Passages North publishes one annual print issue and weekly bonus content throughout the school year. Subs to shorts, poetry, and nonfiction/hybrid categories are open from September 1 through April 15. (Please note that regular poetry, nonfiction/hybrid, and short-shorts submissions, including Rocket Fuel, are closing early, Feb. 17, 2023, due to a high number of submissions. However, we will continue accepting contest entries for cnf and poetry.) Fiction is open September 1 through October 15, and January 1 through February 15. While we allow authors to have active submission in different genres, we ask that you use your best judgement and avoid overloading our editors. Additionally, we accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you withdraw the piece and let us know as soon as it is accepted elsewhere. See specific genre guidelines below.
Passages North welcomes submissions from anybody. We are an accomplice to LGBTQIA+ communities, Black Lives Matter, and abolitionist movements wherever they may be found, comprised itself of many editors at the intersections of various communities, so we strongly encourage BIPOC, disabled, economically marginalized, and queer and trans writers to submit. Though Passages North does not pay contributors at this time, we promise to treat your work with care and to shout our love via our social media platforms. Contributors receive two copies of their issue of the magazine.
Please be mindful of our editorial staff when you submit to Passages North. Before you click submit, consider that our staff is comprised of queer editors, editors of color, editors with their own personal histories of assault and trauma and disability. Certainly, we understand how difficulties of living in a highly imperfect world can and should make their way onto the page in our creative work, and PN is excited to publish work that handles those difficulties with nuance. If you’re wondering if your submission needs a content warning, go ahead and add it to your document and know that we appreciate your care.
We encourage creative nonfiction submissions without constraints on content or form. Send your best essays our way: lyric essays, personal essays, memoir, literary journalism, or hybrid work (up to 10,000 words.) The contest fee is $15.00 per essay and submissions will close April 15, 2023.
Judge: Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint
First prize: $1000 and publication in Passages North. One or more honorable mentions may also be selected and published.
All entrants receive a copy of the contest issue. (Students of Northern Michigan University and close friends of the Passages North staff or the contest judge are not eligible.)
We will consider all forms of poetry for the Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize, including lyric, experimental, and formal work. Up to three poems may be submitted in one document. Contest will close April 15, 2023.
Guest judge: Yanyi
First prize: $1000 and publication in Passages North. One or more honorable mentions my also be selected and published.
All entrants receive a copy of the contest issue. (Students of Northern Michigan University and close friends of the Passages North staff or contest judge are not eligible.)