Fiction Editor Kelsey Trom seeks stories that are lush, immersive, and urgent. She admires tales led by characters in immediate danger who have something essential at stake. She enjoys all styles and genres. The Tusculum Review loves fiction situated in rich cultural milieus with palpable environs, dialogue, and people. The Tusculum Review also seeks comics and graphic novel sequences (1-8  pages) of fiction, autofiction, and nonfiction. Submit either: 1) the completed piece or 2) a script, thumbnail version of the comic sequence, and finalized character design.

Please attach your story of less than 7,000 words (24 double-spaced pages) as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf or your comics as a .pdf or .jpeg. Include your name, address, phone number, email address, and the title of the submission in your cover letter. A short bio is optional. 

Poetry Editor Joshua L. Martin is most intrigued by poems that harness rhythm and imagery to carry compelling narratives. He admires poets Phillip Levine, Ross Gay, Kim Addonizio, and others working in the post-Confessional narrative tradition. He also values surreal and experimental poetry and is open to poems of all schools/traditions that work toward a sense of structural unification and demonstrate an awareness of form's collusion with function.

Please attach your poetry submission of five pages or less as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Include your name, address, phone number, email address, and the title(s) of the submission(s) in your cover letter. A short bio is optional. 

If you need to withdraw part of your submission, but still wish for the remaining poems to be considered, please do not withdraw the whole submission--just send us a note in "Messages."

Nonfiction Editor Abby Seethoff is looking for both essays and straight memoir and welcomes work that falls somewhere in between. If you’ve got a story to tell, say how you really felt. And if you’ve got an idea to unfurl, Abby is open to formal variety and intertextual gestures so long as you can answer this question: to what end?

Please attach your essay of less than 7,000 words (24 double-spaced pages) as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Include your name, address, phone number, email address, and the title of the submission in your cover letter. A short bio is optional. 

We publish book reviews of under two pages. We go to press in September, so books reviewed should be published between June and December. Submit reviews to Essay and signal as a review in your cover letter.

Drama Editor Chris Allen is most interested in plays that are fundamentally theatre—distinct from fiction, film, or other art rendered in play format. He looks for comedies or dramas centered on character and insight, rather than technical elements: plays that can be produced with small casts and low budgets in black box theatres. He appreciates pieces that urge audiences to see the unseen, inspect the ignored, and debate the assumed.

Please attach your one-act play of 10-30 pages (running time: 10-30 minutes) as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Include your name, address, phone number, email address, and the title of the submission in your cover letter. A short bio is optional.  

The Tusculum Review 2026 Poetry Chapbook Prize

• A prize of $1,500
• Publication of the chapbook in The Tusculum Review’s 22nd volume (2026)
• Creation of a limited edition stand-alone chapbook with original art

The entry fee is $20 per manuscript. Entry fees include a one-year subscription to The Tusculum Review (an annual publication) and consideration for publication in our 22nd volume (2026). We encourage international submissions but must charge an additional $15 fee to mail the journal to locations outside the U.S.

Deadline | The deadline for submitting is June 15, 2026. All entries should be sent through Submittable: tusculumreview.submittable.com. We do not accept mailed or emailed submissions, but if Submittable is a hardship, let us know at review@tusculum.edu.

Chapbook Length | Each manuscript should consist of a 20–30-page poetry chapbook in a standard 12-point font. 

Unpublished Entries | Chapbooks may not have been previously published nor be forthcoming, though individual poems may have been published elsewhere (provided rights have reverted to the author). You are welcome to submit your chapbook to other publications or contests while we consider it for the prize, but please alert us if your chapbook is going to be published or honored elsewhere, so we can take it out of the running. If you have more than one chapbook to submit, create a new entry for each.

Anonymous Manuscripts | Please do NOT include your name or any other identifying information on any page of the chapbook manuscript. Do NOT include an acknowledgements page in your manuscript: acknowledgements will be integrated as we prepare the winning chapbook for publication.

