City of Light Publishing is a small press with many imprints, based out of Buffalo, New York. In some ways City of Light is a new press, they only came to be known by this name in 2019, when they started to have more of a national and international reach. Before that, previous iterations were called Canisius College Press and Buffalo Heritage Press. You can learn more about their history here.

They are distributed by IPG, which had a bit of a mixed reputation in the past, but a fairly good recent track record, and a wide reach. It’s one of the biggest distributors in the United States now.

They have six imprints, all with separate submission guidelines.

CrissCross AppleSauce is their children’s picture book imprint. The covers are mostly excellent, and you can see their full catalog here, to get a feel for what they might be interested in publishing. They have a pretty substantial back catalog. Their submission guidelines are here.

Cross Your Fingers is their early readers and middle grade imprint. You can read their submission guidelines here. It’s important to note that this imprint is brand new, and the only title they’ve only published one title so far (another title is forthcoming). You can see it here.

Cross Your Heart, their young adult imprint is even less established, as nothing is listed. I’m always nervous about publishers entering a new market for the first time, even if they are semi-established elsewhere, so that’s something to keep in mind if you submit to Cross Your Heart. To see their submission guidelines, go here.

New Idea Press is their nonfiction imprint, which has already published a wide variety of books, that you can read about here. You can learn more about their submission guidelines here.

Blacklight Press is their fiction imprint, which they describe as publishing “stories from new perspectives, with diverse, interesting characters.” Their submission guidelines are here. You can see all their fiction books listed here, and it’s clear that they have more limited experience in this area.

Buffalo Heritage Press, one of the previous names for the press as a whole, is still going strong as an imprint. It’s not a surprise that this imprint focuses on “Buffalo authors telling Buffalo stories.” These stories can be fictional or nonfiction. You can read their guidelines here, and see their back catalog here.

To learn more, visit their general submission guidelines 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.

Once Upon a Crocodile has been published since 2018. They’ve produced nine issues, each with work from around five contributors.

Once Upon a Crocodile is open from now until 1st June, according to this Tweet. They’re always seeking poems, flashes, and short stories. No length restrictions are given, but the editors ask that all submissions are proofread. Submitting authors can expect a response within one month.

Authors published in Once Upon a Crocodile are actively promoted on social media. Authors are also welcome to request feedback on their submitted writing.

Once Upon a Crocodile accepts submissions via email, not through an online submission manager or by post. They only accept submissions that follow the guidelines they’ve posted online, so please read these guidelines in full before submitting.

If you’d like to learn more or submit to Once Upon a Crocodile, 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.

Short prose can offer big challenges. Those who haven’t tried writing microfiction sometimes balk at the craft, often thinking it’s no big deal to dash off a couple hundred words. Yet, the hardest part may not be composing a complete, engaging story using minimal word count. Finding a publisher for your 50-word story, drabble or flash can also be difficult.

Let’s say you write a concise masterpiece, 300 words long. All the things that make it a complete story are there: a beginning, middle and end, well-drawn characters and solid plot. After all that hard work the story deserves to appear before the eyes of adoring readers. So the next step is to get your pocket-size opus in front of the right editor and publication.

If you use a submission manager like Duotrope or The Submission Grinder, you peruse their many listings and weed through a jillion journals until you find a group of candidates. Or you might check writer resources like Authors Publish, NewPages, or Submittable to see if there are any journals that recently opened submissions or have fast-approaching deadlines.

All these websites should be part of a writer’s toolbox, but your final decision on submitting work should rest with the publication itself. Study the submission guidelines, then read an issue or two. Does your story fit the journal’s genre preferences, audience and editorial style? Is your manuscript formatted according to their specifications? Is it within their word count?

Ahh, word count: such an easy thing to do, but sometimes tricky to deduce.

There are many calls for flash fiction but, depending on the editor, the preferred story length could land anywhere up to 1,500 words. There’s a good chance your 300-word story may fall short of a publisher’s parameters.

Enter The Short List.

As someone who loves writing microfiction, I was always searching for journals that accepted tiny tales. It was tough to find enough of them, so I didn’t badger the same editors repeatedly. Whenever I’d stumble on a site that had strict limits on smaller word counts, I would add it to my spreadsheet. As the list grew, members of my writing group asked me to share, and The Short List was born.

The list is categorized by word count: 50, 100, 300, etcetera, with links directly to each publication’s submission guidelines. Over the past five years, categories have expanded to include journals and websites accepting prose up to 3,000 words. New additions are highlighted every month and defunct journals are relegated to a final resting place. For the departed, the links may be gone but their titles remain in tribute to all the writers published.

Journals come and go. Submission managers, writer resources and Twitter’s #WritingCommunity are invaluable ways to keep abreast of publication opportunities. The ones fit for those writing with an economy of words will find a home on The Short List.

Think I’ll go there now to find the perfect publisher for this 494-word article.

The following are opportunities for creative writers that are open this April and beyond. Some have fast approaching deadlines and others have more time. The list is organized according to deadlines. So the further down the list you go, the more time you have to apply. Some of these opportunities are open to most writers, and others have very specific limitations, in terms of demographics or geography.

