Call for Submissions from Westsiders

Are you a writer who lives on LA's westside?

http://www.forthmagazine.com: FORTH Magazine is the Westside's first and only Arts and Literature magazine for and by local artists and writers. Launching January 2009, FORTH is a free publication and needs the community's support to really make an impact in displaying and uniting the local arts community.

SUBMIT WORK: Forth is seeking submissions from Westside Locals only. Looking for writing and art of all types. Writing pays 10cts/word (500 words max). Almost any genre of poetry or prose, including: Fiction, Creative Non-fiction, Creative (Subjective/Gonzo) Journalism, Humor, or Social / Political commentary. NO standard, dry journalism or run-of-the-mill personal memoirs. Most Important: Be creative, insightful, and well-written. PUSH THE LIMITS. We like edgy as well as intellectual. Send us your best.

Call for Submissions: Toasted Cheese

Toasted Cheese is accepting submissions. Here are excerpts from their website:

What we accept:

TC accepts previously unpublished flash fiction, fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. Our maximum word count for fiction and creative nonfiction is 5000 words; for flash fiction our maximum is 500 words.

Toasted Cheese accepts submissions on a rotating basis. Our reading periods are:

• March issue: October 1 - December 31
• June issue: January 1 - March 31
• September issue: April 1 - June 30
• December issue: July 1 - September 30

Check their site for further information on how to submit.

The Other Journal issue on Death and Dying Seeks Submissions:

The Other Journal is currently seeking submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for our upcoming issue on Death and Dying.

More upcoming issues and deadlines:
Issue #14 - Death - December 15, 2008
Issue #15 - Beauty & Aesthetics - March 15, 2009
Issue #16 - Race in America - June 15, 2009

From their site:

Audience

The audience of The Other Journal includes church leaders and theologians, scholars and students, hipsters and artists, bookworms and movie buffs, ragamuffins and the unchurched, and Web surfers of every stripe.

We accept poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Send up to six poems or one piece of prose at a time. Fiction submissions may include short stories or self-contained novel excerpts, and creative nonfiction submissions may include personal essays or memoirs. Because we are an online journal, we take a special interest in short prose submissions, especially pieces that are less than 2,500 words. We will consider simultaneous submissions, but please indicate they have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere and let us know right away if you are withdrawing them from consideration.

Editorial statement:

The Other Journal welcomes the submission of critical essays, reviews, creative writing, and visual or performance art that encounter life through the lens of theology and culture; we seek pieces that consider the interaction of faith with contemporary life, art, politics, sexuality, technology, economics, and social justice. We are particularly interested in works which present creative, alternative views that may otherwise fall outside the margins of mainstream narratives. And although we primarily focus on perspectives within the Christian tradition, we invite dialogue with all who are interested in exploring the ongoing role of faith and spirituality in the world.

For more info:

http://theotherjournal.com/info.php?page=submissions

Narrative 30 Below Contest - No Fee!

This is the last week to enter Narrative Magazine's 30 Below Contest for writers and artists, ages 30 and under.

First Prize is $1,500
Second Prize is $750
Third Prize is $300

Ten finalists will be named, and all entries will be considered for publication.

Open to writers, visual artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers. We are interested in narrative in the many forms it takes: the word and the image, the traditional and the innovative the true and the imaginary.

Entry deadline: October 27.
No fee to enter.

Peace, Love and Rock 'n' Roll: Woodstock Revisited

Where were you in 1969? If you were at Woodstock and can come up with a true 850 to 1100 word story, you might want to submit it to Literary Cottage's Woodstock Revisited Anthology Contest. You'll have to hurry, though: the deadline is September 7, 2008. Adams Media will pay authors $100 per story, plus one copy of the anthology. Not only that, Literary Cottage offers prizes!

• 1st Prize: $100
• 2nd Prize: $75
• 3rd Prize: $50

So, if you were there and can remember the experience, or if you know someone who was (they are also accepting "as told to" stories), write from the heart, tell your story with imagery and humor, end with a satisfying conclusion, and email your story to sreynolds(at)literarycottage(dot)com. They have many guidelines for submissions as well as tips for writing a fabulous story, so please go to their website and check them out.

Cat Short Story Contest ~ Got Feline Fiction?

For all of the kitty-loving writers, Fireside Publications of Florida is sponsoring a Cat Short Story Contest. If you have 3,000 words or less dedicated to the furry feline(s) in your life, you may get the chance to see your four-pawed friend immortalized in print. Twenty to twenty-five winning stories will be published after all the stories have been selected, and the winners will receive a complimentary copy of the book. Submit your story, (fiction or non-fiction), and a $2 registration fee, as soon as possible to: Cat Short Story Contest, Fireside Publications, 1004 San Felipe Lane, Suite 200, The Villages, Florida, 32159. The deadline is June 30, 2008. Please go to their website for the rest of the contest guidelines.

