manageable than 70,000 all at once!).

I was so excited about having finished such a big project that I began querying agents and publishers almost immediately. Waiting to hear back was hard, especially as I received more and more rejections, but I kept taking writing courses on different topics, from romance writing to crime and thriller writing. I started a new novel and wrote short stories and flash fiction to keep my writing sharp. In hindsight, I recognise that my manuscript wasn’t quite ready for querying — I got just one full request from an American publisher, which became a rejection.

Disheartened but not ready to give up, I worked with a developmental editor who helped me improve the story and expand it from 60,000 words — too short for a novel, and perhaps one of the reasons why I got so few requests in my first round of queries — to just under 70,000 words.

During this process I kept learning more about the publishing industry. I learned that while an agent is very helpful — and absolutely vital if the goal is to be published by a big publisher — even with an agent, the process of being on submission can take a very long time for some authors, sometimes several years, and that some manuscripts never get sold at all. This seemed unthinkable to me — to finally find an agent, only to never see the book in print.

Happily, I also learned that there are many small and mid-sized presses willing to consider unagented submissions. It’s true that small presses might not be able to provide authors with a large advance (or any at all), and might not have a lot of money to promote the book — but at the same time, they might be more willing to take a chance on an unpublished writer, or a story with a more niche focus, and might be more open to the author’s views on aspects of the book like the cover, or which blurb goes on the back of the book. A local publisher might also be able to get my book into bookstores right here in my city, which was a big author dream of mine. With this in mind, during this second round of querying, apart from agents based in the UK and the US, I intentionally approached more small publishers, some of which are based in my part of the world — Hong Kong, China, Asia.

This time, my manuscript caught the eye of a publisher, Earnshaw Books, which specializes in books with a connection to China. Now, just eight months later, I have published my first novel, All I Ever Wanted. It has been a rather unusual and unlikely path to publication, but I am thankful I made it in the end.

Bio: Jane Lo is a Chinese-Canadian writer and teacher who has lived and worked in Vancouver and Hong Kong. She now lives in Hong Kong with her husband, two children, and a leopard gecko. Her debut novel,  All I Ever Wanted, was published with Earnshaw Books in April 2023.

This list of publishers meet our guiding principles, but are only open to free submissions from historically underrepresented writers or focus on publishing content produced by historically underrepresented writers. Some of these publications are open to a wide range of writers including writers of color, gender non-conforming and LGBTQ+ writers, and those living with disabilities. Some have limited definitions and are only interested in work by Black authors. We try to make it as clear as possible who the publisher is seeking work from. Sometimes the focus of the press is limited, even though there are no limitations on who can submit. A few of the opportunities are also limited by geography, again, we try to make this clear.

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 from the previous month. 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.

Usually we recommend a resource for and by historically underrepresented authors here — but instead this time, we are hoping to bring more attention to this blog post from Maggie Tokuda-Hall about a situation with Scholastic that happened recently. Scholastic is on this list, in terms of the Canadian division, and while I believe the divisions are very separate, I would take her experience into consideration if submitting to Scholastic. Please buy her book if you can.

Journals/Magazines

Shenandoah
They are reading creative nonfiction submissions by marginalized writers only. Their guest editor says, “For this open call, I am looking for Creative Nonfiction Flash/micros, from writers who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and/or from other marginalized identities. As a queer, latinx writer, I want to give a platform to other marginalized voices and our lives, which are often foregrounded—as our currency often lives in our imagination, in the fictive realities we create for others. …. While I don’t have any preferences for a particular topic or concept, I do gravitate to stories that, as Maggie Nelson writes in The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial, “bring us spectacular pain.” One that either lingers silently or makes you feel like you’ve reached into a flame. I love work that is risky, innovative, and, perhaps above all else, full of heart.” Send pieces of up to 1,000 words. Shenandoah pays $100 per 1,000 words of prose, up to $500. The deadline is 31^st May 2023, or until filled, for flash CNF submissions. Please note, Shenandoah has a monthly submission cap during their reading periods. Details here and here.
(They’re also open for comics submissions, from all writers.)

