Channel Magazine
This Irish magazine accepts fiction, nonfiction, poetry; nonfiction is accepted through the year (for both print and online), and they have reading periods for fiction and poetry. “Channel’s aim is to provide a home for Irish and international writing that contributes to building rich, mutually sustaining relationships between human beings and the natural world. … This journal exists to provide a passage through which ideas about human relationships with our environment, expressed and embodied in creative work, can flow.” Nonfiction may include interviews and commentary on creative work or community-based environmental projects, as well as essays and narrative pieces, and also work for their blog. Submissions can be in English or Irish, and also works in translation (see guidelines).
Deadline: 23 July 2023 for fiction and poetry; ongoing for nonfiction
Length: Prose up to 6,000 words, up to 4 poems
Pay: €50 per poem, or per page of prose, up to €150
Details here.

Existere, affiliated with York University in Toronto, Canada, accepts fiction, nonfiction, and poetry of up to 3,500 words, and art. They pay $50 per submission, up to $250, and they are open now. Details here and here.

Monstrous Magazine
This is a new print magazine and they want short fiction, articles, and comics (see guidelines). For fiction, “Horror Flash Fiction for the first issue, to be published later this year. There’s no theme, but we do like monsters, pulp, and classic horror films. Focus should be on fast-paced entertaining stories. We’ll take a limited amount of fantasy, but make it dark and action packed. No science fiction or detective fiction. No reprints.” For articles, they want “Articles from 1000 to 2000 words about the horror genre, horror movies, TV shows, and fiction, especially older stuff. We’re not interested in reviews.”
Deadline: 27 July 2023 for fiction; until filled for nonfiction
Length: 1,000-2,000 words
Pay: $0.06/word for fiction, $0.03/word for nonfiction
Details here.

Another project they will publish is Dead Detectives Society, for which they’re accepting pitches. Details here – scroll down.

Escape Artists: PodCastle
This magazine publishes all kinds of fantasy in online and audio format, and is open during July; see their schedule. “We’re open to all the sub-genres of fantasy, from magical realism to urban fantasy to slipstream to high fantasy, and everything in between. Fantastical or non-real content should be meaningful to the story.” They also accept reprints.
Deadline: 31 July 2023
Length: Up to 6,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here.

Schi Phi Journal is also open for submissions of stories up to 2,000 words. They want Campbellian hard science fiction, fictional non-fiction, and speculative philosophy. They pay €0.03/word for prose, and €0.01/word for translations. The deadline is 4 August 2023. Details here.

The Paris Review
They are open for poetry submissions in July. They will accept submissions via Submittable until they reach capacity, and they will also accept postal submissions of poetry, postmarked through 31^st July. Do not send work in other genres during this submission period. See this page for their open reading periods through the year, in both poetry and prose.
Deadline: 31 July 2023
Length: Up to 6 poems
Pay: Unspecified
Details here and here.

McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern has opened a special submission period for short fiction, for previously unpublished writers only – see guidelines. Send one story of up to 10,000 words. Their usual payment for fiction is $400. The deadline for this submission call is 19 July 2023. Details here.

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

On Watkins Media’s main website they describe Repeater as “Our new imprint specializing in counter-culture fiction and non-fiction, books that are guaranteed to create a discussion and inspire change.” They are distributed by Penguin Random House Publisher Services.

They accept submissions via Submittable. They try to respond to all submissions within 5 weeks. They do not “accept theses or proposals based on them”. They stress that they “prefer complete manuscripts, but if you want to pitch something to us, please send a complete breakdown of the book you intend to write.”

Their Submittable page has them currently listed as open to the following categories: Politics and culture; philosophy; literary, art music criticism; fiction/poetry; and other stuff.

When you click on each of the categories they do not go into specific details about what they are seeking in these categories. Other stuff, for example, is not defined at all, so it is really worth your time to spend time with their catalogue, to know what they are actually seeking.

Because this site uses Submittable, they may close unexpectedly if there is a submission cap. If that happens they should re-open in a month.

Their Submittable page is here, and their main submissions page is here, although neither go into great detail, please follow the instructions they have laid out.

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.

The editor of the journal is a Chinese-American immigrant who found comfort in reading about people with similar experiences. She hopes Immigration Diaries can do the same for others: “I want people to know that they are never alone in their experiences.” You can read more about her story here.

