This awards writers of any age and background a $15,000 fellowship to finish a significant writing project, and will begin accepting submissions in September. Fellowships are offered in Creative Writing (excluding poetry) and Steinbeck Studies; Fellows may be appointed in many fields, including fiction, drama, creative non-fiction, and biography. The creative writing fellowship does not require that there be any direct connection between your work and Steinbeck's. The emphasis of the program is on helping writers who have had some success but have not published extensively, and whose promising work would be aided by the financial support and sponsorship of the Center and the University's creative writing program. Please note, award recipients will be required to reside within the counties of the San Francisco Bay Area or adjacent counties of the California central coast or central valley during most of the fellowship period.
Value: Up to 6 fellowships of $15,000 each
Application period: September 2025 - 2026-01-04
Open for: Unspecified
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. The opportunity will likely appear on their Submittable closer to the date. Writers do not have to be PEN members to apply.
Value: Unspecified
Deadline: 2025-10-01
Open for: US writers
Details here.

This is for published fiction and non-fiction writers who were born in Africa or whose parents were born in Africa (see ‘Do I need to prove my African birth place?’ in FAQ). The money is paid monthly over a course of a year. For non-fiction writers, additional funds can be made available, and given over a period of 18 months. A published writing sample is part of the application (see guidelines). One of the scholarship requirements is, writers have to submit 10,000 words of writing every month (see guidelines). They also say, “The Foundation will not review or comment on the monthly submissions as they come in. However, each Scholar will be offered the opportunity to be mentored by an established author or publisher. In most cases the mentorship will begin after the book has been finished and the Scholarship period has ended.” And, “Scholars are also asked to donate to the MMF 20% of whatever they subsequently receive from the book they write during the period of their Scholarship. … These funds will be used to support other promising writers. The 20% return obligation should be considered a debt of honour rather than a legally binding obligation.”
Value: £18,000 for fiction writers, possible additional funds for non-fiction writers, mentorship
Deadline: 2025-09-22 (see ‘Important Dates’ in the entry requirements here.)
Open for: African writers
Details here (entry requirements) and here (application form).

These are for various disciplines, including creative arts – which include, but are not limited to, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, as well as journalism, and playwriting. Their guidelines also say, “Applicants may apply as individuals or in a group of two to three people working on the same project. We seek diversity along many dimensions, including discipline, career stage, race and ethnicity, country of origin, gender and sexual orientation, and ideological perspective. Although our fellows come from many different backgrounds, they are united by their demonstrated excellence, collegiality, and creativity.” The fellowship pays $78,000, and an additional $5,000 for project expenses; fellows also get an office at Harvard University, additional funds for moving expenses, childcare and housing, etc. The deadline for some disciplines, including creative arts, is in September.
Value: $78,000; additional funds for project expenses, and other things
Deadline: 2025-09-11
Open for: Published writers and journalists
Details here, here, here, and  here.
(And journalists wanting to apply for the Nieman Fellowships at Harvard should keep an eye on their website; applications will open later in the year. Fellows get $85,000 over a nine-month fellowship and other expenses, see their FAQ. The deadlines to apply are 1 December for international journalists, and 31 January for U.S. journalists; there are also the Nieman Visiting Fellowships for short-term research projects designed to advance journalism.)

These are residencies at the foot of the Jura mountains in Montricher, Switzerland, and they are open to all types of writers engaged in literary creation. While they give priority to writers and translators, they are also open to any other discipline as long as writing is at the heart of the project. “A percentage of the residencies are dedicated to nature writing, a form of fiction or creative non-fiction that raises awareness of nature, prepares for a sustainable future, and helps to better understand socio-environmental interconnections and the impact of human actions on nature.” There are no age or nationality restrictions. Writers working on a project with a collaborator can apply in pairs. Applications can be in English or French. Excerpts from your writing, both current and previous, can be in any language, not necessarily English or French. Fellowships can be from two weeks up to three months.
Value: Round-trip travel, CHF400 per week
Deadline: 2025-08-27 (17:00 CET time)
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.

