Submission FAQs

Who can submit?

We accept work from both emerging and established writers and artists, and from folks of any and all ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. However, we do prioritize work from artists who come from underrepresented communities.

If you are under 18 years old at the time of submission, please clearly state your age in the body of your submission email. We do still consider submissions from minors; however, we will not consider or respond to submissions from minors that include any depictions or representations of sex and violence. Under penalty of federal law, we are prohibited from distributing or in any way handling such content.

What do “BIPOC” and “LGBTQIA+” mean?

BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous, People of Color.

LGBTQIA+ is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual. The + refers to the queer identities not mentioned in this acronym.

How long should my artist bio be? What should I include in my bio?

On average, the artist bios that we receive range from about 50 to 100 words, or 3 to 5 sentences. To get a sense of what to include in your bio, we recommend that you take a look at our previous issues and read the bios of the contributors. You can also head over to our Staff page and read the bios of our own MaS masthead. As a common practice for community transparency, please make sure to include your pronouns in your bio.

Do you accept work that was published personally, like on a personal blog, Instagram or Twitter?

We do accept work that has been published personally, such as on a personal blog or website, or personal social media account. We do not consider those pieces to be “previously published.” However, works published elsewhere, such as through a different literary magazine, or any other third party publisher, would qualify as a previously published piece.

Do you accept previously published pieces?

Due to the difficulty of obtaining publication rights for work that is already published elsewhere, we accept unpublished work only.

Can I submit multiple pieces of different genres?

You may submit once per genre, per issue. If you submit to more than one genre, please send each genre submission in its own separate email.

For example: if you choose to submit 3 poems and 1 fiction piece, the 3 poems must be sent all together in one email, and the 1 fiction piece must be sent in one email, for a total of 2 emails.

Please be sure read and adhere to all other submission limits per genre, as provided on our Genre Guidelines page. Failure to follow all guidelines may result in your submission getting lost in the confusion, and we certainly want to avoid that! So please help us help you by properly labeling all your submissions.

How often can I submit?

You may submit once per genre per submission period. If your submission has been rejected for the current review round, please do not re-submit until our next submission window opens. We will not review submissions sent to us outside of the active submission window.

What may I write about?

As of January 2022, we will be discontinuing General/unthemed submissions, as we focus on more frequent themed magazine issues. The theme of each issue will be announced at the opening of the respective submissions window.

Please be mindful of our readers and include a content warning clearly naming the sensitive content of your work. The safety of our readers and our staff is our highest concern, and we want to prevent all trauma triggers.

DO NOT send work with excessive violence, gore, abuse, and/or r*pe. We will not accept work that promotes any forms of hate, including but not limited to: racism, sexism, xenophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, ageism, or ableism.