The Pig’s Back
This Ireland-based journal wants fiction and nonfiction submissions from anywhere in the world.
Deadline: 15 November 2022
Length: 2,000-5,000 words
Pay: €300
Details here.
(– Meanwhile, Shenandoah is open for poetry submissions now, and has a submission cap. Their comics submission window is ongoing. Prose will open in Spring 2023. They pay $100 per poem, and $50 per page of comics, up to $500. Details here and here.
— Cutleaf is also open for poetry submissions now; they will close when the Submittable cap is reached. They pay $50-200 for poetry. They’re also reading submissions in other genres on the Beer theme; they’ll pay $100-300, and the deadline for that is end-December. Details here.)

On Spec
This is a Canadian speculative fiction magazine, and they’re open through November. They have detailed guidelines.
Deadline: 30 November 2022
Length: Up to 6,000 words for fiction, 4-100 lines for poetry
Pay: CAD100 for poetry and fiction up to 2,000 words; CAD0.05/word for longer stories
Details here.

Escape Artists: PodCastle
PodCastle is an established publisher of fantasy, in online and audio format. They have detailed guidelines, including, “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, and translations.
Deadline: 30 November 2022
Length: Up to 6,000 words for originals, longer for reprints (see guidelines)
Pay: $0.08/word, $20-100 for reprints
Details here.
(And Cast of Wonders, also from the Escape Artists suite, which publishes young adult stories, will open for submissions from mid- to end-November; see their guidelines here and schedule here. Also, EscapePod, which publishes science fiction, is open now through May 2023, see guidelines here and schedule here. Both magazines pay $0.08/word for originals.

Also, Flame Tree Publishing wants submissions for Darkness Beckons, an unthemed horror fiction print and ebook anthology. It will likely be quite competitive, as they will fill only a few slots via the open call. Pay is $0.08/word for stories of 3,000-5,000 words, deadline 14 November 2022. Details here.)

The Woodward Review
This magazine is affiliated with Wayne State University. They are reading submissions for their second issue. They publish prose, poetry, art/hybrid/digital media, as well as reviews & responses. They have detailed guidelines about what they are looking for in each genre.
Deadline: 1 December 2022
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose
Pay: $50
Details here.
(And The Stinging Fly will open for submissions 15-30 November. They pay €40/page for prose, €30/page for poetry. Details here.)

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

Their current reading period will close to submissions on October 16th, 2024.

This is what Roxane Gay has to say about what she plans to publish:

“I am going to publish books I love from interesting writers. That could, of course, mean anything. I am looking for beautifully written, compelling books that challenge, delight, and entertain readers. I love literary fiction but your story has to have an interesting plot. Things have to happen. I want books I simply cannot put down and that, when I finish, I can’t stop thinking about. I love stories about difficult women. I welcome your so-called unlikable protagonists. I enjoy dark, gritty stories but I am also open to happy, joyful but unsentimental stories that reflect faith in the overall goodness of humanity.”

Roxane Gay Books prioritizes underrepresented writers.

The imprint will publish novels, short fiction, memoir, essay collections, and nonfiction. She adds the additional disclaimer, “Most genres are welcome but my tastes skew to not only literary fiction but contemporary romance, and science fiction and fantasy. I am always open to being surprised but I will not likely be drawn to stories about sad white people marriages or autofiction. I am not interested in police propaganda narratives. Historical fiction, Westerns and the like will be a hard sell and there are other imprints that are a better fit for those stories.”

Additional information about what she is looking for is available here. It should be read carefully and thoroughly before you submit. All submissions will be responded to, although not personally.

Submissions must be submitted via Submittable. Response times should be between three and six months. There is no official deadline in which the imprint will close for submissions. She’s made it clear that it will not not always be open to direct submissions, and that it depends on volume. If the imprint closes to submissions because of this review that is very understandable, and it may well open again soon. Please check back.

To learn more about their submission guidelines, go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

The Headlight Review now publishes four times a year online. They showcase both emerging and established authors from around the world. They also nominate authors published in the journal for the Pushcart Prize.

The Headlight Review is accepting submissions for their upcoming issue.

Authors of fiction may submit up to 5,000 words in any of the following genres: speculative fiction, afro-futurism, fantasy, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, thriller/suspense, western, contemporary, historical, experimental, or humor.