Contest Judge | Contest judge Nate Marshall and editors of The Tusculum Review will determine the winner of the 2026 prize. Family, friends, and previous students of the contest judge and Tusculum Review editors are disqualified from the competition, as are those with reciprocal professional relationships. Previous winners of The Tusculum Review contests are also disqualified. Previous finalists and honorable mentions may enter.

Blind Judging | Names and identifying information will not be visible to the judges. The Tusculum Review reserves the right to extend the call for manuscripts or cancel the award. We have only canceled one of the 30+ contests we’ve hosted, due to single-digit entries. We look forward to reading your work.

Publication Rights | Except for second printings of the journal due to demand, all rights to material in The Tusculum Review and chapbooks revert to the individual authors and artists after publication (first serial rights). We request that you acknowledge us if you reprint work we published first. The chapbook design belongs to The Tusculum Review. Tusculum University does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, age, sexual orientation, identity, religion, veteran/military status, citizenship, ethnic origin, or disability.

Chapbook Launch and Marketing | The debut of the prizewinning chapbook is our most important annual event. When possible, we bring the prizewinner to campus for the live launch, where they read for, and take questions from, an audience of community members and students, many of whom have already read and discussed the writer's work: the prizewinner is greeted by fans. The visiting writer may be asked to lead a workshop of student poetry earlier in the day. A student editor will interview and write a profile of the winning author for publication on our website in advance of the launch event. We will use photographs of the author, quotes from their chapbook, and blurbs from the contest judge to market the prizewinning chapbook and the event. After filming the live launch, we'll include portions of the recording on our website. We will submit the prizewinning chapbook for consideration for the Pushcart Prizes, Best New Poets, and other relevant recognition.

Chapbooks are short books of literature, appealingly packaged: an art and literary form. Although literary presses most often publish chapbooks of poetry, The Tusculum Review publishes single works of prose as chapbooks as well: one short story or one essay. Our annual chapbook contest rotates through the genres on a three-year cycle. We commission a well-matched artist to illustrate the winning work and design a chapbook whose aesthetics augment the text. The chapbook launches live in Greeneville, Tennessee in November, often with a live reading by the author, Q&A, and reception. This year, 2026, we are selecting a chapbook of poems. We commission a well-matched artist to illustrate the winning chapbook and design a chapbook whose aesthetics augment the poems' impact. Past chapbooks can be viewed on our website. Our 2026 poetry chapbook contest, judged by Nate Marshall, rewards a poetry chapbook and closes June 15, 2026.

Contest judge Nate Marshall is an award-winning author and editor from the South Side of Chicago. His most recent book, Finna, was recognized as one of the best books of 2020 by NPR and The New York Public Library. He is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at The University of Wisconsin and lives in Madison, WI with his wife, the writer Alison C. Rollins, and their very cute daughter.

Curtis Owens Literary Awards 2026

Tusculum students vie for the Curtis Owens Literary Awards every spring by submitting work in four genres: fiction, drama, nonfiction, and poetry. Winners in each category receive a monetary award of $250 each.

• The awards are open to all current Tusculum students, regardless of major.
• Entrants may submit multiple entries in all four categories but should not exceed 25 pages in any single category.
• Each entry should be a pdf, word, or jpg document immaculately formatted for publication submission (https://www.shunn.net/format/classic/) with the author’s name removed for judging purposes. A separate document should be submitted for each literary work entered, but students must submit all works simultaneously, in one entry. If students need to amend their submission, they should contact Sit Lux Student Editors JP Campione (jcampione1@students.tusculum.edu) and Lily Burgner (igall1@students.tusculum.edu).
• A cover letter that lists the author’s name, entry titles and genres, TU email address, and phone number should also be posted on Submittable.
• No work that has been previously published (in print or online) may be submitted, but pending publications will be considered.
• All entries should be submitted to Submittable: tusculumreview.submittable.com by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, March 24.

Raquel Vasquez Gilliland will serve as this year's Curtis Owens Judge. Gilliland will give a reading & announce her selections Thursday, April 16 at 7 pm in the Behan Arena. The event will be followed by a reception and book signing.

