Calls for Submissions October 2025

Each month we curate a list of contests, fellowships, and other writing opportunities with approaching deadlines. Opportunities will be posted in the month prior to their deadlines, so that you have ample time to submit your work or applications.

Fiction Contests

Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Competition
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $30
Deadline: October 1, 2025

Nonfiction Contests

River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Book Contest
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $1,000 + publication
Entry fee: $27
Deadline: October 31, 2025

Poetry Contests

APR/Honickman First Book Prize
Eligibility: U.S. writers who have not published a book-length collection of poems
Prize: $3,000 + publication
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: October 1, 2025

Alice James Award
Eligibility: Emerging & established poets
Prize: $2,000 + publication
Entry fee: $30
Deadline: October 17, 2025

Benjamin Saltman Poetry AwardEligibility: All writers
Prize: $3,000 + publication
Entry fee: $25
Deadline: October 31, 2025

Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry
Eligibility: Female poets who have yet to publish a full-length book of poems
Prize: $1,000 + publication + residency
Deadline: October 31, 2025

Multi-Genre Contests

Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize
Eligibility: All writers
Prize: $5,000
Entry fee: $30
Deadline: October 1, 2025

Writing Fellowships & Residencies

Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship
Eligibility: Early-career writer of fiction who has not yet published a book and is not currently nor has ever been enrolled in an MFA program
Prize: $2,000, manuscript review, free admission One Story’s week-long summer writers’ conference
Deadline: October 8, 2025

Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship
Eligibility: All US-born poets (or with parent born in the US)
Prize: $76,000
Deadline: October 15, 2025

Dora Maar Fellowship
Eligibility: Midcareer professionals in the arts and humanities
Prize: residency at Dora Maar House
Entry Fee: $25
Deadline: October 15, 2025