SCBWI Work-In-Progress (WIP) Awards 2022

The Work-In-Progress (WIP) Award, one of the over thirty awards by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), will assist children’s book writers and illustrators in the publication of a specific project currently not under contract. One winner will be selected from the each category: Picture Book Text, Chapter Books/Early Readers, Middle Grade, Young Adult Fiction, Non-fiction, and underrepresented fiction and non-fiction (which can be in addition to any of the five preceding categories).

The works submitted by winners will be placed on a secure webpage and presented to a hand-selected group of editors for their consideration. To have your work presented to acquiring editors along with an SCBWI endorsement is quite a unique opportunity. To apply, applicants must be members of SCBWI.

Deadline is April 15, 2022.

For details, go here.

ALTA Travel Fellowship 2022

Each year, a number of fellowships between $500 and $1,000 are awarded to emerging translators to help them participate in the annual The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) conference. For the ALTA Travel Fellowships, an emerging translator is someone who does not yet have a book-length work of translation published or under contract. ALTA considers chapbooks to be book-length publications for the Travel Fellowships. The ALTA Travel Fellowships are open to individual translators (not teams of co-translators). It’s open to applicants from all backgrounds. This year’s Travel Fellowships will be $500 per Fellow, plus a virtual reading held in autumn 2022. At the conference, ALTA Fellows are invited to read their translated work at a keynote event, giving them an opportunity to present their translations to an audience of translators, authors, editors, and publishers from around the world.

Deadline is April 18, 2022.

For details, go here.

The Larissa Marantz Merit and Need-Based Graphic Novel Scholarships

The Larissa Marantz Merit and Need-Based Graphic Novel Scholarships are open to any writer or illustrator who identifies as BIPOC, LGBTQI, Low-Income, having a Disability, is a Children’s Librarian or an Australian. ​These full or half scholarships are for the interactive online course Mastering Graphic Novels Live which is starting on May 9, 2022.

Deadline is April 20, 2022.

For details, go here.

2022 Varuna Residency

The Michael King Writers Centre in association with Varuna, The National Writers House in Katoomba, NSW is offering a new residency for New Zealand writers. This four week residency is open to mid-career or established writers who are either New Zealand citizens or have New Zealand permanent residency, and who have had a book published in the last two years. The selected writers will receive return economy airfares to Sydney, accommodation with all meals included, a NZ$5,000 stipend and the opportunity to appear at the Blue Mountains Writers Festival (21-23 October), during the residency. They actively seek and encourage all writers—diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective—to apply.

Deadline is April 25, 2022.

For details, go here.

2022/2023 African Liberty Writing Fellowship

The African Liberty Writing Fellowship program is a year-long program designed to train young Africans interested in the academia, media, public policy, or any other critical-and-analytical-writing-related career, in opinion article writing. Accepted applicants will complete a five-week mandatory online course. The top thirty-five candidates from the five-week training will be admitted as African Liberty Writing Fellows. Program start date is July 11, 2022, and end date is July 11, 2023.

Deadline is April 30, 2022.

For details, go here.

College Admissions Essay Coaching Scholarship 2022

The Gotham College Admissions Essay Coaching Scholarship is available to people of color who are currently in Grades 10-12 in high school. One application is required per person. Students outside the US may apply if they meet these requirements. Three winners will receive, totally free, the five-hour package of Gotham’s College Admissions Essay Coaching.

Deadline is May 15, 2022.

For details, go here.

In-Person Native Children’s and YA Writing Intensive Scholarships

The 2022 Native Children’s and YA Writing Intensive is open for applications with scholarships for registration and lodging. The Intensive is designed for Native/Indigenous/First Nations writers who are looking to deepen their craft, receive manuscript feedback and career mentorship, learn from the Writing Barn faculty of authors and publishing professionals, and build a sense of writing community. It will take place from August 4-7, 2022, at the Writing Barn in Austin, Texas.

Deadline is May 31, 2022.

For details, go here.

LitUp Writer’s Fellowship 

LitUp Writer’s Fellowship is for underrepresented and unpublished women storytellers. Reese’s Book Club, in partnership with WNDB, is offering five writers access to the money, marketing and three-month mentorship needed to put their best work forward. Applications are open to diverse women writers including women who are cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, and bigender. Selected applicants will participate in an all-expenses paid writers retreat and have the opportunity to workshop their manuscript with bestselling authors.

Deadline is May 31, 2022.

For details, go here.

The Miles Morland Foundation African Writers’ Scholarship

​The Miles Morland Foundation African Writers’ Scholarship is available to an applicant who has applied for a place on the MA Creative Writing (Prose Fiction or Biography and Creative Non-Fiction) in the School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing. To be eligible, an applicant must be a national of an African country or who was born in a country in Africa or whose parents were both born in Africa. A scholarship application is required for the scholarship which is worth £25000.

Deadline is June 3, 2022.

For details, go here.

NmaHassan Muhammad is a Nigerian writer. He enjoys reading picture books, chess, comedy, and combat sports for inspiration and leisure. He writes from Minna.