Earth is in a climate crisis – literal climate, political climate, literary climate (looking at you, AI slop). From the deepest gems within this planet’s mantle to the endless expanse of outer space, our gorgeous world is reaping the consequences of human waste, greed, ignorance, and indifference. That’s why, for our summertime themed contest, we’re asking for work exploring the earth here at its pressure point.
We want your fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid writing around natural beauty and unnatural disaster, the life cycle of growth, the gravity of change. Show us stories on a slippery slope, poems prepping for the apocalypse, essays that restore hope and inspire action, pieces that recycle anxiety and rage into world wonders on the page. Evoke through environment and preserve ecosystems in ink. Send us your nature writing. Share your seedling dreams.
Submissions will be open from April 2-30, 2026.
Contest submissions fee: $7 USD
Prizes: 1st Place – $75 USD, 2nd Place – $50 USD, 3rd Place $25 USD, Honorable Mentions – $10-20 USD per our standard honorariums
The first week (April 2-9) will have limited free submissions alongside our $7 USD contest submission fee (& $15 USD feedback option), and run until following caps are reached: 20 subs of hybrid work, and 30 subs of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction work collectively. If the free period closes and our fee is a barrier to submitting your work, please email us for a no-questions-asked link to our fee-waived submission form.
All standard submission guidelines still apply. Please note that we have updated those as well for clarity on piece & word counts per submission and cover letter instructions for content warnings.
17: The Climate Issue is slated to publish on our website in July. Contest winners and honorable contributors will be announced in June. At that time we will also share our selection of charitable organization(s) that BTL will be donating to as part of this issue’s thematic focus on nature and environmentalism.
