Call for Submissions on the Theme of "Leaving": Gulf Stream Magazine

 

Gulf Stream Magazine

What we publish

We publish fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, hybrid works, translations, book reviews & visual art. We are a biannual online publication. We love a wide range of genres and styles, especially writing that is innovative in form and progressive in content.

Read more about our theme here.

More important than any theme, we welcome all submissions as long as they’re honest and authentic – what we want most of all is your best work. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished (with the exception of translations – see genre guidelines). Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.

We acknowledge that literary spaces traditionally have centered the white, heterosexual, cisgender male experience at the expense of other voices. We want to break from that tradition and are therefore especially interested in reading work from those who are often marginalized in literary spaces, including Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); all women, including but not limited to, trans and cis women; LGBTQIA+ people; agender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people; people with disabilities; and people who live at the intersections of identities.

Limits (General Submissions)

Fiction: 5,000 words (or 3 pieces of up to 1,000 words)

Creative Nonfiction: 5,000 words

Poetry: 3 poems per submission

Hybrid: 5,000 words (may include up to 5 images, B&W only)

Translations: 3 poems or 5,000 words of prose (must include original piece)

Book Reviews: 500-750 words (books must have been published within the past year)

Visual Art: up to 5 pieces

How to submit

Please submit your work through submittable.

No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, incarcerated writers may request to do this.)

Include a bio of up to fifty words along with your cover letter.

We do our very best to respond within 6 months, but due to the volume of submissions, it can sometimes take longer.

Guidelines

-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).

-International submissions are welcomed, but English only for our main genres and Spanish for our new Spanish section only.

-Multiple submissions are welcome at $3 per submission, but please, no more than one submission per genre at a time.

Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.

-No submissions from current FIU students.

–If we have published your work, please wait one year after your publication to submit again. For example, if you were published in Issue 37, please do not submit for Issue 38, but feel free to submit for Issue 39 (visual art and contest submissions are exempt and can submit for every issue).

-Submissions accepted from FIU alums two or more years after graduation.

Copyright Info

We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.

Reviews & interviews

No unsolicited submissions or requests, please.

Contact

gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com

Call for Submissions from Undergraduate Students: The Kudzu Review

 

The Kudzu Review 

Deadline: October 25, 2026

• We ONLY accept submissions from current undergraduate students.

• Remove all identifiers from your piece (name, email) so assistants can review your work anonymously

• Undergraduates who graduated one semester prior to the current submission period may also submit. (I.e., if you graduated in spring, you may submit the following fall, or vice versa.)

• We are an international magazine, so no matter what university you attend in the world, we want to read your work!

• If submitting multiple pieces, please do so individually. Do NOT submit multiple pieces in one file.

• We recommend you make the file name the same as the piece’s title.

• Do not include any identifying information within the document itself.

• It is free to submit, but we are a non-paying market.

• We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted for publication elsewhere.

• Our editors may suggest a round of edits.

• Publication is not contingent upon acceptance of these editorial suggestions.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Mascara Literary Review

 

Co-founded in 2007, Mascara is a journal which focuses on the work of First Nations, CaLD, disabled and neurodivergent writers, as well as human rights and experimentation. We specialise in publishing platforms for minorities, focusing on cultural cohesion and participation. We foster a space for critical research to bridge the gaps left by institutions; a space for writers, readers and researchers that is progressive and vibrant. We are interested in shaping the way that discourse structures social realities and positions individuals hierarchically. The word ‘mascara’ entered the English language in 1890. But it derives from Spanish, Arabic and French origins, its meaning evolving from the word ‘mask’, ‘masquerade’, to darken, to blacken. The Arabic word ‘maskhara’ means buffoon, suggesting violence and play in the correspondences between life and art.

Submissions will open from 7 September 2026 to 2 October 2026 in all categories.

 Submission Guidelines

We only consider previously unpublished work, ie first serial rights, electronic and print. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as we are notified immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Nonfiction: One piece of up to 3000 words.
Reviews: Word length is approx. 1200-1500 words. Please use endnotes, not footnotes for citation.
Poetry: 3 poems max., all in one file
Fiction: One short story up to 3000 words, or for flash fiction send no more than 1000 words.