Lightspeed
Lightspeed publishes science fiction and fantasy. They are open to submissions from BIPOC writers only, during 23^rd to 30^th April 2023, for fantasy short fiction/novelettes, and submissions from all writers are open from 1^st to 7^th May, for this genre. They also accept translations. They will open later in the year for science fiction, as well as fantasy, flash fiction (see guidelines). Length guidelines are  1,500-10,000 words for short fiction/novelettes (up to 5,000 words preferred). They pay $0.08/word.

khōréō
They only publish works by immigrant and diaspora authors. They are open for speculative flash fiction in April, for stories up to 1,500 words. Pay is $0.10/word. The deadline is 30 April 2023. Details here and here.

Agbowó
They publish work by African origin writers only. They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays, interviews/reviews, and art/photography. They are reading submissions on the Transition theme for the next issue, and have detailed guidelines; you can read more about that here. Pay is $25-50 for poetry, $50 for one-act plays, $60 for fiction and nonfiction, and $35 for art. Please see their note about compensation/payment methods. Please send only one submission per reading period. The deadline is 30 April 2023.

Foglifter Journal
Their website says, “Foglifter’s literary journal is a biannual compendium of the most dynamic, urgent LGBTQ+ writing today. It’s a space where queer and trans writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace.” They are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. They have a Writers In Need fund, which supports sliding scale payments for their contributors. The deadline is 1 May 2023.

Luna Station Quarterly
Luna Station Quarterly publishes speculative fiction (500-7,000 words) written by women-identified authors. See guidelines for the kind of submissions they want (including Fantasy, Science Fiction, Space Opera, New Fairy Tales — not retellings), and what they do not want. Pay is $5. They have ongoing submissions, with quarterly cut-off dates for issues (scroll down to Deadlines); the deadline is 15 May 2023 for the September issue.

Verum Literary Press
They publish fiction, poetry, and art. The magazine is run by a high school student and prioritizes marginalized voices; you can read more about them here. They are reading submissions from Black writers only, for their next issue. There is no theme. Works do not have to center around Blackness. The deadline is 30 April 2023. Details here and here.

The Other Side of Hope: Journeys in Refugee and Immigrant Literature
They publish poetry (up to 4 poems), fiction, and art from refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants only; these are unthemed. Nonfiction and book reviews are open to all, and the theme for those is migration. Pay is £100 for print, £50 for online contributions, and £300 for art; asylum seekers get gift cards. The deadline is 31 May 2023.

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.

Apple A Day
A zine published by Bitter Pill Press, Apple A Day is “is a food zine, for people who have a complicated relationship with it. Apple a Day is about how one’s food experiences are affected by life with disability, neurodivergence, eating disorders, chronic illness, mental illness, etc.” They are currently reading for their second issue.

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”.

The Awakenings Review
The Awakenings Review is a project of The Awakenings Project. Established in cooperation with the University of Chicago Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation in 2000, this print journal accepts poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from writers that have a personal connection to mental illness.

Wordgathering
Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature is a digital, Open Access, biannual journal, published in summer and winter of each year. Their deadline for submissions to their summer issue is 1st May 2023.

Magnets and Ladders
A journal that publishes the work of authors with disabilities, their next deadline is 31st August 2023.

African American Review
John Hopkins University Press publishes this “aggregation of insightful essays on African American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews,” on a quarterly basis. They close to submissions on 1st May 2023.

Nightlight
This is a horror fiction podcast featuring Black writers all over the world (at least one of your birth parents must be Black). They also accept reprints (see guidelines). Their reading periods this year are: April, June, August, and October for short fiction (3,000-6,000 words pays $200). Please send your work in the appropriate genres only during the specific reading periods.

Kweli Journal
They seek “to publish work of writers and artists of color that is relevant, engaging, and uncompromising”. Submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are fee-free. Payment is after publication. The deadline is 30th May 2023. Details here and here.