Tusculum’s Undergraduate Literary Journal Sit Lux

This spring marks the publication of the fourth volume of Tusculum University’s undergraduate literary journal Sit Lux. Editors of Sit Lux are accepting written work in four genres—fiction, drama, nonfiction, and poetry—and visual art. Please note that submissions for the Curtis Owens Literary Awards will automatically be entered for possible publication in Sit Lux. If you do not want your work to be a double submission to both the Curtis Owens Literary Awards and Sit Lux, please specify in your cover letter. 

This year, Sit Lux will be dedicated to Payton Cook and include student creative writing, student art, and a program for the academic symposium celebrating the students presenting projects. Sit Lux launches at the symposium on April 24.

The issue will serve not only as a memorial to Payton but also give all students at Tusculum the chance to write and submit works about personal growth, coming-of-age, life as a college student, handling grief and dealing with loss, and recovery in/of community.

Written Work

• Submission of written work to be considered for publication in Sit Lux is open to all Tusculum students and alumni, regardless of major.
• Entrants may submit multiple entries in all four categories but should not exceed 25 pages in any single category.
• Nonfiction entries should be essayistic, personal, and/or journalistic, rather than academic, though they may be centered in any subject area. Nonfiction work, like that in the other categories, should pay special heed to voice, lyric/sound, style, and structure, and be engaging to a general audience, not just a discipline-specific one. Examples of essays of this sort may be found in The Best American Science & Nature Writing, The Best American Food Writing, The Best American Essays, and the Pushcart Prizes (all available in Tusculum’s Garland Library).
• Each entry should be a pdf, word, or jpg document immaculately formatted for publication submission (https://www.shunn.net/format/classic/) with the author’s name removed for judging purposes. A separate document should be submitted for each literary work entered, but students must submit all works simultaneously, in one Submittable entry. If students need to amend their submission, they should contact Sit Lux Editors JP Campione (jcampione1@students.tusculum.edu) and Bella Gall (igall1@students.tusculum.edu).
• A stand-alone cover letter that lists the author’s name, entry titles and genres, TU email address, and phone number is required. Alumni should identify themselves as such in their cover letters.
• No work that has been previously published (in print or online) may be submitted, but pending publications will be considered.
• All entries should be submitted to Submittable by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, March 24.

Please note, submissions to Sit Lux will be reviewed separately from the Curtis Owens Literary Awards. The genre editors of Sit Lux will be the ones accepting work to be published in the second volume of Sit Lux.

Alumni, please be aware that you are only eligible to submit to Sit Lux—only current students may win Curtis Owens Awards. Please identify yourself as an alum in your cover letter.

Visual Art

• Submission of visual art to be considered for publication in Sit Lux is open to all current Tusculum students, regardless of major.
• Please attach separate .pngs or .jpgs for each work, up to 15 artworks.
• Files should be at least 300 DPI, and be sized 7” x 9.5,” or reducible to this size.
• We'll consider art in any media, including photography.
• A cover letter that lists the author’s name, entry titles, TU email address, and phone number should also be posted on Submittable.
• All artwork should be submitted to Submittable by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, March 24..

Questions about the Curtis Owens Literary Awards and Sit Lux should be sent to Professor of English Kelsey Trom at ktrom@tusculum.edu. She can also be reached at (423) 636-7420, ext. 5420.

The Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Prize was established in 1995 by Professor Curtis Owens and his wife, Billie, of Richmond Hill, New York. Professor Owens graduated in 1928 from Tusculum College, where he played football, debated, won an award for philosophy, two awards for poetry, and wrote the class poem for the 1928 annual. In his senior year, Professor Owens wrote a play which became part of the commencement ceremony. The Curtis Owens Literary Prizes serve to recognize the Owens' long-standing commitment to Tusculum by providing for an annual campus-wide competition among students who show exceptional ability in creative writing.

Curtis Owens judge Raquel Vasquez Gilliland is a USA TODAY best-selling and Pura Belpré Award-winning Mexican American poet, novelist, and painter. She received her BA in cultural anthropology from the University of West Florida and her MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Raquel is most inspired by folklore and seeds and the lineages of all things. When not writing, Raquel tells stories to her plants, and they tell her stories back.