Our May roundup includes various opportunities brought to our attention by various organizations, members, and friends and discovered organically. Grow your skills, find submissions opportunities, and more!
Submissions Closing Soon!
- Button Poetry First Book Contest Deadline May 30
- Sundress Annual Chapbook Contest Deadline May 31
- Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge Deadline May 31
- BoomerLit (open to writers of all ages) seeks submissions on the theme of resilience. Learn more. Deadline June 20.
More Calls
- Shift, lit mag for MTSU Write, seeks submissions on the supernatural. Learn more. Deadline June 30.
- Last Stanza seeks submissions on the theme conversation. Learn more. Deadline June 30.
- Submissions are open for Procrastinating Writers United‘s 2025 mini-digital-publication THE YELLING CONTINUES, not surprisingly themed on Noise. Be part of the cacophony. Learn more. Deadline June 30.
- MER seeks poems on motherhood and family. Learn more. Deadline July 15.
Always Open
Hate deadlines? Here are a few randomly selected literary venues that are always (or almost always) open to submissions:
- Blue Mountain Review
- Cult. Magazine
- Dish Soap Magazine
- Door is a Jar
- Judy
- Southern Poetry Review
- The Sun
- Your Impossible Voice
From NFSPS
CONVENTION: NFSPS will hold their annual convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from July 23-28, 2025. Naomi Shihab Nye will be their keynote speaker! Details on the BlackBerry Peach Youth Mini-Festival to be held July 25, 2025, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will also become available in the coming months.
More Calls and Contests
- Massachusetts Poetry Society National Poetry Day Contest closes August 1, 2025
- Poets Roundtable of Arkansas Poetry Day Contests open July 1 through August 15, 2025.
- The California Quarterly, a literary publication of California State Poetry Society
Southern Fried Poetry Slam Coming to Knoxville
The Southern Fried Poetry Slam will be held June 11-14, 2025, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Get details.
Events
- May 20, Vagabond Poetry Tour at Cafe Noir at 7 PM, 635 Madison Avenue (look for the balloons).
- Oceanside Library “Near and Afar” Zoom Poetry
- Love Shakespeare? Snag a random role in an ZOOM production of “The Merchant of Venice”! Get details.
- On June 7, the FW Coleman Theatre will put on a Children’s Jazz and Poetry Festival from 12:00 – 4:00 PM at 1517 S Mt. Zion Rd, Byhalia, Mississippi.
Workshops
- Shuly Cawood virtual generative and craft-focused writing workshops
- John Davis Jr. “Metacreativity: The Process Behind the Poetry” mail-based tips and insights
- Two Sylvias Press Online Poetry Retreat. Choose from three different session periods, and two levels of participation. (virtual, Jun 30 – Jul 27, Aug 4-31, and Oct 6 – Nov 2)
- Hindman Appalachian Writer’s Workshop (Hindman KY, Jul 20-25)
- VA highland Fest Writers & Readers Days (Abingdon VA, Jul 25-26)
- Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference (virtual, Jul 25-28)
- Appalachian Writer’s Conference (Berea KY, Sep 2-5)
- Think Journal Critical Path Poetry Symposium (Virtual, Sep 25-27) FREE
On Demand
- Briar Haus Writes writer interviews on YouTube
- Oceanside Library “Near and Afar” poetry reading replays
- Master Class
Find More Opportunities
Introducing a running list of venues to find poetry opportunities. Are we missing a good one? Let us know!
Poetry Society of Tennessee 
