Call for Submissions

The Margaret C. Annan Memorial Prizes
Established in Margaret Annan's memory by her students, the prize supports three summer writing projects—one each in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—and is awarded to third-year students in recognition of excellence in creative writing and in support of a summer writing project. 

• Prize: $1000 (one prize for each genre)
• Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry
• Eligibility: Third-year students in the College.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit a maximum of 10 pages in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
    • Fiction and Nonfiction submissions must be double-spaced.
  • Entry is limited to one submission per genre. (Students can, however, submit different pieces to multiple genres.)
  • Please follow any additional formatting guidelines listed on the submission pages (links below).
• Submission Deadline: March 15, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Links:
  • Fiction: https://forms.office.com/r/1H33c7X4t2
  • Nonfiction: https://forms.office.com/r/7yB1jGPFSV
  • Poetry: https://forms.office.com/r/3UUcfVvvC5 

The David Blair McLaughlin Prizes
Awarded for essays written by students in the graduating class who demonstrate special skill and sense of form in the writing of English prose.

• First Prize: $300 | Second Prize: $150
• Genre: Nonfiction
• Eligibility: Fourth-year students and/or College students in the graduating class.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit one submission (maximum of 25 double-spaced pages) in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
  • Entry is limited to only one essay submission per student. (Students can, however, submit to multiple prizes.)
  • Please follow any additional formatting guidelines listed on the submission page (link below).
• Submission Deadline: March 15, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/FnPGW8Tdn1 

The Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prizes
Awarded for original short stories or novel extracts written by students in the graduating class.

• First Prize: $1000 | Second Prize: $500
• Genre: Fiction
• Eligibility: Fourth-year students and/or College students in the graduating class.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit one short story or novel excerpt (maximum of 25 double-spaced pages) in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
  • If your submission is a novel excerpt, please note this at the beginning of the submission. You may also include a brief explanatory preference if necessary.
  • Entry is limited to one submission per student. (Students can, however, submit to multiple prizes.)
  • Please follow any additional formatting guidelines listed on the submission page (link below).
  • Submission Deadline: March 15, 2026 at 11:59PM
  • Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/50GBZ5GUpY 

The John Billings Fiske Poetry Prize
Awarded for the best original poem or cycle of poems by a student in the graduating class.

• Prize: $500
• Genre: Poetry
• Eligibility: Fourth-year students and/or College students in the graduating class.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit one poem, or cycle of poems (maximum of 10 pages), in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
  • Entry is limited to one submission per student. (Student's can, however, submit to multiple prizes.)
  • Please follow any additional formatting guidelines listed on the submission page (link below).
• Submission Deadline: March 15, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/n4VMZCT512

2026 Student Literary Translation Prize 
The UChicago Literary Translation Prize, established in memory of translator Farouk Abdel Wahab Mustafa, recognizes outstanding undergraduate and graduate excellence in literary translation. This prize fosters awareness of the art of literary translation, offers support for emerging translators, and celebrates the work of our students.  

In 2026 our two distinguished judges, award-winning literary translator and scholar Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, and acclaimed translator of fiction, poetry, and critical theory Matthew Smith, will select a graduate student winner, an undergraduate student winner, and a finalist in both categories. The two winning submissions will be recognized with an award of $250 each and the two finalists will each receive an award of $100. Submissions are due Friday, January 16 at midnight. You can learn more about submission criteria, and find the submission portal, here. 

Sliced Bread

Deadline: Rolling. Sliced Bread, a student-run literary and arts publication accepting work from UChicago undergraduates only, wants your art, photography, poetry, and short prose! They print one or two books per year, and accept art, prose, poetry, and nonfiction. They are currently accepting submissions for their Spring 2026 edition on a rolling basis through this link. Their editorial team meets at 8pm every Thursday in Bartlett Lounge, for those interested in the production side of a literary magazine. Follow their Instagram, @slicedbreadmag, for more information. 

Euphony

Deadline: Rolling. Euphony is a biannual, student-run literary magazine at UChicago; they publish fiction, poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and book reviews submitted from new and established writers from around the country. Their submissions are running; print magazines are released in the winter and spring, and online publication is year-round. They meet Mondays from 7-8pm in the Reynolds Club South Lounge. Read more about their submission details here.   