Porridge
They publish a variety of genres, and are open for online and print issues occasionally. They also have a Comfort Food section – “The COMFORT FOODS series publishes creative responses to the relationship between food and culture, identity and cuisine, from people in diaspora or those from various marginalised identities. From eating away exile to 2,000 word philosophical treatises on biryani, we’re here for it. … We’ll accept creative non-fiction, food writing, poetry, and artwork on this theme.” The deadline for online magazine submissions is 30 April 2023.

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 $100. 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 Woman 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.

Moody
A bi monthly zine that pays their contributors $40 for creative work, and priortizes BIPOC and LGBTQ+ creatives. They are currently not accepting writing-only submissions. Their submission guidelines, and form, are here.

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.

Tangled Laces
A magazine focused on publishing writing by queer teen authors between the ages of 14-18.

Fantasy Magazine
This is a digital magazine of fantasy and dark fantasy; send flash or short fiction (up to 7,500 words), or poetry. Pay is $0.08/word for fiction and $40/poem. They are open for submissions by BIPOC authors only for the whole of 2023, with occasional submission windows for all writers. The dates are subject to change.

Arc Poetry Magazine: Crip Lives — Restoring Subjectivity
Arc Poetry Magazine is accepting fee-free submissions for their Disability Desirability / Crip Lives: Restoring Subjectivity issue, from “artists who live with disability/chronic illness/mental illness and other forms of existence that are impacted by ableism to send us poems, prose, essays, and reviews exploring what it means to be in the world, or your topic of choice”. They pay. The deadline for their Crip Lives issue is 15 May 2023. They list other opportunities too. Details here (general guidelines) and here (Submittable, with theme guidelines).

POETRY SANGO-OTO
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.

Dream Pop Journal
They welcome submissions from marginalized voices, and are especially interested in publishing work from emerging writers working in experimental, non-narrative forms. “Please send us your strange utterings, hybrid works, collaborative pieces, visual poetry, collages, and linguistic inventions. We hope that you will challenge the limits of what literature can be and that you will share your results with us.” They publish poetry, a speculative diary, visual art, as well as visual poetry & erasure. They are open year-round.

Class Collective
Their website says, this is “An annual literary magazine that illuminates the class struggle(s) hidden in the shadows of our culture.” They accept submissions from all writers. They publish poetry, including visual poetry (up to 5 poems), fiction (up to 5,000 words), essays (pitches and submissions), and commentary — writing that has a class-based perspective on politics and culture. Pay is CAD10 for poetry and CAD20 for prose. Submissions are open on a rolling basis.

Reappropriate: Filipinx American identity
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: Three themes
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 three themed calls, and they also invite suggestions for future themes.

— The Age of Innocence: Gay life in the time of Wilde
–– The Great Transformation: From bar culture to hookup world
— LGBT Science: New research on gender & sexual orientation
Writers can send proposals or complete pieces. They pay for features ($200) 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.

ALOCASIA
A journal of queer plant-based writing, open on a rolling basis.

Wishbone Words
A new literary journal that publishes work, including poetry, creative nonfiction, personal essays, and illustrations, by chronically ill and disabled writers and artists. Regarding submission window and publication dates, “In 2023, we are launching on a quarterly schedule (every three months). This means issues will be published in
January, April, July, and October. Submission windows run for two months before the publication launches but are subject to closing early if the issue fills.”

the archipelago
They publish creative work that rewrites the map. Rewriting the map may involve oceans; islands; travel; movement; the decolonial/transcolonial; multilingualism; geography; cartography; displacement; relationships between unlikely places. They primarily publish short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction essays, fine art, photography, film. They publish work in  فارسی ,  اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , Somali, မြန်မာဘာသာ, bahasa Indonesia, español, français and English. While they prioritize writers of color they are open to submissions from all. They pay for accepted work and also have an ongoing mentorship program which you can learn about at the bottom of this page. To submit, visit the link and email pitches@thearchipelago.org.