"I Love Cats" Magazine Accepting Submissions

For those of us with delightful furry companions, Lisa Allmendinger, editer of I Love Cats is now looking at stories for 2009 and beyond. They seldom publish poetry, but are interested in feature stories about cats and their owners, (no talking cats, please), interesting or odd happenings with cats, tips for cat owners, health issues, non-fiction, behavior problems, etc. They ask that you not send pieces about cats that go or live outdoors. She prefers stories with with photos or drawing that are between 500 - 800 words (1,000 words max). Payment upon publication is $50, ($25 for short fillers, which are also welcome). Please send your queries and/or completed stories to ilovecatseditor(at)sbcglobal.net. Check out the I Love Cats website for sample copies and further submission guidelines.

Whose Fawlt Is It?

Nobody's perfect, and now there is a magazine based on that premise: Fawlt Magazine is dedicating each of it's quarterly issues to human flaws. Guess I'll stop procrastinating long enough to tell you about it. ;) They are now taking submissions for their next issue, which will focus on Perfectionism. You have until August 1, 2008 to submit previously unpublished prose, poetry, art and photographs that will examine such issues as: who is affected by it, its impact on individuals, in which circumstances it can be especially bad (or actually good!), and any other aspect of the flaw that may be worth investigating. Please send your submissions to fiction(at)fawltmag.com, poetry(at)fawltmag.com, or artandphoto(at)fawltmag.com, depending on the category (don't forget to attach a cover letter). The Perfectionism issue will be launched online on September 15, 2008. They are also taking submissions for upcoming issues, Apathy and Arrogance. They ask that you do not send more than three prose pieces or five poems at a time, and if you are submitting to more than one issue, please send your submissions separately.

Cezanne's Carrot Literary Journal ~

Paul Cezanne said, "The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." At Cezanne's Carrrot, they believe that day has arrived! Published quarterly (on each Solstice and Equinox), they accept submissions of short fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art that "celebrates the universe and the human experience in uplifting revolutionary ways." They are looking for work that:

• Creates a sense of possibilities
• Looks at the more expansive aspects of human nature, our interactions with the natural world, or our relationships with each other. The prefer works that highlights the connections between us, rather than what divides us.
• Explores the range and depth of our experiences with what lies beyond the five senses. Call it the Universe, God, a different dimension, or simply the great mysterious unknown, but show them how our common reality blends with the next.

The deadline for their Summer Solstice issue (6-21-08), is May 21, 2008. Two $25 Editor's Prizes will be awarded each issue; all fiction and creative non-fiction will be considered. Please check out their website for the rest of their submission guidelines and addresses to send your work.

* Celebrating the Goddess in Every Woman *

SageWoman, a quarterly magazine of women's spirituality, is dedicated to helping women explore their spiritual, emotional and daily lives in a way that respects all persons, creatures, and the Earth. Their readers relate positively with the term "Goddess," and include women from a variety of religious faiths, from Roman Catholic to Lesbian Separatist Witch and everything in-between. Their focus is on issues of concern to Pagan and other Goddess-friendly women, and they are accepting submissions (written by women), of non-fiction prose that relate to women's spiritual experience. They also accept modest amounts of poetry, photographs and graphic artwork. They do not accept fiction, screenplays, long narrative poems, erotica, or press releases. Since their editorial style focuses on personal experiences, please write in the first person!
Your articles should be between 800 and 5000 words in length. All material should be sent to the attention of the Editor to either meditor (at) sagewoman (dot) com, or P.O. Box 687, Forest Grove, OR. 97116. They'll pay $.01 per word for unsolicited material, with a minimum of $10, as well as one copy of the issue in which your work appears. They are often able to pay more for work that is commissioned especially for SageWoman, so please contact them directly if you are interested in working for them on this basis.
The theme of their next issue is "Giving and Receiving." For those of us who are already aware of some of the many instances that life is a plethora of give-and-take and sharings, that we are not as isolated and alone as we may feel, it might be a fun challenge to dip into this awareness and come up with something personal to illustrate this. You have until August 1, 2008 to send them your submission.
Please go to their website for more information and to find samples of articles they have published.

