Call for Submissions

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 currently closed. 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. 

The Chicago Phoenix
The Chicago Phoenix is a new magazine directed towards University of Chicago students. They aim to be a "common force that brings together the many fragments of our campus" by publishing stories about University of Chicago life and current events from a variety of perspectives, and curating their issues "not for consensus but for conversation." Their aesthetic favors high-quality, well-argued, and witty writing with a taste for acerbic observation. They have published three print issues so far, and publish regularly on their website and on social media, and are looking for writers, artists, and visual editors to join their team. If interested in writing for The Chicago Phoenix, please visit this form; if interested in working with the Phoenix as an artist, visual editor, or social media manager, please visit this form. There is no deadline for this opportunity; they encourage interested students to reach out to them at  thechicagophoenix@gmail.com or through the contact form on their site.

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.

Fugue Journal  
Fugue Journal was established in 1990 at the University of Idaho. Fugue publishes poetry, fiction, essays, hybrid work, and visual art from established and emerging writers and artists. Fugue is managed and edited entirely by University of Idaho graduate students, with help from graduate and undergraduate readers. General submissions open on September 1 and close on November 15 and their annual prose and poetry contests run each spring. They publish one print issue each year (Spring/Early Summer) and publish writing online throughout the year. 

Blue Earth Review
Blue Earth Review is looking for ambitious and exuberant works of short fiction, essays, memoirs, poetry, and visual art that offer insights, complicate existing conversations, and enrich one's understanding of what it means to be human in this increasingly diverse world. We gravitate towards small, focused works in which every word matters. They read general submissions for all genres year-round. 

Thin Air Magazine
Thin Air Magazine is an MFA student led print and online magazine at Northern Arizona University. They publish poems, art, fiction, hybrid works, tiny films, nonfiction, humor, songs, paintings, collages, interpretative dances, jokes, audio projects, and other precious creations. They look for work that is playful but serious in form and content. Submission for their online magazine are open on a rolling basis. To read more about the guidelines and view the submission portal click here.

Submissions for Spring 2026 are now closed.  

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

Submissions for our annual New Voices and Ron Offen Poetry Prize contests will open later this autumn.   

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. 

This winter's our visiting writers include:

• Harriet Clark, New Voices in Fiction, February 2, 2027
• Amy Lee Scott, New Voices in Nonfiction, February 16, 2027
• Callie Siskel, Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series, February 23, 2027 
• Lloyd Wallace, Phoenix Poets New Voices in Poetry, March 2, 2027

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. 

New Voices in Fiction

• Visiting Writer: Harriet Clark
• Event Date: February 2, 2027
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate student. Must be available on February 2 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] - NV 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 4, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: TBA. 

Harriet Clark is the winner of the The Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for her short story "Descent" and has received fellowships from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Wallace Stegner program. The Hill is her debut novel. 

New Voices in Nonfiction 

• Visiting Writer: Amy Lee Scott
• Event Date: February 16, 2027
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate student. Must be available on February 16 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] - NV Nonfiction
  • 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 4, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: TBD. 

Amy Lee Scott is the author of When the World Explodes: Essays (Mad Creek Books/Ohio State University Press), which won the 2023 Gournay Prize. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. Her illustrated essays have appeared in The Iowa Review, New Ohio Review, and Tin House Online. Adopted from South Korea as an infant, and raised in suburban Los Angeles, she now lives with her family and tabby cat in Southeast Michigan. Learn more at amyleescott.com. 

Ron Offen Poetry Prize Series

• Visiting Poet: Callie Siskel
• Event Date: February 23, 2027
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate student. Must be available on February 23 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 4, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: TBA. 

Callie Siskel is the author of the poetry collection Two Minds (W. W. Norton, 2024) and the chapbook Arctic Revival, selected by Elizabeth Alexander for the Poetry Society of America. Her poems appear in the Atlantic, New York Review of Books, and Paris Review. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she is currently a Dornsife Fellow in General Education at the University of Southern California and a poetry editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

Phoenix Poets New Voices in Poetry

• Visiting Poet: Lloyd Wallace
• Event Date: March 2, 2026
• Eligibility: Any current UChicago undergraduate or graduate student. Must be available on March 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] - NV 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 4, 2026 at 11:59PM
• Submission Link: TBD

Lloyd Wallace lives in Pittsburgh, where he runs Poetry Nightly. His first book, Mammal Pit, won the Phoenix Emerging Poet Book Prize from the University of Chicago Press and will be released as part of their Phoenix Poets Series in March of 2027.