Call for Submissions: Swamp Pink

Formerly known as Crazyhorse, swamp pink publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction semi-monthly online.

Our aim is to continue publishing exceptional work from writers at all stages of their careers. We are particularly interested in submissions from writers of color and writers from marginalized and underrepresented communities. And yes, we pay our contributors.

Poems receive $40 each, and we pay $0.05 a word for prose. Maximum payout for accepted work is $200.

Submissions of fiction and nonfiction can be up to 7,500 words in length. We have published exceptional work that falls outside this range, but it is an unusual occurrence.

For poetry, please submit a set of 3-6 poems.

We accept general submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from September 1st to December 31st and February 1st to May 31st. During the month of January, we only accept entries for the swamp pink Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, & Poetry.

We accept simultaneous submissions for all genres. It typically takes us 12-16 weeks to respond to submissions.

More information and submission links here.

Call for Submissions: Four Tulips

Submissions for publication are open.

Four Tulips accepts submissions for poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction following the guidelines detailed below. We are interested in vivid language and concrete imagery.

Submission Guidelines 

Include your full name, the title of your submission, your email address, and a short 150-word bio. We do not accept submissions previously published in other publications including those that have been self-published. We do, however, accept submissions previously published on personal blogs.

General submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis. All submissions for contests will receive either an acceptance or rejection notification. Please review the contest page for themed submissions.

Prose: Submit no more than one prose piece at a time. Prose formatting should be single-spaced and no longer than 2,000 words. Submit as Microsoft Word or PDF.

Poetry: Submit no more than three poems at a time. Poems should be formatted single-spaced as a Microsoft Word or a PDF file.

Email submissions may be sent to:

editor@fourtulips.com

Please keep in mind that submissions may be edited.

Submit your work online here.

Call for Submissions: CommuterLit

Submissions are open!

CommuterLit.com is looking for short stories, memoir, novel excerpts and poetry (one poem or a series of poems), in any genre, with a word count of 500 to 4,000. Please no AI-generated stories or poems.

How to submit

All submissions are through our Submittable service using the link below. You may submit more than one manuscript, but please send only one submission at a time. Poets: please submit one poem (or series if it is meant to be posted together) at a time. Attach the manuscript as a MS Word.doc file or a .rtf file (preferred).

Manuscript Format
Use a 12 or 14 pt font size, Helvetica or Times New Roman. Single space your copy and number your pages. At the top of your manuscript include: Title of the piece, your name, your contact information/email address, word count, if the piece has been published before and if so when and where. On all subsequent pages include, in a footer or header, your name and the title of your piece.

Please! Please! Follow these formatting rules — and we guarantee to read and get back to you faster about your submission!

1. Single space between sentences — get rid of the double spaces!

2. No paragraph indents

3. For our U.K. friends: Use double-quotation marks — not single

4. For our American & U.K. friends: Our spelling is based on the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. That means: centre, neighbour, colour, defence etc . . . , but realize, etc . . . Set your SpellCheck to Canadian English.

5. We follow Canadian Press style for numbers: spell out one to nine, use numbers for the rest.

6. Leave a single space on both sides of a long dash.

Please don’t do these things when submitting
When reviewing submissions, these are the things that drive us crazy and make us want to reject submissions out of hand.

1. Not following our manuscript formatting guidelines. Please do so.

2. Inconsistent author name. We get submissions that have one name on the email address; something different on the signature in the cover letter; yet another variation in the manuscript file; and if we accept it, yet another name in their contributor’s bio. Which one do we use on the website?

Now, we understand that the email address might be a little different, but there is no excuse for the others. We don’t care if you want to use a nickname or a shortened form of your name, or initials (with or without periods and spaces in between), or a first name and an initial, or you want to include your middle name, or hyphenate your last name — just use the same variation throughout. If you want to use a pseudonym then tell us that in no uncertain terms. Please, please be consistent!

3. Inconsistent manuscript titles. Sometimes the file name in the Submittable queue is different from the title mentioned in the cover letter or the title line in the file. This happens often with novel excerpts—please use the title of the novel, and again, please be consistent.

4. Multiple submissions of the same story (with slight variations). Please don’t do this — it’s very confusing. Or if you must, withdraw the older version from the Submittable queue. And, please, we know writers are forever tinkering with their copy, but once a piece has been accepted, do not send us a newer “better version”. We accepted the version we read originally.

When we’ll get back to you

CommuterLit.com knows that you don’t want to wait six months to find out whether your manuscript is accepted for publication. So we’re going to do our best for you.

Upon submitting, you’ll be notified by return email that CommuterLit.com has received your manuscript. If you’ve paid for a critique, our aim is to email you that critique by no later than three weeks. And if you’ve paid for a query letter critique, we’ll get back to you in a week.

