Rosemary’s House offers intensive programs for authors. Take a break from the busy world and dive into your writing (when you’re not diving into the water). Here’s info on their programs for September. Applications made two months ahead of the programs receive a discount off the fees.

Residential Workshop Retreats: apply to one of our multi-genre residential workshops to expand your creative horizons, learn from talented peers, and receive diverse feedback. These retreats feature a daily group workshop and promote social discourse and investigation of story. We encourage writers of all genres to apply to the cohort(s) with the mentor of their choice. All genres and mediums are welcome! 

September 6-13th: Mentor Jenny Zhang 

Jenny Zhang  is the author of the story collection Sour Heart and the poetry collection My Baby First Birthday. She is the recipient of the Pen/Bingham Award for Debut Fiction, the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, and an O. Henry award. Her work appears in The New York Times, Poetry, Harpers, N+1, Best American Poetry, and other publications. She’s written television and film for A24, HBO, Netflix, Apple, and Amazon. She holds degrees from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Stanford University.

September 24- October 1: Mentor Adam Leipzig

Adam Leipzig is a filmmaker, producer, educator, and author. He has been a senior executive at Walt Disney Studios, the president of National Geographic Films, and has worked independently as a producer, distributor, or supervising executive on 38 films that have disrupted expectations, including March of the Penguins, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dead Poets Society, Titus, The Way Back and A Plastic Ocean. Adam’s movies have won or been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, 11 BAFTA Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys, 2 Directors Guild Awards, 4 Sundance Awards, and 4 Independent Spirit Awards.

September 24- October 1: Mentor Ben Taub 

Ben Taub is a staff writer at the New Yorker. He has written for the magazine about jihadism, crime, conflict, climate change, exploration, and human rights, on four continents and at sea. In 2020, he won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, for his work on the lasting effects, on former detainees and guards, of American abuses in Guantánamo Bay. He has also received a National Magazine Award, two consecutive George Polk Awards, a Livingston Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, and other honors, and his work has appeared in recent editions of “The Best American Magazine Writing” and “The Best American Travel Writing.” Taub also received the ASME Next Award for Journalists Under 30, and was named one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 in Media. 

Authors & Artists Eligible

A solar flare is short-lived but has a huge amount of energy. Sunspot Lit is looking for the single short story, novel or novella excerpt, artwork, graphic novel, or poem that provides a noteworthy flare of creative energy. Literary or genre works accepted. 

First prize is $500 plus publication. Runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Maximum of 500 words for short stories or nonfiction, 12 lines for poetry, and 8 pages for graphic novels. No size requirements for painting, photography, video stills or sculpture, although each entry is limited to one image. 

Open: Every year on May 1

Close: Every year on May 31

Entry fee: $10

Prize: $500 cash and publication for the winner; publication offered to runners-up and finalists. 

All fees are final and nonrefundable. Revised entries can be made by withdrawing the original entry and resubmitting, paying a new fee for the new submission. 

Sunspot asks for first rights only; all rights revert to the contributor after publication. Works, along with the creators’ bylines, are published in the next quarterly digital edition an average of two months after contest completion, as well as in the annual print edition. 

Works should be unpublished except on a personal blog or website. Artists offered publication may display their pieces in galleries, festivals or shows throughout the publication contract period.  

Enter as many times as you like, but only one piece per submission. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please withdraw your piece if it is published elsewhere before the winner is selected.

 Enter through Sunspot’s Submittable form or through Duotrope. 

This announcement is from Sunspot Lit’s trusted friends over at Winning Writers. Check it out! They always have great contests.

North Street Book Prize

The contest is sponsored by Winning Writers and Duotrope. One grand prize winner will receive $10,000, the top winner in each category will receive $1,000, one honorable mention in each category will receive $300. Fee: $79. Submit self-published or hybrid-published books in one of these categories: Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir, Poetry, Children’s Picture Book, Middle Grade, Graphic Novel & Memoir and Art Book. Deadline: July 1, 2024.

