Contests, MeetUps, Calls for submissions, and a magazine that pays

The annual gritLit Writing Contest is open for submissions. Wants short fiction (3,000 words or less) and intriguing poems (up to 300 lines). Cash prizes: First place $200, second place $100, third place $50 (Entry Free: $20 per submission)

Deadline: July 31, 2014 Contest details here.

gritLIT also invites you to their next MeetUp on Monday, July 28 (between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.) at Brown Dog Coffee Shoppe on Locke Street in Hamilton. Bring your laptop, your notebook, your ideas and inspiration and spend a couple of hours writing and networking with other local writers. For future MeetUps, check out the gritLIT MeetUp page here.

Note: Quick Brown Fox also maintains MeetUp Pages. For Halton and Peel, see here. For Guelph, Georgetown and Brampton, see here. For Toronto and points north (including York Region and Simcoe), see here.

You’re welcome to propose a writers get-together anytime. Just sign-up with the relevant MeetUp group and post the time and place you want to get together with your fellow writers. Send me an email, too, (brianhenry@sympatico.ca) to bring your proposed get-together to my attention, and I can publicize it on the Quick Brown Fox blog and in the newsletter, too. – Brian

Our Canada Magazine is a great place to get your first story published in a national magazine, with a million readers. Our Canada primarily publishes true stories, but is now looking for fiction, as well:

“We’re looking for short stories, creative nonfiction and poems that are set in Canada, include Canadians themes and/or reflect Canada’s way of life or values. We want insight into Canada as a nation, its people or the Canadian experience. We welcome submissions from yet-to-be discovered Canadian authors and published Canadian writers alike. Stories selected will be published in Our Canada’s new section called Writer’s Block.”

Submision guidelines and on-line submission form here. Deadline: ongoing.

Our Canada also continues to want your true stories. “We want to hear about your Hometown and all its quirks and about that Favourite Vacation at home or abroad. Do you have a rickety old car story for our Wheels section? Or are you a Collector of unusual things now cluttering your shelves? Maybe you or someone you know is particularly Crafty or has a talent to be Showcased?

We love to get stories about The Way it Was and Funny tales of mishaps and misadventures. Finally, because Canada is such a fantastic mosaic, we want to hear from different Cultural viewpoints and about those exciting and/or difficult journeys of Coming to Canada.

If you have an idea you don't see here, send it along! We can't wait to read about it and perhaps share it with the rest of Canada.

Submission guidelines and online submission form here. Deadline: ongoing. 

Note that Our Canada takes full rights to your nonfiction when they publish it (so no republishing your piece elsewhere), and for fiction, it acquires exclusive North American rights for two years (and then rights revert to you).

Submissions wanted for Some Tea, Some Truth, Some Fiction II, the second biannual writer’s festival at the Toronto Public Library on November 9, 2013. Accepting stories that can be read in ten minutes or less, plus short films, mini-plays, photo-essays and other creative work. Theme: love/friendship and work. Also holding an audience-inspired mini-write-a-thon. Deadline: September 1, 2013.

Halcyon Magazine is seeking submissions for an upcoming issue, and is open to entries for a contest. Submission call: looking for autumn-related stories, poems, haiku, recipes, articles, quotes, and fillers. Deadline: August 31, 2013. Photo and Writing Contest: invites entries of autumn-related photography. Prize: Copy of magazine. Deadline: September 1, 2013.

The “Sexy and sensual literary arts magazine” IN MY BED (Canada) is seeking submissions for an upcoming print issue. Looking for poetry, fiction, novel excerpts, painting, photography, and art. Theme: Sex and Magic. Prefers work that transcends traditional erotica and uses art and writing to explore, observe, and exhibit themes in an experimental and abstract manner.

Deadline September 1, 2013. Submission guidelines here. 

Louis Grace Publishing is putting together a series of anthologies on the topic of Women In Nature. Women in Nature: An Anthology, will be the first book in the WIN-Women in Nature Series.  The WIN series are collections of stories from women all across the North American continent... and beyond!  

These are true stories about the varied ways in which women relate to nature and our natural environment.  Subsequent WIN books will include: WIN on Dwelling; WIN on Indigenous Ways; WIN on Food, WIN on Adventure; WIN on Water;  WIN on Healing; WIN on Children; and more!

The publisher is looking for good fun engaging stories and inspiring, uplifting, adventurous, funny, stories of your relationship with nature.

Deadline September 1 for most anthologies. Submission guidelines here.

Hybrid literary & arts print magazine CAROUSEL is looking for poetry, fiction, comics, pageworks, visual poems, and hybrid literary works. Payment ranges from $15-80 plus a 2-issue subscription. “Interested in representing both new and established artists, with a specific focus on positioning Canadian talent within an international context.” 

Deadline September 4, 2013. Submission guidelines here.

Gemini Magazine calls for entries for its flash fiction contest. Maximum length 1,000 words. First prize: $1,000 prize, plus five other cash awards. Entry fee still only $4.

Deadline: September 2, 2014. Submission guidelines 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, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.