Glass Woman Prize

The Fourth Glass Woman Prize submission deadline is September 21, 2008. What, you may ask, is a Glass Woman? It is someone who is able to acknowledge, transparently, who she is. The contest sponsor, Beate Sigriddaughter, would depict her as:

a woman of glass, with a blood system and gut system visible inside her, pipes and veins, and in those there would be bits of poetry, newspapers, roses, sentimental things, baby’s teeth, locks of baby hair, all kinds of lace bits, birds, and foxes, ice-picks, wedding rings, veils, and wedding cake doves, graduations gowns, tarot cards, sacred stones, pressed flowers, and a whole lot of joy and a whole lot of sorrow. She’d have a flute and a piano key, an ankh, and a woman symbol (♀), everything, anger and joy, hiking gear, rock climbing gear, motorcycle gear, dirt, fear, bras, lilacs, mirrors, underwear.

I'm thinking that pretty much includes all of us, so, if you have a short piece of fiction, or creative non-fiction between 50 to 5,000 words, you have nothing to lose (No Entry Fee!), and the possibility of gaining $600 if you win, or $100 if you're one of the two runners up. Her criterion is passion, excellence, and authenticity in the women's writing voice. You may email your submission to glasswomanprize (at) comcast (dot) net, or send it via regular mail to Beatte Sigriddaughter, 333 East 16th Avenue, #517, Denver, CO, 80203. Please visit her website for more information and links to previous winning entries.

For the Birds ~

LBJ is not only an acronym for "Little Brown Job," (used by birders to describe those difficult-to-identify species, such as many sparrows); it is also the name of an upcoming literary magazine. The LBJ is a uniquely literary venue, publishing creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, narrative scholarship, and literary journalism of the feathered variety. The inaugural issue will be out this June, for which they are not only accepting submissions, but are also announcing prizes of $300 for the best previously unpublished poetry and prose. You may submit only one contest entry per genre. For poetry, each entry may include up to 5 poems; for prose, submit only 1 piece of no more than 20 double-space single-sided pages. The reading fee for the contest is $10 for one category, $15 for both. The deadline for both contest entries and submissions is May 15, 2008, and all contest entries will be considered for publication.
They are also looking for visual art, as well as cutting edge stories about birds, their habitats, and the people around them! So if you are into birding (bird-brained?) or know anyone who is, please go to The LBJ website for further details and the addresses (snail and email) of where to send your work.

Here Comes The Sun * * *

The Sun Magazine publishes essays, interviews, fiction and poetry. They tend to favor personal writing, but they're also open to thoughtful, well-written essays on political, cultural, and philosophical themes. In fact, they're open to just about anything except journalistic features, academic works or opinion pieces. They invite us to "surprise them:" they often don't know what they'll like until they read it. This generous attitude is matched by generosity of payment also:

• $300 to $3000 for essays and interviews
• $300 to $2000 for fiction
• $100 to $500 for poetry, the amount determined by length and quality

They may pay less for very short works. Contributors will receive a complimentary one-year subscription to The Sun. They also use 10 to 30 photographs in each issue, so if your creativity includes talent in that direction, The Sun is equally as generous on that score as well:

• $100 to $300 for one-time use of photographs inside the magazine
• $500 for those they use on the cover
• $500 to $1000 for photo essays

The give contributors four copies of the issue in which their work appears, as well as a complimentary one-year subscription. Please go to their website to check out the rest of their submission guidelines and also the snail-mail address to send your work.

Show and Tell

Telling it like it is, Show and Tell is a great little evening of original, read personal essay work. It's a regular monthly show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in Hollywood. They accept submissions, and the quality of performance/writers is consistently excellent, so even if you're not selected to read, it's still worth, well, seeing and hearing.

First Things First ~ Passager Calls For Submissions

If you're over 50, this publication may be just the thing for you! Passager's mission is to explore the imagination during the later years. They publish two issues a year, featuring poetry, fiction, memoir, and "Pass it On," a collection of their readers personal stories on a given topic. Their current topic is "Firsts," and you are invited to sent them 250 words or less of informal prose about some "first" in your life, (no poems or fiction, please). You have until September 15 to submit your work.

Call for Submissions: Cold-Drill

cold.drill: "cold-drill is published annually by the MFA Department of Boise State University and is actively looking for fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction from the traditional to the experimental for our 38th issue. We strive to publish work that goes beyond the obvious and that provokes and stimulates us and our community of readers. We are also interested in innovative and interesting visual art. We take great pride in our design and the finished product, which includes first-time published writers side-by-side with established authors and poets, and feel that a journal should be both visually appealing and mentally stimulating. Submissions are read from September 15 through January 5."