Email notification of acceptance/rejection of all submissions (those who have opted for the critique service and those who have not) will be sent in two to three months.

Let’s be clear, whether or not you are accepted for online publication by CommuterLit.com is not dependent on whether you have paid for a critique. Though, in all honesty, manuscripts scheduled for a critique will probably get read first.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Dark Military Science Fiction": Bullet Points

Special Issue: Dark MilSF

The stories in Bullet Points 11 (October 2025 release) will focus on dark military science fiction, not on horror in the sense of blood, gore, and the like, but in the psychological and atmospheric sense. Good examples would be the Alien and Predator movie franchises. This special issue will focus on creepy and strange places around the galaxy and how soldiers put in these environments have to overcome adversity to still achieve their objectives.

Bullet Points publishes speculative military fiction that is sensitive to the complexity, tragedy, and hope of warfare and violence in human (and nonhuman) society. Stories must have both a speculative and a military element; if it's not clear what this means, read the 2025 Annual Report. The editor considers fiction stories from any author. Original stories run between 100 and 5,000 words, although reprints can deviate from this guideline. Authors retain all rights not specified in the publication agreement. 

Payment is $30 for original stories and $20 for reprints, upon acceptance for publication, via PayPal.

Bullet Points takes nonexclusive print and electronic publishing rights. Please bear in mind that most outlets will not publish pieces that have been published in print or on the web, so for all intents and purposes after a story is published in Bullet Points it can only be marketed as a reprint. This severely limits the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive. We welcome submission of reprints for this reason. It is up to authors to decide if publishing a previously unpublished story and giving up first publication rights for a token payment is really what they want to do.

Stories appear in quarterly issues that are professionally typeset and made available in ebook and print-on-demand paperback formats. To get a sense for the content that Bullet Points publishes, download and read the first issue for free: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/w128x3xtv9. Bullet Points allows simultaneous submissions.

Note: Bullet Points does not publish fan fiction or erotica. Authors submitting content produced by generative artificial intelligence will be blacklisted. The online magazine also does not publish content that would be considered rated R in a movie, although this restriction is relaxed for print and digital issues. Stories accepted for publication may have to undergo editing to meet this requirement.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Roi Faineant Press

What We're Looking For:

Literary fiction

Creative non-fiction (CNF), essays, memoir

Flash fiction/microfiction

Novels/novellas/long-form writing (published in chapters)

Poetry

Humor/satire

Screenplays

Interviews

If you have something that is just killer that falls outside of these genres, send it over! Just make sure you read the submission guidelines below first.

Blog Submission Guidelines:

Blog submissions are always free.

While we attempt to get through submissions within 30 days, that is not a guarantee. Day jobs and life stuff happen. As such, please do not reach out to us for a follow-up on a decision unless it has been 60 days since your submission.

We have also put an auto-response email on our general inbox. If you submit to us and receive the auto-response, that means we have received your submission. If you received that but have not received any other communication, that means we haven't gotten to your submission yet. We do not accept or reject work without contacting the author with a decision unless you are being an unreasonable asshole to us. In that case, we reserve the right to delete your submission and block your email.​

There is no word limit on submissions. We do accept novella/novel-length work, which we publish online in our blog and typically in chapters for the time being (print publication is forthcoming and will have separate submission guidelines when the time comes.)

Longer works take longer to read through and decision, and are processed simultaneously with shorter pieces that appear in our blog issues. As a result, if your submission is 10k words or more, please do not reach out to us for follow-up on a decision unless it has been 90 days since your submission.

Please see second bullet above re: auto-response emails for your reference.

We accept simultaneous submissions. If your submission is accepted elsewhere, please send us an email ASAP.

The limit to the number of pieces you can submit to us at one time is 10.

Each submission is treated as an individual sub with the same up-to 60 day timeline outlined in the second bullet above.​

If you have a packet of poems, please do not exceed 10 poems per submission.

If you have 10 pieces over 10k words, they will be subject to the same up-to 90 day timeline (each) outlined in the third bullet above.

You may resubmit to us as often as you like after publication or rejection; there is no time limit.​

All submissions must be:

100% original. We do not accept fan fiction, AI-generated pieces, plagiarized work, or anything that breaches copyright law.

Previously unpublished. We will consider reprinting previously published work if you have written proof that the copyright belongs to you. If this is the case, please make us aware of that in your submission email.

Submitted by the author.

The copyright for your work belongs to you, period. You may reprint your RF-published work as you like.

We will not tolerate any harmful or hateful speech, ever.

This applies to both the content of your submitted work and your communication with the RF staff.

