Submit

 Once we re-open we will be looking for personal essays, lyric essays, reportage, narrative journalism, experimental nonfiction, prose poems, flash essays/flash nonfiction, vignettes, sketches, comic essays and short memoir of under 2,500 words. If you would like to submit something to be performed at our quarterly Manchester reading series, please keep your submission to under 1500 words.

We welcome submissions of original essays and short nonfiction that have not already been published elsewhere (including the writer’s own blog or website). Please submit in a .docx format via our Submittable account, including with your submission a one- or two- line bio. We are a not for profit so unfortunately do not currently pay for essays and short nonfiction.

We aim to respond to all submissions within three months but this can take longer depending on workload. Simultaneous submissions are welcome but please let us know in your cover letter you’re also submitting the piece elsewhere and withdraw it as soon as it is accepted by another publication.

If your piece is accepted, you’ll be assigned an editor to work with. We’re different from some literary journals in that we work directly with writers to edit and polish a piece, rather than publishing work as submitted. This means we may offer editorial feedback and ask you to revise your piece if we accept it for publication. Please be aware that we will only publish accepted pieces which have been through the editing process.

Ninjas of Nonfiction and book or essay reviews:

Writers are welcome to contribute to the Ninjas of Nonfiction series. Each post is a 500-800 word introduction to a nonfiction writer’s whole oeuvre. Tell us about the writers who have influenced you, the writers whose work you can’t stop thinking about, the writers whose books you would rescue from a burning building.

We also publish reviews of nonfiction books new and old (500-800 words), or short pieces of writing considering individual essays. Get in touch if you’d like to write one of these for us.

Authors and publishers are welcome to email us information about books available for review (info@openstories.org) and we’ll get in touch if we want a review copy. We’re also always looking for nonfiction authors to headline our Manchester event series; proposals for featured readings are welcome.

Of course, we’re not the only place that will welcome your nonfiction writing. Check out the fantastic submissions opportunities below…

B O D Y is always looking for engaging prose, including personal essays, criticism, or excerpt from a longer work of literary non-fiction.

The Creative Nonfiction Foundation has announced that it is launching a new monthly magazine, set to debut this autumn. Each issue of TRUE STORY will feature one exceptional work of creative nonfiction, which will be distributed in print and digitally (though not available online). Submissions should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words long, on any subject, in any style.

Catapult is accepting narrative nonfiction submissions for its online magazine. Catapult welcomes personal essays, lyric essays, reportage, and unconventional prose which resists categorization. All contributors will be paid.

The Sun is an independent, monthly magazine based in North Carolina that publishes personal essays. All contributors are paid but the magazine receives over 1000 submissions per month, meaning responses can take three to six months.

F(r)iction seeks nonfiction submissions of up to 7,500 words for the triannual journal.

The Forge seeks nonfiction prose of up to 3,000 words.

Hobart seeks essays and short nonfiction of up to 2500 words

The Offing seeks essays, micro essays, and short nonfiction across several categories

Sundog Lit seeks essays, flash essays and experimental nonfiction

Entropy seeks lyric essays, personal essays and creative nonfiction

minor literature[s] seeks lyric essays, personal essays, criticism and memoir

For even more places to submit essays and nonfiction head to Entropy’s website and peruse their comprehensive Where to Submit section.