Tag Archives: design

Open Call Ends August 31, 2020

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Sunspot Literary Journal is dedicated to amplifying diverse multinational voices. We offer an Editor’s Prize of $50 for the annual edition. Artwork selected for a cover will be paid $20. Visit SunspotLit.com to download digital editions for free.

All types of prose from flash fiction and poetry to stories and essays, including scripts and screenplays, are welcome. We also accept long-form, novelette, and novella length works up to 49,000 words. Translations welcome, especially with access to the piece in the author’s original language.

One piece per prose submission; two works of visual art per submission.

Use the correct form according to the length of your prose and poetry. Works longer than allowed by the form used will be declined unread.

The Fast Flux options offer a two-week turnaround, with most responses going out within one week.

All submissions must be unpublished (except on a personal blog). Simultaneous submissions welcome. Submit as many times as you like.

Submissions must be sent through Sunspot’s Submittable page.

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SINGLE WORD CONTEST 2020 EDITION

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Sunspot Lit announces the results of the Single Word contest’s 2020 edition. Submissions were open for any prose form, poetry, and visual art. We received entries that made us laugh, thoughtful pieces that dealt with the current pandemic, and works that hold meaning no matter what state the world is in.

Truly, this crop of entries showed exceptional talent. It’s heartening to know that people are working creatively to make the world a better place. The lists below reflect the results of multiple judging rounds. Look for the finalists and the winner in the next quarterly edition, due out around the end of June.

Congratulations to everyone on these lists!

 

Longlist

Compassion, Joshua Molina

Confidence, Tara Strahl

Faith, Trever Sinanovic

Enough, Lisa DeAngelis

One, Wes Finch

Weapon, Mary Lash

Light, Tanita Cree

Equanimity, Hunter Liguore

Consequence, Elizabeth Cain

Chinese, Jill Bronfman

Faith, Jennifer Jones

Unidistancing/Uni-distancing, Corinne Beasley

Turbine, Cameron Lings

Gender, Vicky Prior

Exit, Thomas Mangan

Us, Mary Sheehan

Jarabi, Doley Henderson

Anomie, Angela Kaufman

 

Shortlist

e/motion, Kerry Rawlinson

Dream, Michael Noonan

Aloha, Stephanie Launiu

You’re Mine, You (for They), Valyntina Grenier

Another Word for Beauty, Mark Henderson

The Meaning of Free, Hannah van Didden

Ubuntu, Ethel Maqeda

Rega, Rosalie Sydes

Yes, Lisa Friedlander

Burning, Olga Gonzalez Latapi

We, Larry Mellman

Self-quarantined, Christopher Buckley

Viral, Claire Lawrence

Stoic, Aileen Boyer

Vulnerability, Hazel Whitehead

The Letter “Hey,” Omer Wissman

 

Finalists

Aloha, Stephanie Launiu

You’re Mine, You (for They), Valyntina Grenier

Ubuntu, Ethel Maqeda

Burning, Olga Gonzalez Latapi

We, Larry Mellman

Self-quarantined, Christopher Buckley

Viral, Claire Lawrence

The Letter “Hey,” Omer Wissman

 

Winner and Runners-up

Runner-up: Ubuntu, Ethel Maqeda

Runner-up: Viral, Claire Lawrence

First place: The Meaning of Free, Hannah van Didden

 

Closing Soon: $500 for a Single Word

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Prize: $500 and Publication

For the 2020 edition of the Single Word contest, Sunspot is handing the megaphone over to authors and artists. Submit the single word you feel is the most important in today’s world.

You’ll have 1,000 words to describe why using any form of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. If you feel the word speaks for itself, your description can simply state that fact.

Artwork is also accepted for this prize. Submit one image and up to 250 words describing the artwork’s relationship to the single word.

Since English doesn’t always convey exact shades of meaning, the word you select can be in any language. A definition written in English will be required, and the definition will count toward the total word count of the description. The description must also be in English.

For the first edition of this contest in 2019, the prize was $50. In 2020, the prize has increased to $500.

In addition to receiving the cash prize, the winner will be published. Select finalists will have the chance to be published. 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 one month after contest completion as well as the annual fall print edition. 

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

Entry fee is $10.

Opens January 1, 2020. 

Closes March 31, 2020 at midnight EST.

Selected as one of Reedsy’s Best Writing Contests in 2019. Reedsy Best Contest

Heavenly Baby from Dasha Ziborova

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I met Dasha Ziborova at a residency program, and signed up for her occasional newsletter here. She offers thoughtful, fun, and lovingly illustrated stories based on her life and her experiences. “Heavenly Baby” is about her cat, parenting, and Russia.