Please do not send us PDFs. They get all weird layout-wise and cause problems. Anything other than a PDF, please.

If at any time during the publication process (or after, when work is archived), we find that one of these rules has been broken, we reserve the right to rescind publication offers and remove work from our blog and/or archive at any time.

​More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions: Writers Resist

CIVIL RESISTANCE is a type of political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods. It is largely synonymous with certain other terms, including “non-violent action,” “non-violent resistance,” and “people power.” It involves a range of widespread and sustained activities that challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime, hence the term “resistance.” The adjective “civil” in this context denotes that which pertains to a citizen or society, implying that a movement’s goals are “civil” in the sense of being widely shared in a society, and it denotes that the action concerned is non-military or non-violent in character.

– From Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present
(Oxford University Press, 2009)

Writers Resist is an intersectional feminist literary journal born of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. We publish creative expressions of resistance by diverse writers and artists from around the globe.

We are dedicated to challenging all things that diminish our quest for equity, freedom, justice, and a healthy planet for all, and to celebrating progress toward social justice—while having a bit of fun.

Send us your original words, in poetry or prose, and your original images, but first read our submission guidelines, below.

Each quarterly issue of Writers Resist will be celebrated with our community via a virtual reading.

Our goal is to publish accepted works within six or seven months of acceptance.
Please read ALL of this before submitting!

We are eager to see original writings and artwork that can reasonably be described as expressions of resistance, whether poetry, fiction, narrative nonfiction, or digital images. We are also eager to see submissions that celebrate a step toward social justice anywhere around the globe.

We do not accept previously published works. This includes publication on social media platforms, blogs, etc.

If your submission is accepted, please wait three months from your publication date before submitting again.

We publish with the intent that the works will be shared far and wide, so please submit only if you are comfortable making your published submissions available to the world via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license.

We know how lovely it is to be paid for our art. Consequently, we offer a heartfelt pittance—an honorarium of $10—per accepted submission.

Folks who are able decline their honoraria are embraced in virtual gratitude.

Honoraria are sent via PayPal only. Consequently, for you to receive an honorarium for a piece we publish, you must have a PayPal account.

• Our editors are all volunteer, so, if you’d like to submit your writing, please help keep their work to a minimum. You can accomplish this by thoughtfully doing the following: Prepare your submission as described below. Really. Do this, please.

• Send only one submission at a time, and wait to hear back about a submission before submitting again.

• Simultaneous submissions are fine, but if your submission is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it from our submission manager.

• Make sure your work is indeed an expression or celebration of resistance—or both.

• Read your written submission out loud often, revise it, and read it aloud again. Give it to a friend or two to read and revise it again. Read it out loud one more time, revise it, proof it, and then submit it. You get the idea.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Please include your name, your contact information and your short bio in the same document as your submission—and your website URL and any social media presence you’d like to share with our readers.

Poetry submissions: You may include a maximum of three poems in one submission. Please submit them in a single MSWord document with your name, contact information, and a short bio.

Fiction and narrative nonfiction submissions: You may submit one piece of fiction or narrative nonfiction with a maximum of 2,500 words. Please submit it in an MSWord document with your name, contact information, and a short bio.

Digital images: SUBMIT IMAGES ONLY VIA EMAIL (do not submit images via our submission system). You may submit a maximum of three images, in JPEG format, with your last name and first name as the file name. EX: cubbins.barth.jpeg. Please include with your submission an MSWord document with your name, contact information, a short bio, and the image’s title.
NOTE: Images must be submitted via email to:

WritersResist@gmail.com

Please submit writings via our free, automated submission system.

Also, please note our apology to Taiwanese authors, artists, and poets: We are unable to change the offensive “country” language in the submission form, but please know we understand.language in the submission form, but please know we understand

Again, please submit digital images to our email:

WritersResist@gmail.com

Call for Submissions: LowLife Lit Press

We publish the stories that stink of sweat, cigarettes, and last night’s mistakes. The kind that stumble into the room with a busted lip, smelling of whiskey and bad decisions. We’re here for the writers who bleed on the page, the ones who scribble poetry on bar napkins and carve their stories into bathroom stalls. The ones who’ve lived a little too hard, fucked up a little too often, and still have something to say.

Lowlife Lit is for the losers, the outsiders, the forgotten and the fucked. The ones who never made it out of their hometowns, the ones who did but came crawling back, the ones still clawing their way toward something—anything—better.

Submission types:

MicroFiction

Lowlife Lit Press—Microfiction Submission Guidelines 

• Short. Sharp. Hits like a punch to the gut. Give us the rawest 400 words you’ve got.

• 400 words or less. No fluff. No wasted lines.