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.

(The submission page also has details of a themed poetry contest for all writers, the deadline for which is 15th May; the prizes are $300, $200, and $100.)

Hyphen Magazine
Their tagline is “Asian America Unabridged”, and their primary audience is Asian Americans in their 20s and mid 30s. They publish a wide range of work including but not limited to creative nonfiction, original fiction, original poetry, as well as articles pertaining to news, politics, and social justice. They pay $25 per published piece. They are only open to submissions by Asian Americans. They have detailed submission guidelines, please read them carefully.

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.

smoke and mold: Across/With/Through–Trans Writers in Translation
Smoke and mold is a magazine of trans and Two-Spirit nature writing. You can read more about them here and see their Twitter feed here. “The journal will publish 24 issues: 2 each year for 12 years — the amount of time allotted us by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” For the current submission call, Across/With/Through – Trans Writers in Translation, they say, “The root of this issue is simple: a desire to see more work from trans writers working in a language other than English. How are writers around the globe bending their tools of story and language to push at the strictures and structures of categories, from genre to gender? What is left out of “trans literature” when the only authors included are those working primarily in English? And who are Western audiences missing out on because they aren’t considered “trans enough” in a framework of colonial gender norms reinforced by centuries of war, white supremacy, and eugenics? … We look forward to introducing readers to voices they didn’t know they were missing in our spirit of small, focused issues devoted to uplifting trans writers working today at the intersection of place, geography, land and language.” Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis from authors, translators, and teams working together, with publication in spring 2023. Pay is $100.

Presses/Anthologies

Reformatting the Pain Scale: A print anthology
They are seeking poetry, prose, visual art and other work from people with chronic illness and/or chronic pain. They deadline to submit is May 1st. The anthology will be edited by Alyssa Goldberg. There was no information released in terms of payment.

Through the Portal: Stories from a Hopeful Dystopia, and other calls
They welcome international submission, but 90% of the work for the ‘Through the Portal’ anthology will be from people who live in/have ties to Canada. They have extensive guidelines, including, “Send us your eco-fiction stories or prose poems––literary, magical, speculative, solarpunk, supernatural, slipstream, reimagined folk/fairy tales. We want eco-fiction that envisions imaginaries and relationships in a new or changing world. How do we walk through the portal to the other side? How will we address or overcome the legacy of the past: the negative actors and social constructs, environmental devastation, racism, exploitation, pathologies? … We want submissions from everyone, emerging through established, and from all communities––including but not limited to LGBTQ2S+, Black, Indigenous, marginalized, culturally diverse, the deaf and disabled. Stories can be literary or speculative, with the environment playing an essential role in the narrative. We welcome visual content in the form of illustrations accompanying a story or prose poem, or as graphic stories.” They want works up to 3,500 words, and pay CAD0.05/word. The deadline is 31 May 2023.

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.

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.

Peepal Tree Press
The world’s leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British writing publishes around 15 titles a year. They try to respond to all submissions within 20 weeks.

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

Terrain.org Editor’s Prize
This magazine focuses on place, climate, and justice. They publish nonfiction, fiction, and poetry by all writers, and pay a minimum of $50. Also, “All accepted submissions by writers of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, and/or other marginalized communities whose contributions explore place particularly in the context of social, environmental, or climate justice are considered for our annual Editor’s Prize of $500 per genre.” The deadline is 30 April 2023.

CINTAS Foundation: Fellowship in Creative Writing
This is a creative writing fellowship for writers having Cuban citizenship or direct lineage (having a Cuban parent or grandparent).  Applications can be in English or Spanish. Fellows who are not U.S. citizens and who are living abroad must provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number when they accept the fellowship to receive payment. The foundation also offers fellowships for other disciplines – architecture & design, music composition, photography, and visual arts (click the ‘Fellowships’ tab on the page). The prize is $20,000. The deadline is 1 May 2023.

