Practice: A Rural Anthology

Submission Window: July 1–31, 2026

Backwoods Literary Press is now accepting submissions for Practice: A Rural Anthology, our third annual anthology celebrating the stories, voices, and creative work rooted in rural life.

This year, we're exploring what it means to be in practice: to return to something again and again, to learn by doing, to care for one another, and to build a life through repetition, memory, and effort.

Practice can be devotion, craft, maintenance, labor, caregiving, organizing, survival, ritual, or repair. It can be inherited or chosen. It can be joyful or difficult. It can be the work of tending a garden, mending clothes, raising children, preserving traditions, showing up for neighbors, learning a trade, making art, unlearning harmful patterns, or simply continuing when no one is watching.

We're interested in work that feels lived rather than polished—writing that pays attention to the ordinary acts that sustain people and places. Rural communities are shaped by countless practices that often go unnoticed: mountain song, folk and traditional medicine, land stewardship, cooking, storytelling, caregiving, mutual aid, craftsmanship, faith, organizing, and the routines that create belonging across generations.

Not every practice deserves to be preserved. Some are habits we inherit without choosing; others are patterns of harm, addiction, or silence that we're working to break. We welcome work that explores both what we carry forward and what we leave behind.

Above all, we're looking for writing that understands practice as an ongoing relationship—with ourselves, our communities, our histories, and our futures.

Who Can Submit

We welcome writers of all experience levels with a meaningful connection to rural places or communities.

As part of our mission, priority consideration is given to writers from historically underrepresented rural communities, including working-class, 2SLGBTQIA+, BIPOC, immigrant, and disabled voices.

What We Accept

• Poetry

• Fiction

• Creative nonfiction

• Hybrid work

Submission Guidelines

• Theme: Practice

• Submit up to three pieces

• Maximum 1,200 words per piece

• Work should engage with themes of practice, repetition, care, labor, survival, devotion, learning, repair, maintenance, community, or unlearning.

• Previously published work will be considered. If a submitted piece has appeared elsewhere, please note its publication history in your submission.

• Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Fees & Rights

• No submission fee

• Contributors receive one complimentary copy of the anthology.

• Contributors retain copyright to their work.

• At this time, we are unable to offer monetary compensation.

Submit Your Work

Submissions are open from July 1 through July 31, 2026.

We can't wait to read your work and celebrate the practices that shape rural life.