• Stories that hit hard—gritty, unfiltered, and unforgettable.

• Any genre, as long as it fits the Lowlife Lit Press vibe. Noir, crime, desperation, fleeting joy, barroom confessions—we want stories that feel like a cigarette burning down to the filter.

• A complete story in 400 words—something that punches fast and leaves a mark.

• Last-call conversations, split-second decisions, roadside revelations, cigarette-stained regrets.

• Think Hemingway’s six-word story, but with a shot of whiskey and a busted neon light.

Got something sharp, dirty, and unforgettable? Send it.

Flash Fiction

Lowlife Lit Press—Flash Fiction Submission Guidelines

• ​Quick burn, long aftertaste. Tell us a full story in 400-1500 words—no fluff, no filler, just raw, unfiltered storytelling.

• Word Count: 400-1500 words. Keep it tight, keep it sharp.

• Tone: Gritty, real, and unforgettable. We want noir, crime, desperation, fleeting joy, brutal truths, late-night confessions, and moments that change everything.

• Any genre, as long as it hits like a gut punch and belongs in the world of Lowlife Lit Press.

• Think Denis Johnson, Charles Bukowski, Lucia Berlin, Raymond Carver. Short, sharp, and loaded with impact.

• A complete story in under 1500 words—characters that bleed, moments that matter, endings that slap.

• Barroom whispers, midnight getaways, wrong turns, last chances, stolen cigarettes, motel room confessions.

Short Story

Lowlife Lit Press—Short Fiction Submission Guidelines

• Stories that hit like a sucker punch. We want the dirt, the grit, the truth—the ones that don’t leave you when the page ends.

• Word Count: 1,500–5,000 words. Keep it lean; keep it mean.
  

• Tone: Gritty, raw, and unapologetically real. We want bar fights, bad decisions, lost souls, wild nights, desperate mornings, and the moments people don’t talk about.

• Any genre, as long as it fits the Lowlife Lit Press vibe—noir, crime, working-class grit, dark humor, existential dread, outlaw romance, or just some dirty realism that bleeds.

• Broken love, back-alley deals, dead-end jobs, roadside motels, broken-down cars, cigarette-lit confessions.

• Think Thompson, Bukowski, Denis Johnson, Flannery O’Connor, Kerouac, Carver, Selby Jr.—that raw, unfiltered kind of storytelling.

Poetry

A note from the Editor of Lowlife Lit Press

Listen, I’ve read some damn good poetry ruined by a godawful mess of formatting—random tabs like landmines, lines zigzagging like a drunk on payday, words spiraling into some artsy disasterpiece that looks more like a tornado than a poem. Don’t do that for this publication.

If your words are powerful, let them punch. Let them hit me right in my ugly face. Let them be the art. You don’t need gimmicks. You don’t need to dress your lines up in a clown suit of unnecessary indentations and jagged nonsense. Trust the weight of your words.

Poetry, at its core, is about rhythm, voice, and truth—not who can make their stanzas look like a pretentious ransom note. You got something raw? Something real? Then put it on the page and let it breathe.

No formatting acrobatics. No visual tornadoes. Just let the words carry the fucking weight. Now review the damn submission guidelines below. XOXO

Lowlife Lit Press—Poetry Submission Guidelines

• We want poetry with teeth—verses that bleed, burn, and leave a scar. No fluff, no filler, just raw, unfiltered truth.

• Send 1-5 poems per submission. Keep them tight, keep them sharp.

• Tone: Gritty, visceral, unapologetic. Street-corner wisdom, drunken confessions, last-call prayers, motel-room regrets, smoke-filled dreams.
  

• Any style—free verse, prose poetry, spoken word transcriptions, haikus that hit like a punch to the gut. Just make us feel something.

• Poems that hit like cheap whiskey and cut like broken glass.

• Barstool elegies, late-night breakdowns, back-alley whispers, cigarettes smoked down to the filter, jukebox memories, last-chance love.

• Think Bukowski, Wanda Coleman, Pablo Neruda after five drinks, Anne Sexton on a bender, Leonard Cohen scribbling on a napkin.

Got verses that burn? Send them.

General Submission Guidelines:

Deadline

​Rolling submissions. There are no official deadlines, but we encourage you to submit regularly.

Multiple Submissions

​Allowed. Please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Payment

Unfortunately, we are not currently able to offer payment, but contributors will receive exposure through our publication and social media.

Rights

We ask for first publication rights. Upon acceptance, we request exclusive rights to your work for 3 months, after which you are free to republish elsewhere with credit to Lowlife Lit Press. Publication agreements will no longer be sent. If your piece is accepted, it will print for 3 months. If you would like a publication agreement, you may request one following your acceptance. 

Submit your work here.