Queer Sci Fi: Rise
They want to see science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, or horror LGBTQIA stories of up to 300 words on the theme of Rise. They have detailed guidelines,  please read them carefully. The prizes are $100, $75, and $50. The deadline is 1 May 2023.

Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
This is a climate fiction contest from Fix, Grit’s solutions lab. “We’re looking for stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the next 180 years of climate progress — roughly seven generations – imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope.” They have detailed guidelines, please read them carefully. While the contest is open for all writers, they also say, “A great Imagine story showcases creative climate solutions, particularly through narratives that center the communities most impacted by the climate crisis, and that envision what a truly green, equitable, and decolonized society could look like. We celebrate fiction rooted in hope, justice, and cultural authenticity, and aim to amplify voices that have been, and continue to be, affected by systems of oppression.” The prizes are $3,000, $2,000, $1,000; and $300 each for nine winners. The deadline is 13 June 2023. Details here and here.

Creative Future Writers’ Award Competition 2023
The Creative Future Writers’ Award (CFWA) is a writing development programme which celebrates talented, underrepresented writers in the UK who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, identity, health or social circumstance. The theme for their 10th Awards is ‘X.’ Your work should respond to the theme, implicitly or explicitly, but they’re looking for quality writing first and foremost. The theme is a creative prompt, not a requirement. You can submit ONE piece of writing: Poetry (50 lines max.); Fiction (2000 words max.); or Creative Non-Fiction (2000 words max.). The competition is only open to underrepresented writers in the UK who are 18 years or over. Please ensure you read the rules and eligibility criteria before submitting. Submission can be by email, post, or online. Prizes include cash, mentorship, manuscript assessment, and membership subscriptions. Deadline is May 14, 2023.

Poetry Bulletin Submission Fee Support
This is a confidential, poet-to-poet support. Over $5,000 has been committed to this circle since March 2021, and given to 70 poets so far. It covers submission fees for poetry chapbooks and full-length poetry manuscripts. A maximum of three submissions per poet. This support is designed for poets who cannot otherwise afford to submit their manuscripts to publishers; poets who face barriers of time, access, or energy; and poets who have historically been underrepresented. Support is confidential. If you’re matched with an anonymous supporter, you’ll be asked to keep their identity confidential. There’s no deadline.

CINTAS Foundation: Fellowship in Creative Writing
This is a creative writing fellowship for writers having Cuban citizenship or direct lineage (having a Cuban parent or grandparent).  Applications can be in English or Spanish. Fellows who are not U.S. citizens and who are living abroad must provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number when they accept the fellowship to receive payment. The foundation also offers fellowships for other disciplines – architecture & design, music composition, photography, and visual arts (click the ‘Fellowships’ tab on the page). The award is $20,000, and the deadline is 1 May 2023.

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 2023.

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 under £100 and no more than £350. They are accepted on a rolling basis starting 1 January 2023, and they are accepting applications on an ongoing basis.
(Society of Authors also has awards for works in progress as well as contingency funds – all their grants are here.)

PEN America: US Writers Aid Initiative
This is intended to assist fiction and nonfiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists, who are facing acute financial need following an emergency situation. To be eligible, applicants must be based in the United States, be professional writers, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping them to address a short-term emergency situation; there are other eligibility requirements, too. This grant is not for subsidizing writing-related expenses. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply. The next deadlines listed for 2023 (subject to change) are: 1 July, and 1 October.

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.

Emergency Fund for Diverse Creatives and Educators
WNDB provides emergency grants to diverse authors, illustrators, publishing professionals, and K-12 educators who are experiencing dire financial need. They aim to bolster these marginalized groups by giving grants between $500 and $1,000 each.

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 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. Last year about 50 people who filled out the form, and out of that 14 received a scholarship.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2022 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.

