Submissions Guidelines

What We Want

We’re always looking for stories that take risks and demonstrate an excellence of craft. We want to be entertained, or made slightly uncomfortable, but most importantly, left in awe of what you can do with a sentence. Send us what you’re too afraid to show anyone else.

What We Don’t Want

We are not interested in works previously published online or “curated” or in-print, except for translations. Nor do we accept any AI-generated text.

How to Submit

We currently accept submissions via Submittable or Duosuma.

Formatting Requirements

Submissions must be 1,500 words or less. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere. Send only one piece at a time and wait for a response before sending another.

With your submission, include a standard cover letter with your contact information, word count, and a short, third person bio (50-100 words max). We read submissions blind, so make sure your name is removed from the file name as well as the document you submit. Format your work according to the standard MLA Guidelines: Times New Roman, 12 pt font, double-spaced, with page numbers and word count in the header. We prefer Word documents but will accept pdfs as long as they follow the above format.

Failure to follow any of the above guidelines will result in automatic rejection. Don’t waste our time, and we won’t waste yours.

If you have been published by Wrong Turn Lit, we ask that you wait one month after publication to send us more stuff.

Response Time

We try to respond as soon as possible, but depending on the volume of submissions, sometimes it may take a month or two.

Important Note: our editors are very hands-on with the stories we accept. No matter how much we like a piece, there is always room to improve. If you’re uncomfortable or unwilling to revise your work with our editorial team, then we are not for you.

Some of our favorite selections from the past year include:

For more insight on our tastes and preferences, we encourage you to check out our editorial interview at Six Questions for… or any of the interviews with our editors as part of our Drinks with… series. We’re always pleased to encounter a type of story we’ve never published before or takes a neat spin on well-worn themes.

Rights & Payment

You always retain the copyright to your work.

If we decide to publish your work, we require exclusive electronic rights to it for 30 days and non-exclusive rights for the duration of the journal so that it may appear in our archived issues.

Right now, we're unable to offer monetary compensation; however, we gift all our contributors a complimentary one-year paid subscription to our journal with all the bells and whistles.

If your work is subsequently published elsewhere, we would greatly appreciate your acknowledgement of Wrong Turn as the site of first publication.

Questions

If you have any questions about any of the above, feel free to shoot us a message here on Substack.