Poets may submit up to three poems in any of the following genres: prose poetry, speculative poetry, free verse, nature writing, romantic poetry, or religious/spiritual poetry.

Authors of creative nonfiction may submit up to 5,000 words in any of the following genres: biography, autobiography, lyrical essay, memoire, travel writing, or religious/spiritual writing.

The Headlight Review also accepts reviews of works of fiction by new or emerging authors. They prefer to feature reviews of books published by small presses. Reviews should be 750 to 1,500 words.

Other offerings at The Headlight Review include a chapbook competition (not currently open) and interviews with authors and artists (not currently a submissions category).

The Headlight Review accepts submissions online, not via email or by post. They accept simultaneous submissions, but they don’t accept previously published work. They read all submissions blind, so they ask that authors remove identifying information from submitted writing.

The Headlight Review 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 The Headlight Review, 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.

They publish a wide range of nonfiction, fiction, and graphic novels, but most of the fiction and graphic novels they publish is licensed from overseas and they are only open to direct submissions in the other categories, or from authors interested in working on licensed fiction they have already contracted. You can get a good feel for what they publish by going here.

This is what they are looking for currently in terms of nonfiction:

During the coronavirus lockdown, when the book parties, readings, and events for my two newest poetry books were cancelled, instead of throwing up my hands, I spent more time at my desk and discovered a map that would steer me efficiently through my next literary labyrinth.

How useful was my map? It helped me arrive at my destination. In 2022 I negotiated three poetry book contracts and have a fourth manuscript with a publisher who, after reading excerpts, requested it. Are you struggling to complete one collection and /or land it with a suitable indie press? Here’s what I did during the last eighteen months to stay on track.

Roadblock: Not enough related or similar poems.
Solution: Create several strong book concepts first, then develop new individual poems that resonate with those pre-selected themes.

As one example, my chapbook “Women Who Were Warned” stitched together new sonnets, villanelles, metrical, and blank verse poems about women placed in difficult or dangerous circumstances.

Think of building your book-in-progress by using poems that are having a conversation with each other, ideas and feelings that you can string together into a whole.

Here are popular lyrical themes that resulted in critically acclaimed bestsellers.

Current events theme: “I am The Rage: A Black Poetry Collection” by Dr. Martina McGowan used free-verse poetry to explore her feelings following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed.

Death in the family theme: “Time Is a Mother” by Ocean Vuong was motivated by his mother’s death from breast cancer.

Mother Nature theme: “Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver” gathered material from five decades in the career of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver (200+ of her poems) that sprung from her abiding love for the physical world and the bonds that connect all living things.

Personal growth theme: “Self Love Poetry: For Thinkers and Feelers” by Melody Godfred, a full-length volume of 200 self-love poems, focused on ideas like gratitude, authenticity, resilience, and believing in yourself. The left side of her book offered poems meant to engage the analytical left side of the brain. On the right are poems meant to spark the creative, right side.

Roadblock: Confusion about organizing the poems or creating a narrative arc.
Solution: After writing a poem, in the upper left-hand corner, categorize it in a few words.

For instance, “healthy life,” “cancer diagnosis,” “in remission,” “hospice phase,” “funeral and bereavement,” “acceptance.” As the manuscript comes together, see if the poems are repetitious―or expansive and cogent.

Here are a few organizing strategies to consider.

* The Temporal Narrative Arc relies on chronology.

In my chapbook of erotic verses, “Concupiscent Consumption,” I began with poems about a child’s turmoil about enforced, even painful affection from adults, moving the narrative forward by exploring sensuality at various life stages: adolescence, young adulthood, and maturity.

Another book shaped by the temporal narrative arc was “Dragonfly and Other Songs of Mourning” by Michelle Scalise. Her poignant poetry memoir recalled her happy marriage when her novelist husband was still healthy, pondered his illness and treatments, witnessed his decline, and mourned his death.

* The Convergent Narrative Arc positions parallel stories of people with a significant connection that may or may not exist at the beginning.

“Obit” by Victoria M. Chang, praised as The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2020, consisted of poems about her parents, relatives, and herself that reinvented the form of a newspaper obituary to both name what has died (“civility,” “language,” “the future,” “Mother’s blue dress”) and illuminate the cultural impact of death on the living.

