2026 Streetlight Contests | Streetlight Magazine

Streetlight Magazine‘s Annual Writing Contests:

Essay/Memoir — Winter/Spring

Judging lead by our Essay/Memoir Editor, Susan Shafarzek

January 5 to April 20
****This contest is currently CLOSED****

Susan Shafarzek lives in Charlottesville, Va. Besides editing essays for Streetlight, she is a poet and photographer, blogging occasionally at Whaddyameanrosebuds.com.

Paula Boyland is a writer, artist, herbalist, amateur chef, and small business owner. She lives and laughs in Louisa, Va. with her husband and their three incorrigible dogs.

Art — Winter/Spring

Judging lead by our Art Editor, Elizabeth Howard

Please check back for updates next year

CLICK HERE FOR SPECIFICS

Elizabeth Howard is Streetlight Magazine‘s Art Editor, and author of Aging Famously: Follow Those You Admire to Living Long and Well (winner of the 2019 International Book Awards, health 50+). A former lecturer at the University of Virginia, Howard is a member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors. She has also made documentary films which have aired on Virginia PBS.

Poetry — Spring/Summer

Judging lead by our Poetry Editors, Sharon Ackerman and Frederick Wilbur

April 13 to July 13
This contest is currently CLOSED

CLICK HERE FOR SPECIFICS

Sharon Perkins Ackerman holds an MEd from the University of Virginia. Her poems appear in the Atlanta Review, Southern Humanities Review, Kestrel, Appalachian Places, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Broad River Review, and many others. Her second poetry collection A Legacy of Birds is available on Amazon and her third collection, Sweeping the Porch (Pine Row Press), will be published in early 2026. She is poetry co-editor for Streetlight Magazine.

Fred Wilbur has written in varied genres including essays and blogs, historical research, newspaper columns, magazine articles, book reviews, and book introductions. He has also published three volumes of poetry, and three how-to woodcarving instruction books. His poetry collections are As Pus Floats the Splinter Out, Conjugation of Perhaps, and The Heft of Promise (Pine Row Press, 2025). The Nelson County Garden Club: The First Fifty Years, 1935-1985 was underwritten by the Nelson County Historical Society (2023).

Flash Fiction — Spring/Summer

Judging by our Fiction Editor, Erika Raskin and Mary Esselman

June 8 to September 7
****This contest is currently OPEN****

CLICK HERE FOR SPECIFICS

Erika Raskin, Streetlight’s fiction editor, is the author of Allegiance, Best Intentions and Close. Her non-fiction work has run in a variety of publications and on public radio. Her wry world view can be found at erikaraskin.com and https://substack.com/@erikaraskinwriter.

Mary Esselman has an extensive background in writing and editing. She currently serves as program coordinator and editor for Iris magazine, a student-run publication of the University of Virginia Maxine Platzer Lynn Women’s Center. She is the author of HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?: Poems for the Not So Young Anymore, YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY: Love Poems for Real Life, KISS OFF: Poems to Set You Free, and THE HELL WITH LOVE: Poems to Mend a Broken Heart..

For all contests:

- By submitting your work, you grant Streetlight Magazine first North American print and electronic publication rights and guarantee that the submission is your own, original writing. All rights return to the author after publication.
- Must be human-authored, no AI assisted writing accepted
- Simultaneous submissions at other magazines are okay. Notify us immediately if a piece is accepted elsewhere.
- If you publish your work again at a later date, we request that you include a notice stating that it was first published by Streetlight Magazine.
- Streetlight will only mark contest entries as ACCEPTED. Our editors do NOT decline contest entries nor close them out. After the contest deadline, winners are announced, and non-winning entries are considered for general publication. All submissions are anonymous.