I have always loved apples, applesauce and cooking with apples. It’s all rooted in a fond memory that makes a great story, well worth the telling and sharing multiple times over. But, to just say I like to make applesauce isn’t enough. I am a storyteller, after all, and even my first batch of applesauce deserves the credit of a great story. Hence my memoir snapshot story, “Applesauce”, which was published in the Curious Tourist Guide. This is one of many personal event stories that I have shared with the readers of Curious Tourist Guide and other publications over the years. Weaving a story around an ordinary event, makes the story exemplary, entertaining and engaging. Telling the story in first person narrative makes sense, since it is my story, but it also pulls the reader into my story much like a seasoned storyteller does when orally sharing their stories to an enraptured, attentive audience.

When sharing our stories, we need to remember that, unless we’re planning the more historical approach, a memoir, a personal essay, a creative nonfiction are all real life stories, true stories, and should read like a novel. They are, in fact, defined as a literary genre and each of these genres are similarly defined as stories about the author’s life. They can be long, short, metaphorical snapshots of specific segments in the author’s life, or lengthy, beginning to end type of story. The key to each of these genres is to keep the storytelling format alive.

How do you do that? Write your story (whatever genre you wish to define it as) like a novel. Make it come alive!

Here some tips:

1. Keep the reader involved in the story. We live in an era where people love to peek into others’ lives, be they famous or just the neighbor down the street. I remember one person who actually confessed that she only read my memoir stories to get to know me better. She’s remained a good friend ever since. And, she continues to enjoy my stories.
2. Remember the basics of a good short story when writing the memoir. Start with a compelling hook, something that’ll draw in the reader. Make sure there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. Build up to a climax and settle with a satisfying resolution.
3. Make a list of significant key points in your life’s story and draw on some snapshot events that outline the key points effectively, like my simple story about making applesauce with my godmother.
4. Not sure where to start? I find it helpful to use those simple snapshot events from my outline and write short stories. These may or may not be woven into the final memoir, but they’re stories worth telling anyway and it helps get the creative juices flowing and unravel the memories that clog our brains.
5. Add a little humor. There must be some funny stories in your life. We were all children once upon a time and, as children, we did funny things. Many of us will recall those embarrassing moments when our parents shared those funny stories with extended family and friends. But these ‘funny’ childhood stories defined us and a little bit of humor in anyone’s life is not a bad thing, so share it in your memoir.
6. Use dialogue effectively. Of course, you probably don’t recall what was said in the actual events, but you know the key players and what verbal exchanges might have occurred. If you write dry narrative, your story, your memoir will fall flat; dialogue makes your story come alive.
7. Include some action scenes. Yes, you’re writing your memories, but there must be some action scenes in your life: an argument with a friend that turned into a fist fight, an accident on the ski slope, an attempt to save a loved one’s life. Don’t just record the facts, make it come alive. Add that little punch of a ‘wow’ factor.
8. Do your research. I was about ten when we went to see the newly released movie, “That Darn Cat.” A major fire in the movie theatre threatened to cancel our family outing. Complete with scaffolding to hold up the walls and restricted seating, the theatre opened anyway (this was the 1960s, after all) and we went to see the movie. I was terrified the ceiling and walls would crumble on top of us. The memory stayed with me, but not the facts. A childhood memory of a burned-out movie theatre wasn’t enough for a story. I did the research, dug through the local archives, and discovered the full story behind the fire. The end result was my story, “That Darn Cat”, which was published early in 2022.

The bottom line is, your memoir, is your story. Make it into an engaging, entertaining story. Keep your readers attentive and interested to the very end. Remember, like any other story, make it come alive with plot, setting, dialogue, action – in short, anything and everything you would use in a work of fiction.

Emily-Jane Hills Orford is a country writer, living just outside the tiny community of North Gower, Ontario, near the nation’s capital. With degrees in art history, music and Canadian studies, the retired music teacher enjoys the quiet nature of her country home and the inspiration of working at her antique Jane Austen-style spinet desk, feeling quite complete as she writes and stares out the large picture window at the birds and the forest. She writes in several genres, including creative nonfiction, memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction. http://emilyjanebooks.ca