The theme for the Fall 2026 issue of the Chautauqua Journal is Interval.
Submissions open March 11 and will close when we reach our cap.
Intervals—the breaks, the pauses, the times when we hold our breath—encapsulate and describe moments between things. They can be quiet or raucous. They can be the natural middle ground between grander, more abstract spaces and the quieter, secretive parenthetical spaces.
As you turn that idea, think about how space and pause impact our identities, our lives, their grand moments, their still moments, their interludes.
- What happens in the space between breaths?
- What drives the tension between the heart and the head?
- How and why do we overlook things; what might we call afterthoughts?
- Consider the moments between lightning strikes and ocean swells. What was and what will be?
- What happens after those moments? Do you need to whisper? Do you need to shout?
We invite writing that explores those fleeting moments that we might take for granted, that we do not consider significant, that might be removed without causing disruption but which, in moments of reflection, we discover are important.
Please include an author bio and a cover letter that addresses how your work intersects with our theme.
If you are considering submitting to Chautauqua, https://www.chautauquajournal.com/, please visit our website where our newest issue is live. You will get a thorough feel for the kind of writing we love—and, clearly, what we publish. If you’re interested in writing a craft essay or book review for our Porch, please email us at chautauquajournal@gmail.com.
This submission portal is for Young Voices--writers in middle and high school, ages 12 through 18. Submissions must include a cover note by a teacher, mentor, or parent as well as an email address for that person. Please identify either a school or writing program that the author attends or participates in. This can go in the cover letter portion of the submission, along with the student's bio. Submissions may include nonfiction (1500 word limit), fiction (1500 word limit), poetry (1 to 3 poems) or flash (up to 750 words). For prose pieces, please identify as fiction or nonfiction.
ONCE CAP IS REACHED, SUBMISSIONS WILL CLOSE.
Theme: Interval
We are seeking essays that value exact and artful use of language and syntax as well as a compelling emotional experience that includes the reader, whatever the subject matter. The best essay is timeless, released from daily headlines but important for its truthful evocation of the world.
Creative Nonfiction should be a maximum of 5000 words in 12-point font, no extra spaces between paragraphs and all pages numbered.
Please address how your work addresses theme.
Submissions open until we reach our submission cap.
Theme: Interval
A Chautauqua short story, self-contained novel excerpt, or short short demonstrates a sound storytelling instinct, using suspense in the best sense of creating a compulsion in the reader to continue reading—because of deep interest in the characters and their actions, unsettled issues of action or theme, or in some cases sheer delight at the language itself. A superior story will exhibit the writer’s attention to language—both in nuance and detail—and reveal a masterful control of syntax.
Fiction should be a maximum of 5000 words in 12-point font, no extra spaces between paragraphs and all pages numbered.
In your cover note please address how your work addresses the theme.
ONCE CAP IS REACHED, SUBMISSIONS WILL CLOSE.
Theme: Interval
The editors actively solicit writing, regardless of genre, that expresses the values of Chautauqua Institution: meaningful inquiry into questions of personal, social, political, spiritual, and aesthetic importance. The qualities we seek include a mastery of craft, attention to vivid and accurate language, a true lyric “ear,” an original and compelling vision, and strong narrative instinct. Above all, we value work that is intensely personal, yet somehow implicitly comments on larger public concerns—work that answers every reader’s most urgent question: Why are you telling me this?
PLEASE BE SURE TO MARK AS FLASH FICTION, MICRO ESSAY, OR PROSE POEM. THANKS!
You may include up to three flash pieces in a single file. Each should be no longer than 750 words.
Please address how your work addresses the theme.
ONCE CAP IS REACHED, SUBMISSIONS WILL CLOSE.
Theme: Interval
A Chautauqua poem is not just a pretty exercise in language. It exhibits the writer’s craft and attention to language, employs striking images and metaphors, and engages the mind as well as the emotions. It emerges from the poet’s deep reading and knowledge of poetic tradition, reacting to that tradition to reveal a definite aesthetic approach, opening insights into the larger world of human concerns. This may include traditional or experimental work, but each poem should be meaningful to a smart reader beyond the writer’s private code of expression.
Submit a maximum of three poems, typed single-spaced, justified left, saved in a single document.
ONCE CAP IS REACHED, SUBMISSIONS WILL CLOSE.