Immigration Diaries started publishing in March this year, and so far they’ve published 10 stories. They publish new stories on their website on a rolling basis.

Immigration Diaries accepts nonfiction (including essays, narrative nonfiction, and memoir), fiction (including flash), poetry, graphic stories, and artwork. They accept submissions on a rolling basis. Although they do not specify limits on the length of writing they accept, it’s a good idea to read the writing they’ve published to get an idea of what they’re looking for. They’re open to all styles of writing, especially writing that’s literary and personal.

Immigration Diaries accepts submissions online using a form on their website, or via email. They do not accept submissions by post.

Immigration Diaries only accepts 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 Immigration Diaries, please visit their website here. You can scroll down to the bottom of the page where it says, “Share Your Story!” to submit.

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.

The first word I ever read and made sense of was the word come. I sat alone at my parents’ dining room table. Held my book and it occurred to me that C made a hard sound. M made a soothing sound. That was enough information to read the word. I was gob-smacked! A new world of reading had opened up to me!

If you want to write emergent readers, that’s the kind of child for whom you’ll write.

Your prospective audience is not yet reading but they are beginning to find connections between letter sounds (mostly consonants) and words. They begin to recognize words even though they can’t read an entire sentence. Connections between letters and words and spoken and written words happen over time and with experience.

Emergent readers are designed for children who may be reading alone. A teacher or parent might read a book to children before allowing them to study it independently. Children remember that first read and can guess at a few unfamiliar words.

How will you do it?

Don’t be fooled. Writing an emergent reader is harder than it looks. Before you begin, read as many of them as you can. Study them. Analyze them. I bought a bunch at a thrift store and on Amazon and deconstructed them. I highlighted high interest words, narration, and dialogue with different colored markers. This helped a lot.

Study word lists (Here’s one:  https://www.k12reader.com/subject/vocabulary/fry-words/ for grades K-8.) Imagine you are telling your story to a young child. Keep the language simple. Think of words kindergartners and first graders know. A few complex words can be added but limit that to about 8-10 per 100-word manuscript. You can repeat these words throughout the text. Don’t count them a second time. When I wrote Ice Cream Soup, the most difficult words were “soup” and “goop”, words clearly not on kindergarten and first grade word lists.

For a Level One reader, sit down and write the very best 60-100 word story you can. Make sure your story has a simple story arc and a clear beginning, middle and an end. Nonfiction leveled readers can be circular, i.e., a seed to a tree and back to seeds. Level One readers sell best. Publishers receive fewer of these. Each publisher has a slightly different idea of what these will look like. Study publishers’ websites often to get the best idea of exactly what they like.

Grab your reader’s attention with the first line or two. Do it with language that is familiar and interesting. Choose a topic has universal appeal to children. Would children rather read about cultivating lettuce or baboons?

For the very earliest readers, make suggestions in illustrator’s notes. It isn’t typical to do this but when you are limited with text, that may be the only means you have of communicating what is happening. Most editors with whom I have worked agree with this.

Read your book out loud, over and over again. Run it by your critique group to see if they stumble over any parts or find that the text drags. Work it and rework it until it sings.

If you like to write in rhyme as I do, see who publishes that. Random House, Scholastic, and some children’s press books are done in rhyme. For emergent readers, rhyme provides an auditory clue to the next word.

Here’s your challenge. Write a leveled readers after studying dozens of them. Decide which level you will write and then ask yourself these questions:

• Did the topic emerge early in the story?
• Did I use realistic age-appropriate language?

• Did I use simple sentences?
• Is my story character-based? This type of story appeals to very young children. For instance, a child can explain step by step how to make a potato battery.
• Did I use present tense, active verbs?
• Does my story have a surprise twist or unusual ending that will please children and editors alike?

If you’ve done all of that, your story is likely ready for submission. I’ll look for it on the shelves at my favorite books stores and libraries.

Bio: Ann Ingalls passes the day exaggerating (writing fiction) or telling the truth (writing nonfiction). She has written over sixty books for young readers. Her books have won several awards or distinctions:  Bank Street Books, Best Books of 2020, the 2015 Annual American Graphic Design Award and the Ella Fitzgerald Foundation’s “A Book Just for Me!” PENCIL: A STORY WITH A POINT! was on the SSYRA list and awards from the Highlights Foundation.