Top Free-Entry Writing Opportunities in April 2025

Plus some other things...

Apr 05, 2025

Happy April!

I know I’m a few days behind this time (blame it on a little April Fool’s delay, and not the Eid holidays), but the good news is — these opportunities are free to enter and broken down into categories — open calls, region-specific submissions, grants, and fellowships — so you can easily find what suits your work.

Welcome to D’LitReview’s Monthly Creative Writing Opportunities Roundup!

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I’ve been rounding up these writing opportunities since 2022, gathering calls for submissions each month and sharing them with fellow writers. I even shared a bit more about it in my pinned post.

Read it here

Anyway, let’s get to what you came for.

The Writing Opportunities

If you find something useful, don’t forget to share it with fellow writers! Just click the button below to pass it along.👇

OPEN TO ALL WRITERS (WORLDWIDE)

These are poetry, prose, and playwriting opportunities for writers without restrictions based on location, demographics, or other criteria.

Solarpunk Magazine is looking for speculative fiction (1,500-7,500 words, $0.08 per word), poetry (up to 5 poems or 5 pages, $40 per poem), and nonfiction (1,000-2,000 words, $75 per piece) for their upcoming issues. (deadline: April 14, 2025.)

Tales from the Crosstimbers is seeking speculative fiction (1,000–5,000 words) and compelling nonfiction for their Summer 2025 issue, paying $10 or 1 cent/word up to $50 (deadline: April 15, 2025).

The Last Girls Club is seeking feminist horror short stories, flash fiction, and poems from a female gaze for its quarterly magazine, paying up to $37.50 per story or $10 per poem (next deadline: April 15, 2025).

Cutleaf is accepting short fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry (pay: $50–$400) from April 1, 2025 (deadline: April 15, 2025) with some categories capped at 200 submissions.

WITH RESTRICTIONS

Opportunities for writers from specific regions, demographics, or calls with themes.

The Sprinng Writing Fellowship is a 6-week mentorship program for developing Nigerian, Ghanaian, Liberian, and South African writers (ages 18-25), offering mentorship in Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Book Reviews, along with weekly airtime and a 1-year MasterClass membership (application deadline: April 15, 2025).

FORGE is seeking art, poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction from trans and nonbinary survivors for their “Trans Survivors: Healing in Action” zine, paying $25 per accepted piece (deadline: April 15, 2025).

Inch, a micro-chapbook journal by Bull City Press, is seeking short collections of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction (10–16 pages) for their 2025 issues (submission window: March 15–April 15).

Frost Zone Press is accepting submissions for GHOST to GHOST to GHOST, an anthology of flash fiction by Canadian writers (500-1500 words), offering CAD $15 and a print copy for accepted stories (deadline: April 16, 2025).

ROLLING SUBMISSIONS

Shenandoah is accepting short stories and novel excerpts (Sept 10 & Jan 15), multilingual poetry (Apr 15, 2025), creative nonfiction (May 1), and comics (Sept 1–Oct 31, 2025); the Graybeal-Gowen Prize for Virginia poets (Oct 15–31) offers $1000 and publication.

Electric Spec is looking for speculative fiction (250–7000 words) and cover art with speculative elements, paying $20 per accepted piece (deadlines: Jan 15, Apr 15, Jul 15, Oct 15 for Feb, May, Aug, and Nov issues respectively).

Didn’t find exactly what you were looking for? No worries! Check out this full list of about 30 creative writing opportunities for April. (I can't list them all here because of the view limit.) There aren’t a lot of opportunities this month, but the best part is that I try to update it daily with new opportunities.

Show me the full list

P.S.: If you've ever won a writing contest, been published, or landed any other opportunity thanks to something shared on D'LitReview, I'd love to hear about it!