A new year has sprouted, and with it a fresh round of submissions for amazing works! Touchstone is accepting submissions for the Debut Prizes in Nonfiction and Art. There is no theme or prompt for Debut Prizes so that you can showcase your best work in these genres! The submission window will be open from February 1st to February 15th (a two-week window for submissions), and winners should be announced in early March.

For you Fiction and Poetry writers, do not dismay! We are hosting Pop-Up projects for Fiction and Poetry as well!

The Pop-Up theme for Fiction is “Dragons in Distress,” an inversion of the damsel-in-distress cliché. Show us a tale from a different perspective of fantasy and fiction, testing if the boundary of the monstrous and the heroic blends or shatters altogether. The submission deadline for “Dragons in Distress” has been extended to February 15th. We look forward to seeing what your creativity can conjure!

“The most profound moralising experience, the only one capable of defeating dualism, is to undergo role reversal. Imagine a Crusader in the Middle Ages, or a German in 1939, discovering that he is a Jew. There can be no more life-changing trial than finding yourself on the other side.” - Not in God’s Name, p. 152

The Pop-Up theme for Poetry is “Lost and Found Time,” a topic inspired by the extra day we have gained in this leap year. What do you do with time rediscovered, and what do you do with time lost? Show us your poetic reflections on the departure and homecoming of times and memories. Submissions for “Lost and Found Time” will be accepted from February 1st to February 8th (a one-week window). We look forward to seeing how you illuminate this topic!

“The pen will never be able to move fast enough to write down every word discovered in the space of memory. Some things have been lost forever, other things will perhaps be remembered again, and still other things have been lost and found and lost again. There is no way to be sure of any this.” - Paul Auster

Submission portals can be found here, and all submissions must follow our General Guidelines listed below. Make sure to follow us on Twitter (or X if you prefer to call it that) to stay up to date on submissions, publications, and developments from Touchstone.

Touchstone accepts all submissions on our Submittable portal.

 

General Guidelines

  • Your work may be in any style, format, or subject, unless unless it's a themed submission. We simply want to see your best work. Surprise us. Move us. Expand our understanding of art & literature. Remind us what great art can do

  • Each new piece should start on a new page. The author's name and personal information should not appear on the submission itself

  • For prose & poetry: Please use easy-to-read, standard fonts such as Times New Roman and Garamond. 12 point font. Please include page numbers. Attach your file as a Word document on the submissions page. We only recommend PDF if the piece has special formatting

  • For art submissions: We will accept all mediums: painting, digital art, photography, experimental, sculpture, multimedia, etc. One art piece should appear on a single page with the following information at the bottom right: title, media, dimension, & date of completion.

  • Include a cover letter with your submission. Journals and contests frequently ask for a short cover letter along with the submission, so it’d be helpful to have a cover letter template ready and modify it slightly for all your submissions.

    • Don’t sweat the cover letter too much--it’s simply a short letter that gives us more context about you and your work before we review the submission. Please fill out the cover letter section on your submission with the following information:

      • For prose (fiction & nonfiction) submissions, please include the word count in the letter

      • Indicate if this is a simultaneous submission (meaning if the pieces are--or will soon be--under consideration with other magazines)

      • A 25-100 author bio in third person. It can be about anything. Commonly, the bio contains such things as pronouns, education/publication history, state of residence, current occupation (if applicable), hobbies/interests, etc

  • We accept simultaneous submissions. However, if your pieces are accepted elsewhere, please notify us through the “Messages“ tab in your submission on Submittable right away

  • If your work contains violence, sexual or mental abuse, sexual assault, etc., please put a content warning or trigger warning above that specific piece--we would just like a little warning. Abusive pieces written from an obviously positive perspective will be rejected.

AWARDS

DEBUT PRIZE IN FICTION, NONFICTION, OR POETRY (genre subject to editor discretion)

A cash prize of $25 for one story/essay/poem and an original broadside art designed by our artist will be awarded to a new writer making their grand debut!

TOUCHSTONE UNDERGRADUATE CREATIVE WRITING AWARD

Touchstone Undergraduate Creative Writing Awards are an annual award series open to current undergraduate students at Kansas State University. In each of the following genres: poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction, two submissions are chosen by the editors at Touchstone. Winner in every genre receives a cash prize of $75, and the runner up receives $50.

PERMISSION TO PUBLISH

Submission to Touchstone implies permission to publish unless otherwise revoked by the writer during the submission stage. Writers retain all later publication rights. Touchstone accepts simultaneous submissions.