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Contest Submissions

Submissions for contests require a small submission fee ($5), and each contest will have a paid winner and runner-up, unless otherwise specified. All general guidelines for submissions apply to contest submissions. Guidelines specific to each contest will be explained on this page.

To read the work from winners in previous contests, visit our Contests page:

Previous Contests

Current Contest: Exhilaration is the Breeze

This contest opens April 9th and closes September 10th.

 

Have you ever been lost in the moment only to look up and find yourself in an unfamiliar place? Taking inspiration from Dickinson’s poem “Exhilaration is the Breeze,” explore how you have been transported from one place to another. What feelings accompanied this experience? How did you manage this realization? Contemplate moments of dislocation and how you discovered where you were. Did you try to become “un-lost” or did someone find you?

We are looking for submissions across all genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Visual Arts

First Place Prize: $50
Second Place Prize: $25

The Dos

  • Submission fee: $5 for each submission, and only one piece per submission.
  • Genre: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, or Visual Art.
  • Submission length: 500 to 2,000 words.
  • Format: Please submit written works as a DOC, DOCX, or PDF file. Please submit visual art submissions as JPEG files. Include the title of your piece in the “Submission Title” field on Submittable.
  • Language: Literary submissions must be written in English and may not exceed specified word limits.
  • Who can submit: Anyone!

The Don’ts

  • Don’t include your name in any of the attachments.
  • Don’t submit previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if your piece has been accepted somewhere else.
  • Current Inscape staff members may not enter or be considered for publication.
  • We do not accept pieces that invoke the name of deity as an expletive. We also ask that you refrain from submitting anything depicting gratuitous sexual, violent, or otherwise morally objectionable content.
  • Inscape celebrates original human creativity; in that spirit, submissions must be created by the author and/or artist and may not include any material generated by artificial intelligence.

Any submission that does not follow these guidelines will not be considered. Visit our contests page and get a feel for what we publish.

Button for submittable to submit writing.

Editor’s Weekly Contest

This contest runs every week from February 8th to April 16th.
Hosted by Inscape’s Editor-in-Chief, Paige Winegar Fetzer, the Editor’s Weekly contest is a free, ongoing poetry contest for Inscape Literary Magazine. Each week, writers are invited to submit one original poem responding to a theme from our posted theme list. Email a single poem in .docx format to editorweeklycontest@gmail.com.

Submissions should demonstrate care for craft and a thoughtful engagement with the chosen theme, whether through direct response, imaginative expansion, or subtle interpretation. Poems are due each Thursday at 12:00 p.m. Winners will be selected each week based on quality of craft and fidelity to the theme. The selected poem is chosen on Friday and featured on the Inscape website the following Monday.

The Dos

  • Genre: Poetry
  • Format: Please submit works as a DOCX file. Submit the file to the email linked above.
  • Language: Literary submissions must be written in English.
  • Who can submit: Anyone!

The Don’ts

  • Don’t submit previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if your piece has been accepted somewhere else.
  • Current Inscape staff members may not enter or be considered for publication.
  • We do not accept pieces that invoke the name of deity as an expletive. We also ask that you refrain from submitting anything depicting gratuitous sexual, violent, or otherwise morally objectionable content.
  • The use of artificial intelligence to create submissions for Inscape Journal or Inscape contests is prohibited.

Any submission that does not follow these guidelines will not be considered. Visit our contests page and get a feel for what we publish.

Editor's Weekly Themes