Thanks so much for your interest, and we look forward to reading your work. Please be familiar with the magazine and our mission before you submit.
For 2026, there will be no submission fees thanks to our generous donors.
In your cover letter, we encourage you to include information that you would like us to know, such as whether, if we choose to publish it, this submission will be your first publication.
***If a department is not listed below, that means it is not currently accepting submissions.***
Please DO NOT email any submissions. We will not accept any submissions via email, only those sent through this portal.
Just a few additional things:
- Upon publication, contributors will be paid a $25–$100 fee, depending on department and number/length of works published.
- All pieces should be original, and previously unpublished in any format in English.
- We acquire first serial rights worldwide in English and non-exclusive anthology rights.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted; please be sure to withdraw your piece promptly if it’s accepted elsewhere.
- Please don't send more than one submission per department; wait until your work is accepted or declined before submitting again.
- Our Fiction department is happy to consider excerpts from novels and short story collections, especially from small presses. If you have something you would like considered, email excerpts as a Word .doc to mary@theoffingmag.com. Please note that we currently don't have a budget to pay for excerpts, but we do want to help bring readers to books that might otherwise get overlooked.
- We'll do our utmost to respond within six months, but due to the volume of submissions we receive, and the careful & collaborative nature of our review process, that may not always be possible. Thank you for your patience.
- If you have any questions regarding your submission or our submissions process, please contact us at info@theoffingmag.com. However, please do NOT email any submissions, as they will not be considered via email, only through the links below.
- As a journal that publishes literature and art, we want to allow writers and artists to explore and critique AI explicitly. Therefore, any submitted piece created using AI must do so as part of an intentional engagement with or critique of AI and must be accompanied by or marked with explicit denotation of where and how AI was used in the piece. Otherwise, we will not generally accept AI-assisted work (including assistance for editing or “reader feedback”), unless the assistance is used due to a disability. If you submit work using this assistance, please state so explicitly in your cover letter. Any piece found to otherwise use AI without our knowledge is subject to automatic rejection or removal from The Offing.
We would like to be up front about a contributor's rights in the event that they are published at The Offing. Here is the relevant portion of the contract:
"In consideration of the above-described Work, the Contributor identified above grants to The Offing (“Publisher”) the following rights to the Work: (a) for the website, theoffingmag.com, and as a part of the archives of The Offing and (b) the non-exclusive right for use and re-use of the Contributor’s name, image, and biographical data in advertising and promotion of all Publisher’s publications in all media. Except as above, Contributor retains all other rights.
Contributor represents and warrants that (a) the Work is the Author’s original work; (b) the Work is accurate and factually correct, (c) he/she has full power to make this grant of rights, (d) that the Work contains no matter which infringes copyright, trademark or other rights, is defamatory or otherwise unlawful, invades the right of privacy or publicity, or which infringes any other proprietary right of any third parties; (e) the Work has not been previously published in English by Contributor or any third parties, except in such cases as are previously agreed to in writing by Publisher and Contributor; and (f) if the consent and permission of any third parties are required for the use of the Work described above, including persons depicted in the Work, Contributor has obtained such consent and permission in writing and will submit copies to Publisher on delivery of the Work. Contributor agrees to cite The Offing as the source of original publication if Contributor licenses the use of the Work to other publishers or publications in any media."
The Fiction department welcomes literary stories and not-stories. We are especially eager to be surprised and challenged by your work; we want to read submissions that have a strong sense of place, especially in worlds we don’t know, that nudge us to look from new perspectives, that take risks with the short fiction form and ideas of what a story can do and be. And of course, we want to fall in love with the rhythm and sound of your sentences and especially your voice. For a sense of what something like that might look like, take a look at our archive of published work.
We ask that submissions follow the following guidelines:
- No more than 7,500 words
- Submissions should be double-spaced
- Submissions should be in a legible, 12-pt. font (Times New Roman, Cambria, Garamond, Arial, and Helvetica are all good options)
- Submissions should be in either a .doc/.docx or PDF format.
- If submitting flash (which we consider to be 1,000 words or less) you are welcome to submit up to five pieces for consideration, but please include them in the same submission.
We do accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that writers let us know if a submission has been accepted elsewhere. We will do our absolute best to respond within 6 months, but due to the volume of submissions, that may vary—we appreciate your patience.
The Offing's Art department seeks art writing and graphic prose or comics. Features, critiques, reviews, think-pieces, and essays can explore any visual art medium including paintings, sculptures, installations, and performances. Our features can be as broad as an entire trend, or as focused as a single work. Note: Please no erasure poems. Poetry submissions should be directed to the appropriate department.