Luru is a Bengaluru print magazine. For Rituals, they’re accepting:

• Long-form narrative nonfiction (pitches; 2,500+ words) at ₹8/word
• Short fiction (complete; 1,000–10,000 words) at ₹10,000 flat
• Readers’ Column essays (~1,500 words) at ₹5,000 flat

To learn more, refer to their call for submissions.

This is a prize for UK writers for two categories, ages 11-15 and 16-19; send historical fiction of 800-2,000 words. The fiction can be in any form – a story or an extract from a longer work, a poem or drama script, a fictional diary, letters, or reportage. The story can be set at any time in history, as long as it is an identifiable period before the author was born, in a world recognisably different from the present. They want mailed entries only. Winners receive £500, and an invitation to visit the Borders Book Festival and Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, and their work published.
Value: £500
Deadline: 31 October 2026
Open for: Young UK writers
Details here (download entry form / T&C).

The Society of Authors: ADCI Literary Prize This is a prize for UK writers, for published and self-published novels, including on Kindle; “the ADCI (Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses) Literary Prize seeks to encourage greater positive representation of disability in literature.” The author must self-identify as disabled or chronically ill, and must be a British national OR resident in Great Britain and Northern Ireland for three years prior to the date of submission for the award. The prize is for a work of fiction that contains one or more characters that are disabled and/or living with chronic illness (poetry, short stories, and works for children are not eligible). Submissions must have been published or self-published in the UK between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2026; Kindle submissions are eligible.
Value: Total prize fund of £2,000
Deadline: 31 October 2026
Open for: Disabled or chronically ill UK writers
Details here
 

This prize is run by Comma Press and the University of Lancashire. Send a short story between 2,000 – 7,500 words; the theme is ‘Found Fiction’. They have detailed guidelines, including, “The theme for this year is Found Fiction. We are looking for work that uses found text as its format, mimicking real documents to tell a story. Found text is anything from letters to text messages, police reports to diary entries, newspaper articles to post-it notes. You can find a longer – but not exhaustive – list of possible forms here to inspire you. 
Some examples of books written like this include: We Need to Talk About Kevin (told through letters), Bridget Jones' Diary (told through diary entries), Dracula (told through journal entries, letters, ship logs, telegrams, and various other media), Life on the Refrigerator Door (told through short notes).
These kinds of stories are also called ‘Hermit-crab’ stories.” The winning story, and shortlisted stories, will be published in an anthology.
Value: £500 for the winning story
Deadline: 11 October 2026
Open for: UK writers
Details here.

This is a prize for UK-based young writers (ages 7-25). “The Solstice Nature Prize is a national, annual writing competition for young writers, which invites young people to take a closer look at the natural world, explore their relationship with it, or examine the challenges it faces, and write short stories, poems, and thought-provoking blogs in response.
In 2026, we’re looking for entries about any aspect of nature and offering prizes for winners in four age groups: 7-11, 12-14, 15-17 and 18-25 years. With regional prizes available in each age group for young writers who live in the East Midlands.” Send prose up to 500 words, or poetry up to 40 lines. Submission is via their submission portal. Winners and runners-up will be published.
Value: £100 for winners in each age category
Deadline: 10 October 2026
Open for: Young UK writers
Details here.

This is intended to assist fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, translators, and journalists. 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 an emergency situation. They have various deadlines through the year; the next one is in October. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply. Their submission portal will open during the application period.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline:5 October 2026
Open for: US writers
Details here and here

(US writers should also keep a lookout for the Jack Hazard Fellowship, which is for writers of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and memoir who teach full time in an accredited high school in the United States. They provide a $5,000 award that enables these creative writers who teach to focus on their writing for a summer. Their website says that applications will open soon for the 2027 fellowship.)  
 

One Teen Story Contest: This is an international fiction contest for writers ages 13-19 by One Story Magazine; there are three categories divided age-wise for this contest. It is for a story of 2,000-4,500 words. The contest will open on 20th October and close on 1 December 2026, and the prize is $500. See this page for details about the prize; their submission portal will open during the submission period.

Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition: This is an international contest for novel manuscripts in the malice domestic genre, for writers who have never been the author of any published mystery novel. “Murder or another serious crime or crimes is at the heart of the story. Whatever violence is necessarily involved should be neither excessive nor gratuitously detailed, nor is there to be explicit sex. The suspects and the victims should know each other. There are a limited number of suspects, each of whom has a credible motive and reasonable opportunity to have committed the crime. The person who solves the crime is the central character. The “detective” is an amateur, or, if a professional (private investigator, police officer) is not hardboiled and is as fully developed as the other characters. The detective may find him or herself in serious peril, but he or she does not get beaten up to any serious extent. All of the cast represent themselves as individuals, rather than large impersonal institutions like a national government, the mafia, the CIA, etc.” The work must be at least 65,000 words. The prize is $10,000 advance against royalties, and the deadline is 30 November 2026. Minotaur is an imprint of Macmillan.
Details here (scroll down).
Minotaur is also running a First Crime Novel Competition, the deadline for that is 14th December 2026.

This is an international contest for young writers (two categories, grades 9-11 and grade 12), and the categories are fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. See guidelines for word limits/requirements. There are first, second, and third prizes in each of the three categories. Young Writers Award finalists and winners are also eligible for undergraduate scholarships at Bennington of varying degrees, up to $70,000 per year (see their submission form for details).
Value: $2,000, $1,000, $500, $250 each in each category, and scholarships
Deadline: 1 November 2026
Open for: Students in 9th to 12th grades and 12th grade
Details here.
(Apart from writing, Bennington College has awards in many disciplines – see all categories in their Young Creators Awards here.)

 

This prize is for an author over the age of 40 for a debut fiction novel, published or self-published in the UK (see guidelines), or unpublished. The author must not have had a novel published before, barring works for children. For unpublished manuscripts, submit the first 30 pages; longlisted authors will be asked to provide the full manuscript. And, “The novel must be a full length work in the English language by one author (not a translation, poetry, or short story collection and not a work for children).
The work must be a work of 'fiction or imagination or substantially of fiction or imagination'.”  
Value: £4,000, £2,000, £1,000
Deadline: 31 October 2026
Open for: Debut novelists over 40
Details here.
 

These are fellowships for historical research by the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Massachusetts, for those who wish to produce “imaginative, non-formulaic works dealing with pre-twentieth-century American history.” Typically, two Hearst Foundations Fellowships and two Robert and Charlotte Baron Fellowships are awarded annually. Fellowship projects may include (but are not limited to) historical novels, documentary films, TV programs, radio broadcasts, plays, screenplays, illustration and other graphic arts, magazine or newspaper articles, and non-fiction works of history for a general audience, either for adults or for children. “The fellowships will provide the recipients with the opportunity for a period of uninterrupted research, reading, and collegial discussion at the Society, located in Worcester, Massachusetts.”
Value: $2,200, residency  
Deadline: 5 October 2026 (see guidelines)
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
 

This is a magazine of speculative fiction and poetry starring animals, and they will open for submissions for a brief period next month. Regarding the kind of stories they want: “Stories with anthropomorphized animals as viewpoint characters and protagonists
-Animal-centric speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror)
-Underrepresented voices (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent) that engage with animal myths, tales, and futures
-Stories with uncommonly written about animals as protagonists
-Stories that dig deep into the senses and experience of animals
-Stories that explore the cultures and societies of animals, not just cultures and societies with animals. Think of rabbit language and warren infrastructure in Watership Down, or the clans and warrior code of feral cats in Warriors.” They also welcome translations. They publish one essay per issue, as well. Submission is via their Moksha portal.  
Submission period: 1st to 15th October 2026
Length: 1,000-5,000 words (prefer 3,000-4,000 words) for fiction, up to 5 poems, 1,000-2,500 words for essay
Pay: $0.08/word for stories, $50 for poetry, $100 for essay
Details here.

This speculative fiction magazine publishes two flash fiction stories a month.
Deadline: 11 October 2026
Length: Up to 500 words
Pay: $75
Details here.
 

They will soon open a brief submission window for fiction. “Adventitious hopes to be an intelligently mischievous literary magazine for the curious and unclassifiable. … We love speculative, surreal, and literary fiction. We admire its reach, its weirdness, and its refusal to color inside any lines. We believe in the work of the magazines and writers already making noise in that space, and we want to join in the ruckus: to publish fiction that’s as thoughtful as it is surprising, and to do it with style, respect, and a great sense of nonsense.” You can read about them here. “We want stories that offer a sense of wonder through their language, characters, plots, or all of the above. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and all speculative/surreal will always be welcomed, but we’re also happy with stories that shock and delight right here on this plane of existence.” They are looking for stories from micro to novelette length. They will open for fiction submissions on 1st October and close on 5th or when they hit their submission cap, whichever is earlier (they usually reach the cap within hours of opening); their submission portal will open during the submission period.
Submission period: 1st to 5th October 2026 (or until filled)
Length: Flash up to 1,000 words; short fiction of 1,000-6,000 words; novelettes of 6,000-17,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here and here.
 

