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Affiliated prizes

The AAWP offers other opportunities for writers, including the Emerging Writers Prize, the Short Story Prize, the Chapter One Prize, the Westerly Life Writing Prize, and the Translator's Prize.

Information about each prize is available on the AAWP website, and submission is through the Submittable site.

Information for contributors to Meniscus:


Please read previous issues of Meniscus to get a sense of the flavour of the journal. Submissions can be sent to the Submittable site (it's usually open from 1 Nov to 15 Jan for the first issue each year, and 1 June to 15 Aug for the second, but do check the Submittable site, because the dates shift if the editors' own schedules shift). All things being equal, the editors will read submissions twice a year: in February/March (for the April issue) and in August/September (for the October issue); but of course these reading dates shift if the submission dates need to change. 

Please check the News tab for any special opportunities related to the current call for submissions. For general issues:

1. How to submit your work

  • Please send portfolios of up to three poems (max 75 lines per poem or up to half a page for prose poems); and/or up to three flash fictions (max 500 words); and/or two prose pieces (fiction, creative nonfiction, narrative nonfiction) of up to 3,000 words each;
  • Your submissions should be of work that has not previously been published. Given the complexities and multiplicities of the term 'unpublished' in this digital age, we nuance the term (following the position taken by Rattle literary journal), to mean 'uncurated': that is, it should not have appeared in any 'curated' collection: book, magazine, anthology etc, online or printed. If you've simply shared your work on social media or blogs, that's uncurated, and we're happy to see it.
  • Your work should not have been generated by artificial intelligence; we are interested in the human voice.
  • Submit your work through the Submittable site; 
  • Include a brief bio note (50-75 words); 
  • Include a confirmation that it is your own work, and not previously published;
  • Advise us if it is being simultaneously submitted to other literary outlets;
  • If you want to contact us about any issue to do with your submission, please do so via the Submittable site.

2. What happens next

  • All submissions will be logged and then await the editorial reading process
  • The editors will read and confer about all the submissions during February and August
  • You will be advised of the outcome of this reading as soon as the editors have completed the process
  • Possible outcomes are: accepted as is; accepted with recommended edits; not accepted but editors will provide suggestions of how it might be strengthened; not accepted
  • If your work was accepted, it will then be prepared for publication. You may be asked to clarify setting or other aspects, and will be asked to confirm the final version that will go online
  • Once the issue has gone on the Meniscus website, you will be emailed to let you know that it is now available. 

3. Intellectual property

Meniscus claims only first publication rights; copyright of all work published in the journal remains with the authors. However if you republish the work, you will need to acknowledge its first publication in Meniscus.


Submissions must be the sole work of the author and not involve third parties with a claim to copyright. Permission to reproduce photographs and illustrations is the responsibility of the author.

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