Formatting & Process: We accept only Microsoft Word doc files (.doc and .docx)
Format your document in 12 point, Times New Roman, 1.5 spaced
Name your file by surname and genre (e.g. yoursurname_poetry)
In the subject line of your email, write your surname and genre of submission (i.e. non-fiction, review or poetry)
In the body of the email, include a short bio and attach your submission file

Email your submission to:

submissions@mascarareview.com

***Note: Please only submit once until you have heard back from us. (See response times below.)

Response Times

We are a very small team whose editors work on a voluntary basis. Our response time is 3-6 months. Please do not query the status of your submission before 3 months. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Payment

Poems $100
Fiction and essays $200
Reviews $200
First Nations & CaLD critics $500
Tasmanian critics $400

Please note: We are not currently funded to pay international contributors.

Call for Submissions on Themes of "Branches" or "Dirt": 3 Sisters Literary

 

Issue 2 Theme: Branches

“the poems are branches worked through the mouth & hands.

a nest, a nest! a limbwork i can lie down in,

get up from”

– “ars poetica,” by Jasmine Reid

For our second issue, 3 Sisters invites work in conversation with the ideas of branches, branching, and brachial systems. This includes but is not limited to work involving: trees, olive branches (reconciliations, peace offerings), fruit (pawpaw and others), roots, ramus, trunks, leaves, alternate timelines, futures, choice, bifurcation, trifurcation, tributaries, distributaries, contingencies, permutations, confluence, estuary, forking paths, sistering (a process in architecture, of adding additional beams to strengthen an existing structure), scaffolding, limbs/appendages, innervation, veins, bodily systems, plexus, breath, fractures, fractals, nudibranchs, seeds, germination, propagation, mutation, symbiosis, proliferation, decussation, divergence, inheritance, descendants, antecedents, and genealogy.

“O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?

How can you be alive you growths of spring?”

–“This Compost” by Walt Whitman

Special Folio: Dirt

Additionally, we’re interested in decomposition, the breaking down of materials to make way for the possibility of something new. Dirt as a fertile ground for creation and as a resting place of that which has expired. Not just a site of transformation, but the process itself is of interest: to linger in that in-between state: filth, dejection, scum.

The work we hope to be represented in this special folio on dirt is work that is evolving/devolving, adaptive, languid, centered on the grime that comes with growth and decay.

We encourage innovation, playfulness, entendre, and deviation from the literal.

“Again with the digging, again with the digging up.

Once more with the shovels.

Once more, the shovels full of dirt.

The vault lid. The prying. The damp boards.”

– “Ballad” by Diane Seuss
General Submission Guidelines

We accept work from all genres, including but not limited to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art, mixed media, essay, video pieces, computational work, audio offerings, objects, and more. We are especially interested in hybrid works, work that falls in between genres, and pieces that are not easily categorized. We delight in art that is structurally unconventional, fragmentary, elliptical, or otherwise weird and surprising. As an online publication we are excited to showcase works that utilize the digital format in unique ways.

Our Open Submission Period is currently open September 1, 2026 – October 15, 2026. Click here to submit via our free, old school Submission Manager. 

Simultaneous submissions are expected; please do alert us immediately when your work is accepted elsewhere by withdrawing it manually in our submissions manager.

We do not consider previously published work.

All rights revert to the authors/artists after publication, and the works can then be reprinted (though we ask that we get an acknowledgment as its place of initial publication).

3 Sisters is currently able to offer a modest honorarium for accepted work. The amount per contributor or piece is dependent on our overall number of contributors for a given issue, and the budget allocated to us by the University of Pittsburgh. These numbers are subject to change per issue.

At this time, we are unable to offer any feedback on individual submissions.

Call for Submissions: The Freshwater Literary Journal

The Freshwater Literary Journal is a professional literary journal coordinated by students at Asnuntuck since 2000. We seek submissions from the public and publish a wide variety of literary work from students and professional writers worldwide. We consider poetry, short stories, personal essays, and creative nonfiction.

Dates and Deadlines

Submission Period: August 15, 2026, to February 15, 2027. Acceptances and rejections will be sent on a rolling basis, no later than the end of March 2027. The new edition will be published in May 2027.