After serving jury duty, formalist Kathleen McClung penned sestinas, pantoums, sonnets, and rondeaus about the district attorney, judge, defendant, courthouse, along with the experience of being sequestered. McClung’s clever combo of cheeky humor and insight in “A Juror Must Fold in on Herself” won publication via The Rattle Chapbook Prize.

* The Orchestrated Structures Narrative Arc links dissimilar ideas that share a single characteristic. Though the connection is clear―perhaps it’s a place, color, sensation, or season― the circumstances are not at all necessarily joined.

“Past the Glad and Sunlit Season: Poems for Halloween” by K. A. Opperman, which won a “TOR Nightfire Selection for the 10 Best Horror Poetry Collections of 2020,” celebrated familiar tropes of Samhain and All Hallows Eve in formal verse. Immensely successful, he produced a follow-up volume a year later: “October Ghosts and Autumn Dreams: More Poems for Halloween.”

Another book shaped by the Orchestrated Structures Narrative Arc was “These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit: Poems” by Hayan Charara. Written in characteristically wry verse, the poet organized his narrative arc around one question: what it means to be good, i.e., a good person, a good citizen, a good teacher, a good poet, a good father.

* The Mosaic Structuring Narrative Arc uses many small fragments to tell a larger story. Think of the way a jigsaw puzzle’s pieces slowly come together to reveal an interesting picture.

“Yell” by Sarah Sousa began with a page by page erasure of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novel “The Yellow Wallpaper,” as the poet subverted and contemporized the original story of an oppressed housewife, and writer manque, driven mad. Sarah Sousa’s mosaic structure slowly revealed the heroine’s repression and slow descent into the amnesia of self, then finally awakening to the many women she contains.

A collaborative chapbook that employed the Mosaic Arc was “Every Girl Becomes the Wolf” by Laura Madeline Wiseman and Andrea Blythe, which captured the dark heart of fairy tales and sinister myths by retelling theses from the perspectives of witches, wicked queens, Medusa, Baba Yaga, et al, charting their desires, hungers, triumphs, and transformations. Their co-written chapbook has been called “a splendid tapestry of women’s voices.”

Roadblock: Not knowing how to navigate the publication process.
Solution: Take the road less traveled and don’t spend a dime.

The path of least resistance will lead you to the same publishers who are inundated with submissions, for example, the outlets listed in New Pages, in Poets & Writers, or on the Submittable platform. Contests, though easy to find, cost between $7 – $35 to enter, and can be a pricey lottery that seems unwinnable.

These detours below (and others) got my four manuscripts to their destinations: into the hands of a seriously interested editor. Find the right indie press for your work by exploring these.

Alternate route A: When submitting poems, focus on magazines that also have a small indie press. After your work is accepted in their literary journal, chances of placing a book with them increase since the editorial team already enjoys your writing.

Alternate route B: Read contemporary poetry often and study bio-notes for publishing tips. Those leads to indie presses are most useful if your style of poetry is similar to the poet you’ve just read.

Alternate route C: Follow your favorite small presses on social media; they’ll announce when their submission window opens. Subscribe to their newsletters, too; often subscribers are given a code to access a private submission portal along with other perks.

Alternate route D: Investigate presses in other countries. If English is the language you write in, check out who might be receptive to international submissions in India, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Having spent many years placing individual poems in journals but not being able to position an entire collection successfully, I learned an easier method. Here’s hoping this works for you, too.

Bio: Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Rhysling Award, and Dwarf Stars nominee, is a member of SFPA, The British Fantasy Society, and The Dramatists Guild. Elgin Award winner “A Route Obscure and Lonely,” “Concupiscent Consumption,” and “Women Who Were Warned” [UK: Cerasus, May 25, 2022] are her latest poetry titles.
Forthcoming: “Messengers of the Macabre” [US: Audience Askew, October 18, 2022], “Dark and Airy Spirits,” and also “Apprenticed to the Night,” a tombstone-heavy collection in hardcover by Beacon Books. She has been leading a poetry critique group for two years. Find her on the web: https://linktr.ee/LindaAnn.LoSchiavo