Stocking Full o' Bookish Goodies
Jokes, book contests, a toad photo, et. al.
Subscriptions to Bookish are 25% off, which includes access to all agent lists, a detailed how-to for creating an anthology, an artists’ residencies list, and book contests.
As the new year approaches, here’s to more time with friends and new vistas in 2024. To more books, more jokes, and less doom-scrolling. To many walks and much fresh air.
My final post for 2023 features a few very silly holiday-themed jokes and several literary submission opportunities—book contests, fellowships, and literary journals.
One brief reflection: I’ve tried to make Bookish an electic and useful resource since I started it in March of this year (after encouragement and good advice from
and , whose excellent Substacks - The Biblioracle Recommends and The Sharpener, respectively - continue to inspire me). Thank you to new subscribers and those who have been here since mid-March. 🌷
Jokes! (Prepare yourself…)
Q. Why did the Abominable Snowman have so few friends?
A. He didn’t realize he was giving everyone the cold shoulder.
Q. What is green, covered in Christmas lights and Christmas bulbs, and goes ribbit?
A. A mistle-toad.
Q. What is a vegan’s favorite Christmas carol?
A. Soy to the World.
Q. Elves use what kind of money?
A. Jingle bills.
Q. What did the wise men say after they offered up their gifts of gold and frankincense?
A.Wait, there's myrrh.
Q. What do snowmen eat for dessert?
A. Ice crispies.
You can find many more holiday jokes here. 🎁
Submission opportunities (several with fast-approaching deadlines)
DECEMBER 30 deadline:
Granta - fiction and nonfiction submissions
Harvard Review (also nonfiction and fiction)
Jackleg Press queries (full submission details here):
Query first with one PDF. Please include a cover letter, your bio with acknowledgments, and a work sample. Please only send one query at a time.
Please include 10-15 poems or two chapters, stories, or essays. We will request your full manuscript if we see a fit with JackLeg Press. The process can take 6+ months for a full review. Thanks in advance for your patience!
JLP does not publish chapbooks or novellas. Our nonfiction titles focus on creative nonfiction. We publish between 6-10 titles a year. Currently, JackLeg only publishes U.S.-based writers.
JANUARY 5 deadline:
Steinbeck Fellowship (fiction, nonfiction, drama, biography) - submission page here.
The Steinbeck Fellowship is a one-year residency at San José State University which includes a stipend of $15,000. Up to six Fellows are chosen every year. Fellows are expected to give one public reading from their work and are encouraged to reside in the Bay Area during the academic year. Submit a project proposal, résumé/CV, writing sample (up to 25 pages), and the email addresses of three references. The application system will prompt your references to upload their letters of recommendation by January 31.
There is no entry fee.
The fellowship is named in honor of author John Steinbeck and is guided by his lifetime of work in literature, the media, and environmental activism. Currently, SJSU offers one-year fellowships in Steinbeck scholarship and in creative writing, including fiction, drama, creative nonfiction, and biography. Applications in poetry will not be accepted. In awarding fellowships, the selection committee considers the quality of the candidate's proposal and any factors that would lead to expectations of future publication and other achievement. The creative writing fellowship does not require that there be any direct connection between Steinbeck's works and that of the applicant. Applicants may not be enrolled in an academic degree program during the fellowship period.
Application deadline is January 5. Awards are announced in April.
DISQUIET Literary Prize 2024
Multi-genre award for the best poetry, fiction, or nonfiction on any subject, by an author who has not yet published more than one book with a major publisher. Entries must be in English. Entries may not be previously published.
Winners in each genre will be published:
- Fiction in Granta.com
- Poetry in The Common
- Nonfiction in NinthLetter.com
One grand prize winner will receive a full fellowship (airfare stipend, tuition, and housing included) to the 2024 DISQUIET International Program in Lisbon, Portugal (taking place June 23-July 5, 2024). Genre winners will receive a tuition waiver to DISQUIET 2024 in addition to publication. Winners who are unable to attend the progam in Lisbon may elect to receive a $1000 cash prize in lieu of the tuition waiver.
One entry may include up to six poems (to a maximum of ten pages) or a single prose piece up to twenty-five double-spaced pages in length. Entries should be the work of a single author. Stand-alone excerpts from longer works are welcome. Multiple entries must be accompanied by multiple reading fees.
Submissions will close at 11:59 PM EST on January 5
JANUARY 7 deadline:
The Florida Review: Jeanne Leiby chapbook award—fiction, nonfiction, graphic novel. Full details and Submittable page here.
Abbreviated guidelines: This award is given in honor of writer, teacher, and editor Jeanne M. Leiby, former editor of The Florida Review and The Southern Review. The award is for a single-author standalone chapbook of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Graphic Narrative, or Hybrid work. We do not consider any poetry for the chapbook contest at this time.
You may submit a long story or essay, several short stories or essays, a flash prose collection, or a graphic narrative (black & white only). Please identify the genre in your cover letter, and please include a Table of Contents with your submission.
Length limit: up to 45 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. font. For graphic narrative, please submit a jpeg or PDF.
PRIZE: Chapbook publication, 50 copies of the winning chapbook, and $1,000.
All entrants receive a free one-year subscription to The Florida Review.
FEBRUARY 28 deadline:
AWP Award Series Prizes: four annual book contests open for submission on January 1, 2024.
Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction: $2,500 and publication by the University of Georgia Press
James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel: $5,500 and publication by the University of Nebraska Press
Donald Hall Prize for Poetry: $5,500 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press
Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction: $5,500 and publication by Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press
Eligibility Requirements
Only book-length manuscripts are eligible. The AWP Award Series defines “book-length” as:
Poetry: 48 pages minimum text;
Short story collection or creative nonfiction: 150–300 manuscript pages; and
Novel: at least 60,000 and no more than 110,000 words.
Poems, stories, and essays previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion in submissions, but manuscripts previously published in their entirety, including self-published manuscripts, are not eligible. As the series is judged anonymously, no list of acknowledgments should accompany your manuscript.
The AWP Award Series is open to all authors writing original works primarily in English for adult readers. Mixed-genre manuscripts cannot be accepted. Criticism and scholarly monographs are not acceptable for creative nonfiction, which the AWP Award Series defines as factual and literary writing that has the narrative, dramatic, meditative, and lyrical elements of novels, plays, poetry, and memoir.
More information can be found here.