Submission Guidelines

Our submission guidelines outline For The Writers’ expectations for English-language short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art, detailing limits on length, formatting requirements, and clear parameters on what the publication does and does not accept. These guidelines emphasize a streamlined submission process through the Submissions Portal, welcome simultaneous submissions, and establish a standard response window of ninety days. Payment terms, publication rights, and support for writers whose first language is not English are also defined, presenting a transparent framework for contributors preparing work for consideration.

Creative Nonfiction

We are looking for nonfiction shaped by the moments that stay lodged in the mind long after they should have faded—the argument that changed its meaning on the drive home, the half-heard remark that kept resurfacing in the weeks that followed, the ordinary afternoon that revealed a truth you didn’t recognize at the time. These are written works built from lived details, the small shifts in perception that mark the point where a story begins.

The work that stays with us often begins in isolation. A brother closing the door a little harder than necessary, the sound of a kettle in a kitchen you no longer live in, the way a street looked just before you realized something in your life had turned. We’re not looking for embellishment or performance. We’re interested in the writer who can sit inside a moment and listen to what it was actually saying, even if they only understood it years later.

What matters is the texture of the experience. Maybe it’s the sharp scent of disinfectant in a hospital corridor, or the way an unfamiliar city felt at dawn before you understood its rhythms. Maybe it’s a conversation that revealed more than either person intended. The strongest work allows these details to do their job, allowing meaning to emerge from what happened rather than forcing an interpretation onto it.

We are drawn to pieces that shift as they progress, where the writer begins in one place and ends somewhere they couldn’t see from the start. A story can hold conflict without resolving it, can acknowledge uncertainty without apologizing for it. What matters is the clarity of the thought unfolding on the page and the sense that the writer is willing to follow their own questions wherever they may lead.

Whether the piece leans toward memoir, cultural reflection, or a hybrid of observation and personal narrative, we are looking for work that feels grounded in its own world. The aim is not to impress but to understand. If the reader reaches the end and feels something begin to settle or sharpen—a moment they wish to return to—then the work has done what it came to do.

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Fiction

We are interested in stories that begin with a concrete moment: a knock at the door that stops a character mid-step, the scrape of a chair on a bus aisle just before an overheard remark shifts the course of a day, the decision made at a kitchen counter while the refrigerator hums in an otherwise sleeping house. We are drawn to work that pays attention to how events tighten, how pressure accumulates in ways a character may not immediately see, and how both deliberate and unintended choices push the story forward. The strongest pieces establish their world in a single beat and let its tension sharpen with each move the character makes.

We respond to fiction that watches its characters closely, noting the impulse followed before sense intervenes, the glance a character shouldn’t have given, the silence after someone tells a truth they regret the moment it leaves their mouth. Conflict may erupt in a sharp exchange or surface slowly through shifts in tone and behavior, but it must register in the lives of the people involved. A story earns its weight through these accumulating moments—the decisions made in haste, those avoided until the last possible second, and the consequences that follow.

All genres are welcome—literary, speculative, historical, experimental—as long as the work is anchored in clear cause and effect. Show us the moment a character realizes they have stepped past a boundary they cannot turn back from, the pressure gathering around a choice they have tried to delay, or the fallout from an event that seemed inconsequential until it rearranged all that came after. We want fiction grounded firmly enough in its own logic that the stakes are felt immediately, without explanation.

The pieces that stay with us often turn on a single unmistakable detail: the unopened letter that keeps migrating across a counter, the stranger who recognizes a name that was never offered, the stretch of road on a routine drive that looks wrong in the fading light. These details gain force as the story advances, gathering meaning with each scene and revealing what the character has sidestepped or refused to acknowledge.

Your fiction should move with intention, attentive to how one action creates the next and how the ground shifts beneath your characters as circumstances close in. We want stories that let the reader feel the pressure of each turn, understand the cost of every choice, and recognize the instant when the story changes direction. The aim is to create not just a sequence of events but a situation the reader inhabits fully and continues to hold their attention long after the final word.

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Letters to the Editor

For The Writers invites letters that contribute to the wider cultural and literary conversations shaping the world writers work in and the world they live in today. Your letter does not need to respond to anything on our site. We welcome commentary on public events, shifts in cultural norms, political decisions that carry consequences, or moments in everyday life that reveal something about the pressures and assumptions driving current discourse.

We strongly encourage writers to write candidly about the realities of navigating the literary industry. This may include the strain of repeated silence during a long querying stretch, the confusion that follows contradictory advice, the mentor who helped you reorient a project, the contract clause you didn’t know to question, or the exhaustion of trying to keep momentum while balancing work, rejection, and expectation. Letters that describe the lived challenges of building a sustainable literary career—along with the small breakthroughs that keep you moving—are especially welcome.

We are looking for letters that take a clear position or illuminate a perspective shaped by your own lived experience. This might be a critique of how writers are compensated, an account of access barriers in publishing, a response to a public controversy, or an observation about how political or cultural tensions are influencing the stories writers feel compelled to tell. Thoughtful disagreement and well-supported argument are encouraged.

Selected letters may be edited for length and clarity and published in print or online. Our goal is to maintain a space where writers speak directly to the issues shaping both their work and the world around it.