Submission Guidelines

Freshwater accepts poetry, short stories, personal essays and creative nonfiction submissions. We seek to publish a wide variety of literary works from people of all backgrounds. We look for new experimental takes on old mediums as well as more traditional approaches.

Poetry

Three poems maximum, up to 40 lines each.

Prose

Fiction or nonfiction
One or multiple pieces up to 1,500 words total.

Submissions should be sent to:

 as_freshwater@ctstate.edu (No snail-mail submissions, please.)

To submit, email your entire submission as one attachment, including your name.

No cover letter needed, but send a third-person bio (100 words maximum) with mailing address in the body of the e-mail.

No previously published material. Simultaneous submissions permissible if you notify us immediately of acceptance elsewhere. Payment is one contributor copy. Absolutely no AI-generated material. 

Contact John Sheirer for details:

John.sheirer@ctstate.edu

Call for Submissions: Orion's Belt

Orion's Belt 

Each writer may submit in only ONE of the following genres:

MICRO FICTION

FLASH FICTION

POETRY

We also accept REVIEWS, TRANSLATIONS, and ART submissions.

We are accepting free submissions via DUOSUMA, our submission manager. (Duosuma is free to use, you do not need to purchase an account.) Only art submissions must be sent via email. Please see the guidelines below for each genre.

You may submit in only one genre: Flash, Micro, or Poetry. However, you may submit Reviews and Translations in addition.

Only multiple submissions across Fiction (flash and micro) and Poetry will not be read, and all stories over 1000 words will be rejected automatically.

If Orion’s Belt rejects a story, please do not resubmit it, even if you revise it. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please withdraw your work via our submission manager if it is accepted elsewhere.

All prose stories must contain significant speculative elements. This does not mean all sci-fi stories must have lasers and rockets. It just means a non-speculative story doesn’t become speculative if you include a single line clarifying the story takes place on Mars.

All forms and styles of poetry are welcome. We encourage boundary-pushing, experimental poetry. What we care about is subject matter. Speculative elements must be significant. What “literary” means in the context of poetry is more difficult to define than in prose, but the focus of submissions should be on emotion and experience, not explaining scientific formulas or displaying complex worldbuilding.

When to Submit

Autumn

1 September – 31 October

(Publishing in December)

 

Fiction Pay Rate: 8 US cents per word.

Poetry Pay Rate: US$40 flat per poem.

 

Translation Pay Rates: 8 US Cents per word for prose and US$40 flat per poem, paid to both author and translator.

 

FOR REPRINTS of translated stories and poems, we pay a flat US$40 for stories and a flat US$20 for poems, paid to both author and translator.

Reviews Pay Rate: $45 flat per review.

We pay a flat rate of US $100 for selected artwork.

More information and submission portal here.

---

Call for Submissions: The Iowa Review

As submissions are read anonymously, please do not include your name on the submission document itself. Your name, email, address, and bio can be included in the cover letter.

During the open submission reading period, we accept online submissions via Submittable and paper submissions at the following address:

Paper Submissions

[Fiction, Poetry, or Nonfiction] Editor

The Iowa Review

308 EPB
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

There is a $4 fee to submit online.* We do not consider e-mail submissions.

Paper submissions without a self-addressed, stamped envelope will not be considered.

Work must be previously unpublished in print or online, and, if accepted, must not be published anywhere else before it is published in The Iowa Review (the lead time between acceptance and publication is about a year). Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided you contact us immediately to withdraw your work if it is accepted for publication elsewhere. We typically respond in one to six months.

The page limit for prose is 25 pages and for poetry is 8 pages (query by e-mail if you have a longer poem). Prose submissions should be double-spaced.

We recommend reading an issue of The Iowa Review before submitting. Ask for us at your local bookstore or library, or purchase a copy here.

Current University of Iowa students are ineligible to submit. 

We pay $1.50 per line for poetry ($100 minimum) and $0.08 per word for prose ($100 minimum).

Translations should be submitted according to the guidelines of the original work’s genre and addressed to that genre’s editor. Translators should have permission from the copyright holder and should include a copy of the original work with their submission.

*Subscribers can now submit online for free! Please use the “for subscribers only” category on Submittable. We check these submitters’ names against our subscription list, so please use this category only if you’re a current subscriber.

ADDRESS QUESTIONS TO: 

iowa-review@uiowa.edu