Writers whose work we love per genre:

Non-fiction: T Kira Madden, Krys Malcolm Belc, Melissa Febos, Eula Biss, and Claudia Rankine.

Fiction: Carmen Maria Machado, Jesmyn Ward, R.O. Kwon, Celeste Ng, and Andrea Lawlor.

Poetry: Oliver Baez Bendorf, Donika Kelly, Mary Oliver, Aracelis Girmay, Natasha Trethewey, and Claudia Rankine.

Blog: Anything experimental and innovative; we love work that explores the complexities of experience and identity. Interviews & reviews also welcome.

Visual Art: Anything out-of-the box, anything strange and off-putting, anything grotesquely and overtly political & intersectional.

Through our Submittable manager. We do not accept email or paper submissions. We aim to respond to submissions within four months.

Your Cover Letter, written in the Submittable portal, should include your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and a brief bio.

We ask that your submission be submitted as a single .doc or .docx document (excepting art submissions) that contains your work. Please read the genre guidelines below for information about formatting your work:

— Fiction & CNF subs should be 5k max; for flash or micros under 1k words, please limit to 3 pieces per submission packet.

— Poetry subs should be 5 poems max, no more than 10 pgs total.

— Blog submissions are 2k max.

— Visual art submissions should max out at 5 pieces per submission. Please submit as a .png, at 300dpi or higher, please!

Please note that So to Speak has a no-tolerance policy for work that perpetuates harmful stereotypes against marginalized individuals or groups. Such pieces will be rejected outright.

Simultaneous subs are okay (and even encouraged); please withdraw your piece promptly if it is accepted elsewhere.

We consider previously unpublished prose, poetry, and art. Upon agreement of publication, So to Speak acquires First Electronic, Anthology, and Archival Rights. Once published, all other available rights revert back to the author. If the piece is accepted for further publication, we request that So to Speak be credited as the place where the piece first appeared.

You may submit to more than one genre, but please only submit one packet/piece per genre per submission window! (Example: you can submit 1 packet of 5 poems & 1 full-length essay, etc.).

If your work has appeared in So to Speak, please wait one year after your most recent publication to submit again.

Yes! All accepted contributors for the fall and spring issues will receive a modest monetary prize for their work.

We publish twice a year — a print issue in the winter, and a digital issue in the summer. Print submissions open in the fall, typically from early September to late November; digital submissions run January through March.

The Blog publishes year-round; unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to pay our blog contributors.

For international contributors: please note that in order to receive payment, you’ll need to have an active bank account associated with your name that can accept international wires.

The best way to understand if your piece is a fit for us is to read our latest issue, which you can find on our home page. We also have a full catalog of our online issues available here.

We do not accept submissions from George Mason MFA students within 5 years of attendance and/or graduation. But after that, yes!