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Special call for submissions: Awakening, the 100-year anniversary issue (Spring 2027)
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.
Submissions will be accepted via Submittable starting February 1.
Prairie Schooner publishes literary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, and accepts unsolicited manuscripts during open periods of submission (dates to be announced). We do not consider work that has been previously published, including work that has appeared online, and while we do consider work that has been simultaneously submitted to other journals, we request that you withdraw the piece immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We do consider translations of work that have not been published prior in English.
For poetry, send a selection of up to seven poems contained within a single document. For fiction and essays, send only one selection at a time. To withdraw an individual poem from consideration, please send us a message through Submittable. To withdraw an essay or short story, please withdraw the full manuscript.
We prefer electronic submissions via Submittable. If you are only able to submit via mail, please click on “Contact” above for our address.
We encourage you to read Prairie Schooner before you submit. Why not subscribe?
Prairie Schooner Book Prize Contest:
For information on submitting a book-length manuscript to our Book Series competition, which runs January 15th to March 15th each year, please click here.
Annual Prairie Schooner Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest:
Each year from May 15th to August 1st, Prairie Schooner accepts submissions to the Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest, open to all types of creative nonfiction essays, up to 5,000 words. The entry fee is $20. Winner receives $1,000 and publication in the following Spring issue.
More information about submissions to the Summer CNF Contest can be found here.