They want fun speculative fiction; stories must have elements of science fiction or fantasy. “A fun story, at its core, is one that works on the premise that things aren’t all bad; that ultimately, good wins out. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your story has to be silly or lighthearted (though it certainly can be). Joy can be made all the more powerful when juxtaposed against tragedy. In the end, though, there should be hope, and we want stories that are truly fun for as many different kinds of people as possible.
Swashbuckling adventure, deadly intrigue, and gleeful romance are some of the most obvious examples of what we’re looking for, but we won’t say no to more subtle or complicated topics, as long as they fit under the wider “fun” umbrella.” The first week of submissions (15th to 21st September) is reserved for writers of color only. Submission is via their Moksha portal.
Reading period: 15th to 21st September for writers of color only; 22nd September to 15th October 2026 for all writers
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.03/word
Details here.

One Story: Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship: They will soon open for applications. This international fellowship is for an early-career writer of fiction who has not yet published a book and is not currently nor has ever been enrolled in an advanced degree program – see guidelines. “We are seeking writers whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference. This means writing that centers, celebrates, or reclaims being marginalized through the lens of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, illness, disability, trauma, migration, displacement, dispossession, or imprisonment.” Apart from the $2,000 stipend and tuition to attend One Story’s week-long summer writers’ conference, it offers free tuition for all One Story online classes and programming; a full manuscript review & consultation with One Story Executive Editor Hannah Tinti (story collection or novel in progress up to 150 pages/35,000 words). A fiction writing sample of 3,000-5,000 words is part of the submission requirement. The application period is 8th September to 13th October 2026; this category will open in their Submittable during the application period. Details here.
And, One Story will open for fiction submissions in the fall; their One Teen Story Contest for teenagers will open in the fall, as well.

These are fellowships for historical research by the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Massachusetts, for those who wish to produce “imaginative, non-formulaic works dealing with pre-twentieth-century American history.” Typically, two Hearst Foundations Fellowships and two Robert and Charlotte Baron Fellowships are awarded annually. Fellowship projects may include (but are not limited to) historical novels, poetry, podcasts, documentary films, TV programs, radio broadcasts, plays, screenplays, illustration and other graphic arts, magazine or newspaper articles, and non-fiction works of history for a general audience, either for adults or for children.
Value: $2,400, residency  
Deadline: 5 October 2026
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.

They publish work “that addresses the human experiences, realities, and consequences of war and geopolitical violence through literature and art.” They accept non-fiction of up to 4,000 words (interviews, essays, and narrative non-fiction), fiction (including flash and excerpts), poetry, translations, and art. All works will be considered for online and print.
They’re also reading submissions for two special features: The America Feature (non-fiction, fiction, poetry, art – “for a special feature on America that documents, illustrates, or addresses geopolitical violence in the United States”), and The Iran Feature (translations – “Consequence Forum invites previously unpublished translations from Farsi into English that examine the manifold human, cultural, psychological, or historical consequences of war in Iran”), apart from unthemed work. See their Duosuma for details on these features. Pay is $30-50 for print prose, $40 for online prose, and $20-30 for poetry. The deadline is 15th October 2026. Details here and here

They want “work about how we seek out, discover, and grasp onto connection. Into the woods. Across a line. Beneath the ocean. Along a seam. Into the branches of an alternate present or the crevasse of an alternate future. Across the rifts between one another. And then, once we find one other, the myths we make. We’re excited to see as many interpretations of this broad theme as there are stars in the night sky. We’re open to work of all genres, with a particular fondness for anything that moves beyond realism in form or content or spirit.” And, “We’ll happily consider fiction and CNF in all prose forms—prose poetry, micro, flash, and beyond”. Do not send lineated poetry. They will open for submissions on 20th June and close on 20th July 2025, or when they hit their submission cap, whichever is earlier. Do not send work outside of the reading period.
Opens on: 20th June 2025 (see guidelines)
Length: Up to 3,000 words for prose
Pay: $50
Details here.

