Call for Submissions: Awakening, the 100-year anniversary issue

Outside my window, a bird sings, a simple repetition, a few notes, and just this, just this is enough to awaken me, dancing, mad with song.
—from “Madness in Song” by Parnaz Foroutan (Prairie Schooner, Fall 2021)

The Spring 2027 issue will mark the 100th anniversary of the first issue of Prairie Schooner, so we are seeking poems, short stories, and essays on the theme of Awakening. Awakening, awareness, revival, rebirth. Our centenary coincides with overwhelming challenges to our freedoms, our cultures, our progress, our expression, and the next 100 years will be informed by the wisdom and invention of writers and thinkers, by strong voices, creative vision. We seek inspiring work that will carry us forward or reflect on the past, work that will pose questions or suggest answers. We want work that will invigorate with new understanding or break our hearts with it—all with insight and perspective, whether lyric or bold, quiet or insistent.

Submission window: February 1 – February 15 (or until submission caps are reached)

No submission fee. Please limit to one submission per genre.

In addition to submissions for the Awakening issue, we are seeking submissions of book reviews and interviews for both the blog and print journal. See our Submittable page for more guidelines.

Submissions will be accepted via Submittable starting February 1.