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Poetry

We’re interested in poems rooted in the real texture of a moment. Not gestures toward emotion, but the image or action that makes the feeling inescapable: the chipped mug someone refuses to replace, the shift in a friend’s tone that signals the conversation is turning, the intrusive thought that blindsides you in the checkout line. We want poems that begin with something undeniably human and let meaning rise naturally from that ground.

We welcome work that looks directly at relationships, faith, politics, confusion, and loss through the details that define them. A strained apology in a parking lot. A childhood memory that returns with new weight. A moment during prayer or doubt that knocks you off balance. When poets stay close to these moments, the larger questions surface without being forced.

The poems that stay with us often hinge on a single, exact observation: the pause before someone finally speaks the sentence they’ve avoided, or the way a room seems to shift after too much truth has entered it. We value poems that read clearly on the first pass but continue to open as you revisit them—layers formed through honest attention to both the inner world and the one unfolding around it.

We’re not looking for poems that manufacture mystery or reach for revelation. We want work that pays attention to life as it is actually lived. The small frictions that settle under the skin. The clarity you recognize only in hindsight. The changes in yourself or others that went unnoticed until the consequences were already in motion. A poem can be two lines or twenty as long as every line is doing real work.

Above all, we’re seeking poems that feel honest and unmistakably human. Whatever you are writing toward—conflict, tenderness, anger, recognition—let the poem show how you arrived there. If a single image, line, or turn stays with the reader after the poem ends, the work has done exactly what it needed to.

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Photography, Art, and Illustration

We invite photography, illustration, and artwork grounded in the specificity of a moment. Show us the detail that holds the scene together: the shadow that bisects an empty chair, the hand that tightens instead of letting go, the object left on a windowsill after an argument has thinned the air. We’re just as interested in the quieter subjects that most people would pass without noticing—an empty bench at first light, a flock of pigeons shifting across a park’s concrete, an old building whose windows and doors echo a craftsmanship that no longer appears in the world being made now. The work should suggest something unfolding just beyond the frame, a story the viewer enters rather than a composition they merely admire.

Accepted pieces become part of our visual archive. We place each work where it strengthens the architecture of an issue, which means publication may not be immediate. When the work appears, it will do so in a context chosen to heighten its effect, not as ornamentation.

We’re not looking for images built around stylistic flourish or decorative appeal. We want work that carries narrative weight: the fatigue in a shoulder during a routine task, the shift in a room after a hard truth is spoken, the anonymity of commuters moving in the same direction for reasons none of them say aloud, the blunt clarity of a landscape that leaves nothing to speculation. Send us the images that stay with you because they mark a point of tension, recognition, or change—work that adds meaning to the page and deepens the story being told.

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Submission Guidelines

Language

For The Writers accepts English-language submissions from writers around the world. All work should be submitted in English, regardless of the writer’s country of origin or primary language.

For writers whose primary language is not English, our in-house ESL specialist is available to assist with translation support prior to submission. This service is offered particularly to writers working in Arabic, Italian, and Spanish, and is intended to help ensure that the final piece reflects the clarity and intent of the original work. Writers who wish to access this support may indicate their interest through the Submissions Portal.

Length

We publish short-form work and ask that prose submissions remain under 5,000 words. Poetry submissions may include up to five poems, collected in a single document. These limits help ensure that each piece receives the thoughtful, attentive review it deserves.

Formatting

Written work should be submitted in a clean, readable format using a standard font such as Times New Roman or an equivalent serif typeface at 12-point size. Please include your name, the title of the work, the word count, and the category on the first page. While we encourage writers to proofread before submitting, minor formatting inconsistencies or small typographical errors will not affect consideration. If your piece moves forward in our editorial process, any necessary adjustments will be made in collaboration with you.

What We Accept

For The Writers considers stand-alone short fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, poetry, and visual work including photography, illustration, and original artwork. We do not accept book-length manuscripts, partial manuscripts, query packages, or any work intended for agent or publisher submission. Our focus is on individual pieces ready for publication within a literary journal, where each work stands on its own and contributes to the larger editorial landscape of an issue.

Simultaneous Submissions

We welcome simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us promptly through the Submissions Portal so we may update our records. Your decision to submit simultaneously will not affect your likelihood of publication with For The Writers.

Submission Method

All work must be submitted through our Submissions Portal. This ensures that each piece enters our review system correctly and is routed to the appropriate editors. We do not accept submissions by email or postal mail at this time.

Response Time

Our typical response time is ninety days. During periods of high volume, the review process may take longer. If you have not received a decision after ninety days, you are welcome to check the status of your submission through our Contact. Form. Every piece receives careful consideration, and we appreciate your patience as our editors work through each submission with the attention it merits.

Withdrawing Your Work

Writers may withdraw their work at any time. To do so, please contact us through the Contact Form and include the title of the piece you wish to remove from consideration.

Payment for Accepted Submissions

For The Writers offers payment beginning at one hundred dollars for work accepted into our print publication only. Final compensation is determined by word count, complexity, and editorial depth. This structure allows us to recognize the effort, craft, and time required to produce work of high literary quality.

Rights

For accepted work, For The Writers acquires one-time print and online publication rights. All rights revert to the author following publication. A copy of our publishing agreement is available upon request.

Additional Questions

If you have questions regarding eligibility, submission procedures, or any aspect of our editorial process, we invite you to contact us through the Contact Form. Our team is available to provide guidance as needed.