This is a new magazine, and they’re currently reading submissions for issue 3 – fiction, essays, and they publish 1-2 poems per issue, as well. For fiction, they say, “we want the uncertain, the tensile, the weird. death kit is unplotted.” Book and film reviews are unpaid.
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 2,000 words for prose
Pay: £50 for stories, £25 for essays and poems
Details here.

This UK-based magazine accepts fiction and poetry. They are open for submissions for Issue VII “on any theme. All work must be completely free of violence in order to be accepted.”
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 3,000 words for short fiction, up to 500 words for flash fiction, up to 42 lines for poetry
Pay: £50 for short stories, £30 for flash fiction, £20 for poetry
Details here (scroll down).
(And, an Ireland-based magazine that is open now is Channel, “a literary magazine born out of the climate crisis, publishing poetry and prose with an environmentalist perspective.” Fiction and poetry are open till 30th June 2025, and non-fiction is open on an ongoing basis. They pay €35-250. Details here.)

Interzone is a Europe-based magazine that accepts fantastika of up to 17,500 words. And, “Translations are accepted, even if the story has been published previously in a language other than English – please include the name of the translator.”
Deadline: Open now
Length: Up to 17,500 words
Pay: EUR1.5¢/word
Details here.

This magazine publishes hardcore crime fiction. They will open a very short submission window soon. “There will be two submission windows per year in which writers will have 24 hours to send in their work.” Their next submission window is 1st July 2025. Do not send work outside of this date.
Opens and closes on: 1st July 2025 (see guidelines)
Length: 2,000-3,500 words
Pay: $50
Details here.

They accept fee-free submissions of flash prose (Black and Indigenous authors can also submit longer prose fee-free – see guidelines), poetry, and art. “We are drawn to beautiful language, resonant images, and we crave narrative.” They read throughout the year, with cut-off dates for issues.
Deadline: 30 June 2025 (for the Autumn issue)
Length: Up to 1,000 words for flash prose, up to 3 poems
Pay: $120
Details here and here.

They’re open for a special dark fantasy and psychological thriller flash fiction call, for “prose that is troubling, that explores our darkest fears. We're not quite sure we're ready for this to be honest, but that's part of the appeal. We are looking for literary prose. We do not want to weather gratuitous violence or cruelty, but we do--or at least we think we do--want to feel fright, unease, a racing heart. If you are a writer of stories that do this, this call is for you. Think Shirley Jackson. Our usual guidelines apply. … Please indicate that your submission is for the Dark Fantasy and Psychological thriller submissions call.” 
Apart from this call, they’re also open for unthemed flash narratives – fiction, non-fiction, and hybrid (between fiction and non-fiction). They also accept reviews of flash collections, essays on craft, and articles on teaching flash for their blog; these are unpaid. Submissions are fee-free until 30th June; after that, there will be a charge for submissions through the rest of the reading period.
Deadline: 30 June 2025 for fee-free submissions
Length: Up to 1,000 words
Pay: $300 for dark fantasy and psychological thriller fiction; $100 for general submissions ($150 with audio)
Details here and here (they have various categories in Submittable, please be sure to submit in the correct one)

“Chthonic Matter is a quarterly offering of tales from the darkside. Its contents range in tone from the quiet horror of Shirley Jackson to the bleak stylings of Thomas Ligotti — and everything in between.” And, “All stories selected during this reading period will be published in one of the four issues expected to appear in 2026.”
Deadline: 30 June 2025
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $10 per 1,000 words
Details here.

This Canadian literary magazine publishes fiction, non-fiction, experimental/hybrid work, interviews, reviews, poetry, and poetry in translation. They accept a limited number of fee-free submissions every month, and read year-round. If a particular genre is closed, it will reopen on the 1st of the following month.
Deadline: 25 June 2025, or until filled
Length: Varies
Pay: CAD150 for fiction; CAD200/essay; CAD100/interview or review; CAD50/poem, capped at CAD100; CAD50+/experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece
Details here and here.

Electric Lit will open on 23rd June for fiction submissions of 2,000-10,000 words for its Recommended Reading section. They will close when they read a submission cap, or on 6th July, whichever is earlier.
Opens on: 23rd June 2025 (see guidelines)
Length: 2,000-10,000 words
Pay: $300
Details here.