Terrain.org welcomes submissions on place, climate, and justice from new and experienced authors and artists alike.
General submissions of nonfiction and fiction open on January 1 and close on April 30. (No entry fee, $50 paid per contribution.) Due to our lengthy queue, we are not accepting poetry submissions in 2026.
Submissions to the 16th Annual Contests in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction are open May 1 to September 1, 2025. ($20/entry for $1,000 grand prize in each genre.)
Submissions for the 4th Annual Sowell Emerging Writers Prize (a full manuscript in nonfiction, published by Texas Tech University Press, with a prize of $1,000, plus a residency at the Lopez Cottage on the Mackenzie of up to two weeks and $1,000 to support travel to the residency) are open September 15 to November 15, 2025. ($25/entry.)
ARTerrain and Letter to America submissions are open and are accepted year-round. (No entry fee, $50 paid per contribution.)
Our online, place-based journal accepts only the finest poetry, essays, fiction, articles, artwork, videos, and other contributions—material that reaches deep into the earth’s fiery core, or humanity’s incalculable core, and brings forth new insights and wisdom. We are seeking work in English (or translation) from around the world, and particularly Indigenous, Native, Black, Brown, and other historically marginalized and underrepresented voices as we expand contributions relating to social, environmental, and climate justice. All accepted submissions by writers of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, women, and/or other marginalized communities whose contributions explore place particularly in the context of social, environmental, or climate justice are considered for our annual Editor's Prize of $500 per genre.
Terrain.org pays all regular contributors $50 for each submission published.
We do our best to respond to general submissions within six months and Letter to America and ARTerrain submissions within six weeks. Please do not submit regular submissions more than once every six months unless invited to do so.
If you are a former Terrain.org contributor, or we have spoken with you at an event such as AWP, please remind us in your cover letter.
View our full submission guidelines at www.terrain.org/submit.
Thank you for your interest in submitting a Letter to America to Terrain.org, open once again for submissions.
Please submit your prose, poetry, visual art-based, video, or other Letter to America (generally up to 1,500 words) in a single document. Photos or other graphics may be inserted into the document, but if accepted will be requested as separate files.
View our recent Letters to America at www.terrain.org/category/letter-to-america. And learn more about our Dear America project, plus find an amazing array of Letter to America teaching resources, at www.terrain.org/dear-america.
Thank you for your interest in submitting to Terrain.org's ARTerrain gallery and artist feature.
Please submit your ARTerrain narrative or query in a single document, which may included embedded images or links to images (as well as links to video/audio). Up to 20 images may also be uploaded with your document. The images should be no less than 1600 pixels wide, when possible.
View our recent ARTerrain features at www.terrain.org/category/arterrain.
Submittable is now requiring email validation. If you have difficulty validating your email, you may complete the form at www.submittable.com/help/submitter.
The Sowell Collection at Texas Tech University, in partnership with Terrain.org and Texas Tech University Press, invites book-length manuscript submissions of essays, memoir, longform journalism or other nonfiction in English on themes about and related to the natural world by writers who have published no more than one book in any genre.
We are especially interested in submissions that explore the relationship between human communities and nature and may be informed by scientific inquiry and/or personal experience.
The Sowell Emerging Writers Prize will accept submissions in nonfiction, poetry, and fiction on a rotational basis and in that order: nonfiction in 2025, poetry in 2026, fiction in 2027, and so on.
We are also partnering with the Spring Creek Project, an initiative of the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts at Oregon State University, to offer a residency at the Lopez Cottage on the McKenzie to the winner of the Sowell Emerging Writers Prize to continue their manuscript or a related writing project. The cottage, which belonged to writers Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, is on a 37-acre property near Finn Rock, Oregon, and is managed by the McKenzie River Trust. The winner will receive $1,000 toward travel expenses (separate from and in addition to the prize honorarium) and up to two weeks in residence at the Lopez Cottage in 2026. If the winner cannot accept the residency, we will offer it to finalists.
The Sowell Family Collection in Literature, Community and the Natural World at Texas Tech University holds the personal and professional papers of prominent American writers on the natural world. The Sowell Collection was established in 2001 when it acquired the papers of National Book Award–winning writer Barry Lopez. Since then, the Collection has acquired the papers of some thirty American writers including Rick Bass, David James Duncan, Gretel Ehrlich, William Kittredge, J. Drew Lanham, Bill McKibben, Susan Brind Morrow, Gary Nabhan, Robert Michael Pyle, David Quammen, Pattiann Rogers, and others.
Submission Details
- Submissions open on Terrain.org's Submittable portal: September 15
- Deadline for submissions: November 15
- Manuscripts should be at least 192 pages (i.e., book length and not a chapbook)
- Please include an Acknowledgements page if essays or portions of the manuscript have been previously published elsewhere
- The winner will receive book publication by Texas Tech University Press, a $1,000 honorarium by Texas Tech University Press, a residency of up to two weeks at the Lopez Cottage on the McKenzie, and $1,000 toward travel expenses for the residency by the Spring Creek Project
- The reading fee is $25
- Finalists will be announced in February 2026, and the winner will be announced by the end of February
- Manuscripts that do not win the prize may still receive consideration for publication at Texas Tech University Press
Submissions must be previously unpublished (publication of excerpts or individual essays in literary journals and magazines is acceptable, as are portions that contain previously published chapbooks up to 28 pages). All forms of nonfiction are eligible (essays, memoir, longform journalism, etc.), as are hybrid forms and work with images.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Please withdraw your manuscript promptly if it is accepted elsewhere for publication.
Include a bio of fewer than 100 words in your cover letter. The Sowell Emerging Writers Prize encourages underrepresented voices to submit their work for consideration.
Submittable is now requiring email validation. If you have difficulty validating your email, you may complete the form at www.submittable.com/help/submitter.