The Chicago Shady Dealer  
Deadline: Rolling. Always open for submissions, The Shady Dealer is UChicago’s oldest and most well-known satirical newspaper. They publish 3 print issues a quarter, and continually online. They also hold open pitch and writing meetings in Harper Memorial 145 every Sunday at 7pm. Check out more submission details here.  

Blacklight Magazine

Deadline: Rolling. Blacklight Magazine is a student magazine dedicated to platforming marginalized voices in the literary and art space: "come exist with us." They welcome any medium of writing and art, including photography.  Blacklight strongly encourages interested people to follow their instagram at @blacklightmag. View their website here. Questions can be directed to blacklightuchicago@gmail.com.

The Seabird Writing Conference

Deadline: Rolling. The Seabird Writing Conference (SWC) is an intercollegiate organization (with chapters at Brown/RISD, Northwestern, Princeton, UChicago, Dickinson, Hamilton, ASU, and USF) dedicated to helping writers at all levels from across the US improve their writing. The parent organization hosts weekly writer's workshops, special themed events, and help each other find opportunities to publish their work. SWC members also have the opportunity to publish their workshopped pieces in The Bird Blog.

The UChicago Chapter aims to foster a community of student writers across campus, and bring awareness to writing events happening across Chicago. They meet a few times a quarter for write-ins, group writing exercises, and field trips to Chicago-area bookstores, cafés, and book talks. To join their Discord server, which facilitates workshops and communicates scheduling logistics, visit the SWC website here.

UChicago Writers' Workshop

Independently from the workshop courses offered through the Creative Writing department, Writers' Workshop is an RSO that seeks to develop the creative writing ability of its members-- student writers from all across campus-- through weekly fiction and poetry workshops. Their meetings primarily involve group discussions of pieces submitted by members, along with creative writing exercises. They welcome writers of any level. Fiction workshops meet Monday and Wednesday, and poetry meets on Tuesday; all meetings are 7-8:30pm in Harper Memorial Library. Find out more by joining their list-host via this address: uchicagowritersworkshop@lists.uchicago.edu

Memoryhouse Magazine

Deadline: rolling. Memoryhouse Magazine, run by UChicago students, curates a semiannual collection of works that present a personal narrative from across all genres of creative nonfiction and visual art. They give some preference to contributors with a significant connection to the Chicago area. They are looking for writing that uses innovative forms and techniques and writing that teaches the reader something new. To submit and view more guidelines, visit this link; you can visit their Instagram at @memoryhouseuchicago. 

Strange Horizons
Strange Horizons is a weekly, online magazine of and about speculative fiction, publishing fiction, poetry, reviews, essays, interviews, roundtable discussions, and art. Work published in Strange Horizons has been shortlisted for, or won, Hugo, Nebula, Rhysling, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree Jr, and World Fantasy Awards. They are currently accepting art, nonfiction, and poetry on a rolling basis. All accepted submissions are paid based on category. The Strange Horizons fiction team also offers two potential resources for people interested in submitting work: advice designed to minimize the amount of anxiety-driven withdrawals of submissions, and “stories we’ve seen too often,” an archived list created by a previous editorial team, humorously snapshotting the tropes and cliches they observed in submissions at the time. 

Jerboa Lit Flash Fiction Contest
Jerboa Lit, a growing organization for flash fiction, offers quarterly, timed contests for flash fiction writing. Over the course of 48 hours, competing writers craft a 500-word story incorporating all elements of a prompt (containing a specific genre, item, and short phrase). Registration is $25, and there's a $1,000 prize for first place, with prize money being paid out through fifth place. In addition to being a fun exercise with the chance to win prize money, each short story will also receive editorial feedback, and authors retain all rights to their work (so they can submit their story elsewhere after the contest if they choose). Jerboa Lit's fourth challenge is open now– the event will take place March 13-15, and registration will close 1 hour before the challenge is announced. They're also running their first ever 250-word mini-contest from February 27-March 1, open for registration until 1 hour before prompt release, and offering a $500 first prize with a $15 sign-up fee.

Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translation
Exchanges, edited by students of the Iowa Translation Workshop, is an online journal of literary translation published biannually. Their upcoming spring issue, RESONANCE, seeks English-translated poetry, short or excerpted fiction, plays, and literary nonfiction that explores and expands the idea of resonance: stories that echo, leave an imprint, and continue to resound and reverberate long after the last word. They will be accepting submissions until February 28. Please note that the submission requirements include a Translator's Note, reflecting on a part of the translation process that will help readers contextualize, appreciate, and understand the piece being submitted. To learn more about submission guidelines and how to submit, click here.  

Brink
Brink is an in-print literary journal dedicated to publishing hybrid, cross-genre work of emerging and established creatives who often reside outside traditional artistic disciplines. By providing space primed to instigate new ideas, Brink fosters dialogue and collaborative community across disciplines and cultural divides. Submissions are open for The Brink Literary Award for Hybrid Writing until February 28. The winner will receive $1,000, publication in the journal, and 4 copies of the issue in which their work appears. For full submission information and guidelines, view this page. 

Levitate
Levitate is a student run, online and print literary and arts magazine at the Chicago High School for the Arts. Levitate accepts many different art forms such as fiction, poems, short stories, personal essays, letters, comic strips, and photography. They look for work that is unique and thought-provoking. Their 10th Issue is themed Lost & Found, but they also accept work that goes outside this theme. Submissions close February 28. To view more about submission guidelines and to view the submission portal, click here.  

Sagebrush Review
Sagebrush Review, established in 2024, is a student-run literary and arts journal at the University of Texas at San Antonio. They publish a variety of creative work, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography, annually in print and online. They seek work from diverse voices and perspectives and want well-crafted pieces that engage and surprise them. Submissions close for their 2026 issue on February 28. To read more about submission guidelines and view the submission portal, click here.

Copper Nickel 
Copper Nickel is the national literary journal housed at the University of Colorado Denver. They publish a broad range of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and writing in translation, with a particular—but not exclusive—interest in work that considers sociohistorical context. Work published in Copper Nickel has been reprinted in the Best American Poetry, Best American Short Stories, Best Small Fictions, Best Literary Translations, and Pushcart Prize anthologies. The deadline for their current submission window is March 1. View the submission guidelines here. 

Enchanted Living 
Described by the New York Times as “as though Martha Steward and Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene” had a magazine baby,” Enchanted Living is a quarterly print magazine that celebrates "all things enchanted.” Submissions for their Summer 2026 issue, which has the theme "Tolkien/Elven," closes March 1. This issue is seeking short fiction, creative nonfiction, multimedia work, and poetry. View more about submission guidelines here.  

Blacklight Magazine
Blacklight Magazine is a UChicago-based student magazine dedicated to platforming marginalized voices in the literary and art space: "come exist with us." They welcome any medium of writing and art, including photography. Their Winter print issue, "Skeleton," is seeking prose, poetry, art, and photography from Queer and BIPOC students. Their theme description is "this winter, Blacklight wants you to bare your bones. What feelings rattle deep within you and rise to the surface? When the muscles, fat, skin, sinew, and hair all fade away, what story will your bones tell about you? What have you buried, and what will you dig up? What discoveries will be made of the person who wept, laughed, and screamed?" Their deadline has been extended to March 14; please visit their Instagram for more information. to submit, please use this form.

Harpur Palate 
Harpur Palate, started in 2001 by MFA students of Creative Writing at Binghamton University and fully digital since 2021, is interested in visceral, weird, and forward-looking poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Their Spring/Summer issue submission period for all genres is currently open until March 15, 2026, at 11:00pm CST, or until they reach their submission cap of 200 submissions. Harpur Palate is also running three contests, which will also close on March 15. The application fee to the contests is $19; winners will receive a $500 prize along with publication. To view more about the submission guidelines and visit the submission portal, visit these links. 