See guidelines, past winners, and submit online at http://winningwriters.com/north

The Goldilocks Zone contest has been judged. Here’s the full list of finalists and associated subcategories:

Finalists

His T-shirt and Mine / Milo Harvey / Poem

Maybe Both / Jordan Nishkian / Fiction

Incoming Message From @mr_wolf… / Freya Morris / Fiction

At the Edge of Things / William Winston / Poem

Best of

Lucky Stones / Christy O’Callaghan / Fiction

Winner

How We Learned to Fly / Anita Hunt / Poem

The finalists have been offered publication alongside the winner. They can be found in the next digital quarterly edition, which can be downloaded free by visiting SunspotLit.com and going to the Editions tab.

They will also appear in the 2024 print edition, which can be preordered (shipping to US addresses included at no charge) here:

https://sunspotlit.submittable.com/submit/280386/preorder-2024-print-edition

The journal’s standard open calls are still open. Deadlines vary, but the guidelines and current open categories can always be found here.

Authors & Artists Eligible

A solar flare is short-lived but has a huge amount of energy. Sunspot Lit is looking for the single short story, novel or novella excerpt, artwork, graphic novel, or poem that provides a noteworthy flare of creative energy. Literary or genre works accepted. 

First prize is $500 plus publication. Runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Maximum of 500 words for short stories or nonfiction, 12 lines for poetry, and 8 pages for graphic novels. No size requirements for painting, photography, video stills or sculpture, although each entry is limited to one image. 

Open: Every year on May 1

Close: Every year on May 31

Entry fee: $10

Prize: $500 cash and publication for the winner; publication offered to runners-up and finalists. 

All fees are final and nonrefundable. Revised entries can be made by withdrawing the original entry and resubmitting, paying a new fee for the new submission. 

Sunspot asks for first rights only; all rights revert to the contributor after publication. Works, along with the creators’ bylines, are published in the next quarterly digital edition an average of two months after contest completion, as well as in the annual print edition. 

Works should be unpublished except on a personal blog or website. Artists offered publication may display their pieces in galleries, festivals or shows throughout the publication contract period.  

Enter as many times as you like, but only one piece per submission. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please withdraw your piece if it is published elsewhere before the winner is selected.

 Enter through Sunspot’s Submittable form or through Duotrope. 

Authors & Artists Eligible

The Goldilocks Zone appears wherever conditions make a planet habitable. Sunspot Lit is looking for the single short story, novel or novella excerpt, artwork, graphic novel, or poem that combines excellence in craft with reader or audience appeal, and thus falls into the Goldilocks Zone. Literary or genre works accepted. 

First prize is $500 plus publication. Runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Maximum of 2,500 words for short stories or nonfiction, 24 lines for poetry, and 8 pages for graphic novels. No size requirements for painting, photography, video stills or sculpture, although each entry is limited to one image. 

Open: Every year on April 1

Close: Every year on April 30

Entry fee: $10

Prize: $500 cash and publication for the winner; publication offered to runners-up and finalists. 

All fees are final and nonrefundable. Revised entries can be made by withdrawing the original entry and resubmitting, paying a new fee for the new submission. 

Sunspot asks for first rights only; all rights revert to the contributor after publication. Works, along with the creators’ bylines, are published in the next quarterly digital edition an average of two months after contest completion, as well as in the annual print edition. 

Works should be unpublished except on a personal blog or website. Artists offered publication may display their pieces in galleries, festivals or shows throughout the publication contract period.  

Enter as many times as you like, but only one piece per submission. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please withdraw your piece if it is published elsewhere before the winner is selected.

 Enter through Sunspot’s Submittable form or through Duotrope.  

32nd annual contest sponsored by Winning Writers and Duotrope. $10,000 in cash prizes, including $3,500 for the best story and $3,500 for the best essay. The top 12 entries will be published online. Both published and unpublished work welcome. Fee: $22 per entry. Final judge: Mina Manchester. Deadline: May 1.

This contest is recommended by Reedsy. See guidelines, past winners, and submit online at https://winningwriters.com/tomstory

Authors & Artists Eligible

The Goldilocks Zone appears wherever conditions make a planet habitable. Sunspot Lit is looking for the single short story, novel or novella excerpt, artwork, graphic novel, or poem that combines excellence in craft with reader or audience appeal, and thus falls into the Goldilocks Zone. Literary or genre works accepted. 