This is a call to emerging writers of fiction resident in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Applicants must have had some fiction or short stories published in a recognised journal or anthology selected by an established publisher or editor. Application includes three samples of recent separate work of up to 500 words each.
Value: €2,500
Deadline: 17 August 2025
Open for: Those resident in Ireland/Northern Ireland
Details here.

These awards offer publication for two short story collections. Manuscripts must be at least 150 pages. They offer a standard publishing contract. Submissions are open between 1 August and 30 September 2025. Both winning manuscripts get publication under a standard University of Iowa Press contract. The prize is open for writers who have not published a volume of prose fiction.
Value: Standard contract
Deadline: 31 August 2025
Open for: Writers who have not published a volume of prose fiction
Details here.

This year, they want stories on the ‘Secrets’ theme; they “want to uncover the hidden truths, untold histories, private thoughts, and concealed moments that shape lives. Whether it’s a shocking revelation, a personal confession, a historical cover-up, or a truth no one dares to speak — we’re looking for stories that show the emotional weight and human impact of secrets. Writers are free to interpret the theme in any way they choose, in any genre, as long as the idea of a secret is central to the story.” Regarding genre, they say, “Any (except poetry or brutality/graphic/violent content)”. Please see their detailed guidelines. They want works of up to 1,500 words. The competition is open to anyone over 16 years of age.
Value: £100
Deadline: 31 August 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here.

This is an international award for those who publish their work through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing in English in any genre. Entrants must make the book available for sale in both digital and print versions through KDP between 1st May 2025 and 31st August 2025. The book must be at least 24 pages long, and can have a maximum of 2 co-authors. Please note, the books must be published through their KDP Select program (be only available on Amazon), and readers play a significant role in winner selection (see Terms & Conditions – which also lists ineligible countries/nationalities – and General Competition Questions / FAQ). The book can have up to two co-authors.
Value: £20,000
Deadline: 31 August 2025
Open for: All writers who publish on KDP Select (see guidelines)
Details here.

These are residencies at the foot of the Jura mountains in Montricher, Switzerland, and they are open to all types of writers engaged in literary creation. While they give priority to writers and translators, they are also open to any other discipline as long as writing is at the heart of the project. “A percentage of the residencies are dedicated to nature writing, a form of fiction or creative non-fiction that raises awareness of nature, prepares for a sustainable future, and helps to better understand socio-environmental interconnections and the impact of human actions on nature.” There are no age or nationality restrictions. Writers working on a project with a collaborator can apply in pairs. Applications can be in English or French. Excerpts from your writing, both current and previous, can be in any language, not necessarily English or French.
Value: Round-trip travel, CHF400 per week
Deadline: 27 August 2025 (17:00 CET time)
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.

Pen & Quill is a magazine for and by young writers. They are open for a summer contest, and only writers between ages 12 and 21 years can enter. The theme is ‘Afterlight / Afterglow’. ““There’s a moment after the sun has dipped beneath the horizon, but before the sky goes dark. Gold softens the edges of the world. Everything seems to glow. This period is referred to as "afterlight" or "afterglow."
This year, our theme is one of transition, memory, and becoming: the cusp of adolescence, the end of childhood, the beginning of something new. We’re looking for writing that captures the glow before darkness. The beauty of what flickers—briefly, beautifully—before it’s gone.” The categories are poetry, prose (fiction), and other (which do not fit poetry or fiction, like playwriting, screenwriting, autobiography/memoir, etc). Submit works of up to 1,500 words. Submission is via a form on their website.
Value: $200, $100, $50; $20 for a middle school standout
Deadline: 21 August 2025
Open for: Writers ages 12-21
Details here.

