The Puritan seeks short fiction and poetry for writing contest and wants to pay you for regular submissions

The Puritan is an online, quarterly publication based in Toronto, Ontario committed to publishing the best in new fiction, non-fiction, poetry, interviews, and reviews. 

The Puritan seeks, above all, a pioneering literature. Submissions may push toward the symbolic frontier, challenging limitations and forging into previously unexplored aesthetic territory. But they may also revisit and revitalize traditional forms. We seek work wherever it lands on the conceptual spectrum, so long as it is original, intelligent, and engaging. 

Contest

The Inaugural Thomas Morton Memorial Prize in Literary Excellence recognizes the single best piece of short fiction and poem submitted to The Puritan. Submissions will be read and judged by the editors of The Puritan in a double-blind judging process. Fiction submissions are capped at 12,000 words, and submissions of poetry must be no longer than 3 pages in length.

Deadline: September 30th, 2012

The cost per individual submission is $10 

The winners will receive a prize of $650 for best fiction and $350 for best poem, a collection of books from a growing list of Canadian publishers (including Chaudiere Books, Coach House Books, Cormorant Books, ECW Press, Freehand Books, Goose Lane Editions, Insomniac Press, Mansfield Press, Pedlar Press, and Tightrope Books!), and will also be featured in an end-of-year Best-Of Print Anthology, to be published in late 2012.

Full contest rules here.

The Puritan accepts regular submissions, too – and pays for them:

Publication rates: 

$50 for a work of fiction or non-fiction

$50 for an interview

$50 for a review

$20 for a poem

The cutoff for the fall issue is September 15, 2012.

Fiction: Feel free to push boundaries. We have diverse tastes; try us out. Length is up to you, but a story over 10,000 words will only be considered if it is of exceptional quality. Stories of high quality and high word counts may be considered for serialization. Please read our last two (2) or three (3) issues in our ARCHIVE in order to familiarize yourself with work we have published in the past. Only send one (1) story at a time, unless you are writing flash fiction (or stories under 500 words), in which case you can send up to three (3).

Nonfiction: See above. Send only one (1) piece at a time. Non-fiction submissions can be anything from memoirs and creative non-fiction to academic essays on a literary subject. We're open to just about anything, but the more literary your topic, the better.

Poetry: Baffle us, tangle us up, or break our hearts. We're looking for poems of any length (including sequences and long poems). Send up to four (4) poems at a time.

Interviews: Interviews must be thoughtful, compelling, and original. Strive for depth. They must also be conducted with writers, publishers, editors, and other sorts involved in the world of books and publishing. Length is up to you. Please understand that your subject will be contacted in order to verify that your submission was indeed a legitimate conversation. Please supply your interview with a title that includes the name of your interviewee, such as "The Steadfast Heart": An Interview with William Bradford. Send only one interview at a time.

Reviews: We are looking for insightful and challenging reviews of recently released fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Reviews can be up to 3,000 words in length. We prefer to publish reviews of books released by small(er) Canadian publishers, but are open to other works, as well. Please supply your review with a title, and the necessary information about the book you are reviewing. Send only one review at a time. Abide by the following model - Title, Publisher, Year, Price, Number of Pages, and then your name.

Full submission guidelines here.

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Dundas, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Newmarket, Barrie, Gravenhurst, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.