First prize is $500 plus publication. Runners-up and finalists are offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Maximum of 2,500 words for short stories or nonfiction, 24 lines for poetry, and 8 pages for graphic novels. No size requirements for painting, photography, video stills or sculpture, although each entry is limited to one image. 

Open: Every year on April 1

Close: Every year on April 30

Entry fee: $10

Prize: $500 cash and publication for the winner; publication offered to runners-up and finalists. 

All fees are final and nonrefundable. Revised entries can be made by withdrawing the original entry and resubmitting, paying a new fee for the new submission. 

Sunspot asks for first rights only; all rights revert to the contributor after publication. Works, along with the creators’ bylines, are published in the next quarterly digital edition an average of two months after contest completion, as well as in the annual print edition. 

Works should be unpublished except on a personal blog or website. Artists offered publication may display their pieces in galleries, festivals or shows throughout the publication contract period.  

Enter as many times as you like, but only one piece per submission. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please withdraw your piece if it is published elsewhere before the winner is selected.

 Enter through Sunspot’s Submittable form or through Duotrope.  

Authors & Artists Eligible

Beginnings have the power to spark passion or curiosity. They might immediately connect a specific place and time with an emotional tone. The best openings offer a feeling, atmosphere, action, or image that is gripping, and hints at more to come. Meaning, thoughtfulness, emotions, or tone draw audiences into the moment. 

A poem handles this differently than a flash piece, which handles an opening differently than a novel. The first photo, painting or frame presented in a gallery, series, or graphic novel strives for the same intent. Openings contain a spark that promises to burn.  

For Sunspot Lit’s Inception contest, send your best opening. There are no restrictions on theme, category, or the length of the piece or collection from which the excerpt comes. Word limit is 250 for prose, 25 words for poetry.  

Graphic novel and comic book entries should be the first page (unlimited number of panels on that page) with a maximum of 250 words (cut the number of panels in order to meet the word count, if needed).  

Visual art entries should be the first in a series, the first in a gallery lineup, the first in a themed collection, etc. Entries are limited to one image. 

Open: Every year on March 1

Close: Every year on March 31

Entry fee: $10

Prize: $500 cash plus publication for the winner.  

All fees are final and nonrefundable. Revised entries can be made by withdrawing the original entry and resubmitting, paying a new fee for the new submission. 

Publication will be offered to runners-up and finalists. Sunspot asks for first rights only; all rights revert to the contributor after publication. Works, along with the creators’ bylines, are published in the next quarterly digital edition an average of two months after contest completion as well as the annual fall print edition.  

Works should be unpublished except on a personal blog or website. Artists offered publication may display their pieces in galleries, festivals or shows throughout the publication contract period.   

Enter as many times as you like through Submittable or Duotrope, but only one piece per submission. Submission files that contain multiple pieces will be disqualified without review. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your piece if it is published elsewhere before the winner is selected. 

The Prague Summer Program for Writers is a three-week-long, family-run summer writing residency in Prague, Czech Republic. In addition to having ample time to write in a beautiful and historic city, participants take part in weekly workshops, a private conference, weekly readings, special lectures, literary walking tours and more.

Speaking from personal experience, this is one of the best literary workshops you can attend. It’s packed with cultural and literary events and opportunities. If you’ve never been, this is the year to go!

Find more information at https://www.praguesummer.com/.

This is from our friends over at Winning Writers, a trusted resource for authors.

TOM HOWARD/JOHN H. REID FICTION & ESSAY CONTEST
32nd annual contest sponsored by Winning Writers and Duotrope. $10,000 in cash prizes, including $3,500 for the best story and $3,500 for the best essay. The top 12 entries will be published online. Both published and unpublished work welcome. Fee: $22 per entry. Final judge: Mina Manchester. Deadline: May 1.

This contest is recommended by Reedsy. See guidelines, past winners, and submit online at https://winningwriters.com/tomstory