This international contest is for an full-length play in English, of at least 65 pages, and is for emerging playwrights. Translations, musicals, adaptations, and children's plays are not accepted. Apart from a cash prize, there will be publication of their manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale University.
Value: $10,000
Deadline: 15 August 2025
Open for: Emerging playwrights
Details here.

They want pitches (not submissions) from people of working-class background in the UK. The Bee is a UK-based “literary magazine, an online platform, a podcast, and the heart of a writing community. Our mission is to nurture, publish and promote the best new working-class writing by new and established working-class writers and visual artists.” Their first issue will be released in Autumn 2025. For the current call, they say, “We are looking for fiction (any genre), narrative non-fiction, non-fiction and journalism that captures something about being working class in Britain in 2025. This could be a feeling, or something you observe, or an experience. We’re particularly interested in stories about joy, community and hope. Your story can be any length from 500 to 3,000 words. It could be anything from a description of something to a short story.” They pay 30p. per word for nonfiction up to 1,000 words, and agreed-upon rates for longer works. For fiction, they pay a flat rate of £400 per story, regardless of length. See their pay rates here. Pitching is via a form on their website. The pitch deadline is 11 August 2025 (see guidelines). Details here.

Splinter is an Australia-based journal and they want submissions of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry from First Nations people for this issue.“Whether you’re Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori, Sámi or belong to another first peoples community, we want to hear your voice. For the First Nations issue, we are looking for writing that speaks to the weight and wonder of living as First Nations people — where past, present and future aren’t separate but walk together. … We’re interested in the fractures and the fight, the moments of stillness, the ridiculous. What does it mean to carry culture, to carry knowledge in a world that wants us to forget? What does survival feel like today — and what does joy look like in the cracks?” They publish profiles, essays, memoir, criticism, fiction, poetry, writing about writing, as well as experimental work. And, “For profiles, essays, writing about writing, and criticism, we are looking for pitches of ideas (rather than completed works). For memoir, poetry, and fiction we are looking for submission of completed works.” They pay AUD250-900, and the deadline is 3 August 2025. Details here (scroll down) and here.

They address the human consequences of war and geopolitical violence through literature and art. They accept nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art. For this issue, their translation feature is The Congo, for which they have detailed guidelines, including, “The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing one of the world’s deadliest and most underreported humanitarian crises with millions displaced by armed conflict, political instability, and resource-driven violence. In this moment, we call on translators to help bear witness, to bring forth voices from the region that speak to the realities of war and its human cost, as well as to survival and hope. For our Volume 18.1 Translations feature, Consequence invites literary translations from the languages of the Congo into English—especially from Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, and French—that engage with the lived realities and long shadows of war, colonialism, extraction, and displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the broader Congo Basin.
We welcome poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, oral histories, personal essays—whether historical or ongoing, collective or deeply personal.”
They pay $20-50 for writing. They opened for submissions in 15th July, and the deadline is 15th October 2025. Details here and here.

This Australian literary magazine wants submissions on the Climate theme. “Tell us about the temperature of your world, the climate of the sociopolitical sphere, the degrees of the biome. Send us your glacial essays, hot and humid fiction, scorching arid poetry and art and comics that radiate long after reading.
What are you weathering right now? What’s pressurising your atmosphere? What are the conditions of the land you live on? We want balmy descriptions, shivering accounts and stormy tales.” They publish nonfiction (1,250-2,000 words), as well as fiction, poetry, comics, and art. They pay AUD400 for nonfiction, AUD300-450 for fiction, and AUD300-550 for poetry. The deadline is 3 August 2025 (5 p.m. AEDT). Details here and here.

This Australian literary magazine wants submissions on the Climate theme. They publish fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics, and art. They accept submissions via a form.
Deadline: 3 August 2025 (5 p.m. AEDT)
Length: 500-2,500 words for fiction, 1,250-2,000 words for nonfiction, up to 3 poems
Pay: AUD300-450 for fiction, AUD400 for nonfiction, AUD300-550 for poetry
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.