A free contest, a contest with $4,100 in prizes, paying markets for your short pieces and a wealth other calls for submissions

American Kennel Club short story competition.  Free contest

The entry may feature either a pure bred or a mixed breed dog, but no talking dogs. Maximum length 2,000 words. Prizes: $500, $250, $100 and publication in AKC Family Dog magazine (as space allows).

Deadline: January 31, 2014.  Full contest rules here.

The Dream Quest One.com invites entries for their Poetry & Writing Contest. Accepting poems (30 lines max.) and short stories (5 pages max.) on any subject or theme. First prize poetry: US$250; first prize short fiction: US$500. Entry fees: $5 (poetry) and $10 (fiction).

Deadline: January 16, 2014, Guidelines here.

Online annual literary journal The Fieldstone Review (University of Saskatchewan) is accepting submissions of creative nonfiction and fiction (2,500 words max.), poetry (up to 3), and reviews for its 2014 issue. Limit: one entry per category per submission period. 

Deadline: January 15, 2014. Guidelines here.

Canadian literary food quarterly Beer and Butter Tarts seeks essays, articles, short fiction, poetry, and artwork for Issue #2. Submissions must be food-related and Canadian in topic (Halifax donairs, story of red fife wheat, etc.) and timeless. No recipes, events, news, etc. Payment: Copy and small stipend (TBD). 

Deadline: January 31, 2014. Guidelines here.

New independent magazine Bitterzoet (US) is looking for poetry, fiction, and artwork for their monthly online zine and bi-annual print editions, and mini chapbooks. Publishes work that engages in the “interplay between bitterness and sweetness, light and darkness, salvation and damnation.” Accepts poetry (3-8) prose (6 pages max), and artwork. Also looking for shorter pieces (“bonbons”) of poetry (10 lines max) and prose (150 words max.). 

No deadline; accepts submissions on on-going basis.  Guidelines here.

Glimmer Train, one of the world’s foremost literary journals, has been discovering and publishing new writers since 1990. Stories from Glimmer Train have appeared in  recent editions of the Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses; New Stories from the Midwest; the PEN / O. Henry Prize Stories; New Stories from the South; Best of the West; and Best American Short Stories.

Glimmer Train publishes only unsolicited stories and each year pays out more than $50,000 to fiction writers. You’re invited to submit to Glimmer Train’s open fiction contest or to send in a regular submission.

Open fiction contest: 1st place wins $2,500, and publication.

The 1st-place winner will be published in Issue 93 and will receive 20 copies of that issue. Second- and 3rd-places win, respectively, $1,000 and $600 (or, if published, $700).

Writing Guidelines

Most entries run from 2,000 to 8,000 words, but stories from 2,000 to 20,000 words are fine.

Reading fee: $19 per story. No more than three submissions per contest.

Deadline: January 2. Guidelines here.

Glimmer Train also maintains three Standard (no-fee) reading months a year, so no one is prevented from submitting their work for lack of funds, and it pays $700 if it publishes your piece. More here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Algoma, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.