If you like the newsletter, you can pick up books she illustrated and produced here. They include “Pussy from Hell” and “This Land is My Land.”

From the artist:

Real Time In Ink is a series of graphic stories by artist and author Dasha Ziborova. It covers a broad range of topics from people, places, parenting, art, music, cats, food, and travel, to occasional politics and scary crazy Russians.
Dasha Ziborova is a graphic novelist, picture book illustrator, and muralist. She was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and came to New York in 1991. Since then, Dasha illustrated five children’s picture books including the award-winning Crispin the Terrible published by Callaway Editions, and In English, of Course and The Numbers Dance by Gingerbread House.

Single Word Contest Accepts Art

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Sunspot Literary Journal’s Single Word contest is open to artists, photographers, and collage artists as well as authors. Link here for full details.

Submit one image and up to 250 words describing the artwork’s relationship to the single word.

Keep Art Alive

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Fall 2019 Front Cover-page-0Sunspot Literary Journal publishes five times per year. Four of those editions are free digital version that are available on the website. One is their annual print edition, which is distributed to booksellers around the world.

Sunspot speaks truth to power by using the power of every voice. In their first year, they’ve produced essays by a woman writing about life in the Jim Crow South, an interview with a Ugandan forced to become a child soldier, stories about breaking free from abuse, Daliesque fiction, and art from emerging and established creators.

You can help change the world through words and art. Consider running an ad in the newsletter or magazine, purchasing a copy of the 2019 annual edition (currently available only for preorder), sending a contribution through Paypal, or filling the tip jar on Submittable.

Paying Market for Artists, Photographers

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art-1867899_1920Sunspot Literary Journal has begun paying for artwork or photos used on its cover.

The cover is selected from the pool of submissions accepted for publication every quarter.

Once a year, the magazine produces a print version. One of the pieces of art published in that year’s editions is selected as that cover. It might be one already used as a digital cover, or it might be a different one.

So, your accepted artwork has two opportunities to be selected for a cover. And yes, if the same piece is selected twice, two payments will be made.

The payment is currently $20. Sunspot will add payments for all contributors, and increase the amount of those payments, as funding grows.

Check out their website, or head over to Submittable to send in a piece of art or a photograph.

Sunspot Lit Free Summer Edition Available

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Sunspot Lit has a lot to offer for your summer reading list. Check out the image contest winner and runner-up, and read the powerful and unique entries that ranked at the top of the Single Word: C*nt Edition contest.

This quarter, we present a story in the original Italian and in its English translation. Many thanks to author Piero Schiavo-Campo and translator Sarah Jane Webb for working with us to bring this story to light. “The Doll” and “La bambola” approach Vienna’s expressionist period from the viewpoint of an artist to tell a tale of “morbid jealousy and furious rage.”

Sunspot Lit Image Contest Winner

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Sunspot Literary Journal reached out to the creative community for an image that represented the journal’s mission: Hearing Every Voice, Writing a New World.
The magazine received a number of spectacular entries. The final judging round turned out to be very difficult. The works varied in tone and approach, and each had so much to offer.
Timothy Boardman submitted the winning image. Timothy describes himself as predominantly a fine arts artist and printmaker with some design sensibilities who’s currently a student at UNCG in North Carolina. Here are his thoughts on the image:
“The center of the image is a gradient based sun, very simple, with a series of sunspots placed on the logo. The encircling white around the sun in this design are representative of the light, [Sunspot Lit’s] light, emanating from these sunspots, and giving voice to all. The slogan, ‘It’s Lit’ is a somewhat humorous, witty use of wordplay to represent your literary focus, while also being very straightforward about who you are as a literary journal. … I also noticed your website uses a lot of oranges, yellows, and whites, so I used them as the dominating color choices for the design.”
Timothy received the cash prize of $40 and Sunspot’s undying adoration. The image will appear in newsletters, on SunspotLit.com, and in the journal’s publications.

Sunspot Literary Journal Logo Contest

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Sunspot Literary Journal has launched and needs a logo that can be used on the digital and print editions as well as the website.

Submit your best idea for a logo that fits with our mission: Hearing Every Voice, Changing the World Through Words.

Poke around our website for details on Sunspot’s approach. Then submit your best idea.

Submit as many times as you like to this contest. Winner receives $40, coverage in the first edition, and coverage on the website.