How Is Hyde Park? Collective
How is Hyde Park? is a collective writing project asking a simple question at a specific moment in time. Those living, working, and studying in Hyde Park are prompted to answer the question ("How are you?") through any manner of creative writing they’d like: poetry, fiction, memoir, stream of consciousness, listing, fragments, interviews, reviews, confessions, scenes, scripts, screenplays, monologues—however best fits their story! The various works will be compiled into a digital chapbook which will serve as a time capsule of sorts, designed to archive both individual and communal experiences and lay out a network for interpersonal unity. Organized by third-year Creative Writing/English major Tyler Sookralli, this publication is intended to allow writers-- students and independent creators alike-- a space for unfiltered expression, to grapple with harrowed voices in the face of ever-changing times. The chapbook is looking for anything that captures the essence of Hyde Park, as overt or otherwise it may be. To submit, upload your piece to the How is Hyde Park? Submission Form by March 15. If you have any further questions, please reach out to trsookralli@uchicago.edu or howishydepark@gmail.com. 

Pebble 

Pebble, a new independent press interested in “lyrical, attentive, and devotional” writing, is soliciting submissions for an anthology about Lake Michigan in wintertime. Work should specify geography along the lake rather than referring to it in general terms, and preference is given to works that are accompanied by black-and-white illustrations. They have specifically reached out for submissions from UChicago students and community members. To submit, send work to pebblechicago@gmail.com by March 15, 2026. For the full submission guidelines, view this page. 

Black Fox Literary Magazine
Black Fox is an international print and online literary magazine with eclectic taste. They publish contemporary short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art, and they curate a mix of new and established writers in each issue. Their aesthetic focuses on works that are "fresh, innovative, emotional, and thought-provoking," but most of all tries to connect people and inspire change. They also especially like work from "under-represented styles and genres." Currently, Black Fox has free general submission categories open for Poetry, General Fiction, YA fiction, Flash Fiction, and Nonfiction until May 31 at 11:00pm. They also have an open contest ($12 entry fee, $325 prize) called "Fairy Tale Remix 2.0," for pieces that reimagine classic fairy tales from around the world, which will close on March 31 at 11:00pm. To learn more about their submission guidelines, visit their Submittable page.

Outskirts 
Outskirts is an online literary journal that publishes poetry, short stories, essays, hybrid works, and visual art. They want writing that challenges the constructs of what’s interesting, valuable, or sacred. While interested in place-based writing, they have a broad understanding of what “place” can be — a body, a mind, a cookie jar, a mountain range. There is a $3 submission fee that can we waived if requested. They are currently accepting submissions for their Issue 03 until April 18. To read more about the guidelines and view the submission portal click here.  

Permafrost 
Permafrost is an online and print magazine at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid works. They are looking for work that exemplifies an understanding of each genre's conventions without shying from the vulnerable, the difficult, or the bizarre. Submission close April 30. To read more about submission guidelines or to view the submission portal click here. 

Submissions for our annual New Voices and Ron Offen Poetry Prize contests are now closed.  

The New Voices Series, sponsored by the College, invites early-career writers to campus to read their work alongside student writers from the University of Chicago.  The Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series, established in memory of poet and editor Ron Offen, invites a Chicago poet to campus to read their work alongside a student writer from the University of Chicago.  

The visiting writers will each select a student from the pool of submissions to introduce and to read before them at their respective events. The selected student writers are invited to a celebratory dinner with the visiting writer and Creative Writing faculty members after their reading. In addition, each of the selected students will receive a prize of $100. 

In February 2026, our visiting writers include Imani Elizabeth Jackson (Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series, Feb. 3, 2026), Carina del Valle Schorske (New Voices in Nonfiction, Feb. 10, 2026), Alex Foster (New Voices in Fiction, Feb. 17, 2026), and Jake Rose (Phoenix Poets New Voices in Poetry, Feb. 24, 2026). 

This year’s New Voices and Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series submission opportunities are listed below. Please note you will need to sign into your UChicago Microsoft 365 account to access the submission forms. 

Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series

• Visiting Poet: Imani Elizabeth Jackson
• Event Date: February 3, 2026
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate student. Must be available on February 3 at 5pm for the reading.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit 3-5 pages of poetry in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
  • Title the document file as: [Last Name] - [Submission title] - Offen Prize
  • Do not include your name inside the document. (Submissions will be anonymous when the writer views them.)
  • Please only submit one submission per contest. (You can, however, submit to multiple contests.)
• Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/pXL3N3gD5A

Imani Elizabeth Jackson is a poet from Chicago. Her writings appear in Apogee, BOMB, TriQuarterly, Annulet, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, Futurepoem’s 2020 Other Futures Award, the Arkansas International’s inaugural C.D. Wright Award (selected by Hanif Abdurraqib), and several awards from Brown University. Under the name mouthfeel, she co-authored the poetry-cookbook Consider the Tongue (2019) with S*an D. Henry-Smith; she also contributed to Francesca Capone’s Weaving Language: Lexicon (Essay Press, 2022). She is the author of the chapbooks saltsitting (reissued by g l o s s, 2020) and Context for arboreal exchanges (Belladonna*, 2023) and the book Flag (Futurepoem, 2024). Imani also collaborates with Madeleine Le Cesne and Isra Rene as donk, an experimental kitchen. 

New Voices in Nonfiction 

• Visiting Writer: Carina del Valle Schorske
• Event Date: February 10, 2026
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate student. Must be available on February 10 at 5pm for the reading.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit 3-5 pages of nonfiction in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
  • Title the document file as: [Last Name] - [Submission title] - New Voices NF
  • Do not include your name inside the document. (Submissions will be anonymous when the writer views them.)
  • Please only submit one submission per contest. (You can, however, submit to multiple contests.)
• Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/e3i0mbyRBh

Carina del Valle Schorske is a writer, translator, and wannabe backup dancer. Her debut essay collection, The Other Island, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books. It was recently awarded a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. She writes about Caribbean culture, literary politics, diasporic dramas, and the songs she can’t stop singing to herself, and essays have been published many places including The Believer, The Cut, The Point, and the New York Times Magazine, where she is now a contributing writer. Her profile of Bad Bunny was featured on CBS, and her story about grief and belonging on apocalyptic dance floors won a National Magazine Award. As a translator, del Valle Schorske focuses on Puerto Rican poetry, especially the work of Marigloria Palma. Her own poetry has been featured in a variety of small journals and anthologies and has been supported by fellowships from CantoMundo, MacDowell, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She has a PhD in English & Comparative Literature from Columbia University. 

New Voices in Fiction

• Visiting Writer: Alex Foster
• Event Date: February 17, 2026
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate student. Must be available on February 17 at 5pm for the reading.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit 3-5 pages of fiction in PDF or Doc/Docx format
  • Title the document file as: [Last Name] - [Submission title] - New Voices Fiction
  • Do not include your name inside the document. (Submissions will be anonymous when the writer views them.)
  • Please only submit one submission per contest. (You can, however, submit to multiple contests.)
• Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/rFuRqVrpPF

Alex Foster graduated from the University of Chicago in 2017, majoring in economics with a minor in creative writing, before getting his MFA in creative writing from New York University. His debut novel,  Circular Motion, was published in May 2025 by Grove Atlantic. It was  longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. In addition to writing, he  is a book editor at Macmillan with the Holt and Metropolitan imprints, where he has worked on the publication of  New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning literary fiction and political nonfiction.

Phoenix Poets New Voices in Poetry

• Visiting Poet: Jake Rose
• Event Date: February 24, 2026
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate or graduate student. Must be available on February 24 at 5pm for the reading.
• Guidelines:
  • Submit 3-5 pages of poetry in PDF or Doc/Docx format.
  • Title the document file as: [Last Name] - [Submission title] - Phoenix
  • Do not include your name inside the document. (Submissions will be anonymous when the writer views them.)
  • Please only submit one submission per contest. (You can, however, submit to multiple contests.)
• Submission Deadline: December 5, 2025 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: https://forms.office.com/r/s3UbWPHgM6

Jake Rose is a poet, artist, and educator living in California’s Central Valley. Rose teaches at the University of California, Davis, and has published poems in West Branch,  The Seventh Wave, and  Adult Groceries, among other journals.  JOAN, winner of the Phoenix Emerging Poets Book Prize from the University of Chicago Press, is forthcoming in March 2026. Other projects include  The Art of the Death, a book-length erasure poem;  Spectropoetics, a land-based project in interspecies writing; and The Month Books, a series of handmade chapbooks exploring chronic illness and hybrid form.