Submissions Guidelines
What We Want
We’re always looking for literary work - fiction, essays, poetry, book reviews - that takes risks and demonstrates 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 words. We’re word people. 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
For prose:
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. Multiple submissions will be deleted unread.
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, for editorial purposes, but will accept pdfs as long as they follow the above format.
For poetry:
Submissions may consist of up to three individual poems. Single-spaced is preferred, Times New Roman. Your poems should all be included within the same word document. Each individual poem should be no longer than a page in length. We are not the right fit for long, epic, or funkily-spaced poetry (Sorry, Cummings).
We tend to prefer the lyrical, but take a look at what we’ve published in fiction and nonfiction, and if you think your poems fit our aesthetic, send them along.
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: we are editors for a reason. We like to be very hands-on with the pieces 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 or poem we’ve never published before or takes a neat spin on well-worn themes.
For Book Reviews:
We're now accepting Book Reviews for publication in addition to our weekly regular fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. For this call, we want to focus specifically on books published by small presses. These can be chapbooks or full length novels, memoirs, story or poetry collections, etc.
In general, you should try to follow John Updike's guide for reviewing:
1. Try to understand what the author intended to write, and don’t punish him or her for something she or he did not attempt to do.
2. Provide enough quotations from the work to give the review reader a feel for the quality of the prose.
3. Confirm your description of the work with quotations and other evidence from it.
4. Limit your plot summary, and never give away the ending. Don’t spoil the experience for others.
5. When a book is deficient in quality, cite similar examples of good books (perhaps even by the same author). Try to understand and explain what went wrong; don’t just do a “hatchet job.”
6. Don’t review books you are predisposed to dislike or like (for instance, one written by a friend); don’t see yourself as a caretaker for some tradition or standard of literature; don’t try to put an author “in his place” with your critique; and always review the book, not the reputation.
We are not looking for hit pieces or vulgar takedowns. The ideal review will generously engage with the book and encourage further engagement. That does not mean the review must be overwhelmingly positive or positive in any way. But our goal here is to bring more attention to books that are being overlooked by the mainstream press and provide a space for further discussion of independent literature.
Follow our standard formatting guidelines. The word count on these can be a bit higher than our usual, somewhere between 2,000-3,000 words is probably the sweet spot, though we're happy to look at what you can do in a shorter span.
If you'd like to query about potentially reviewing a book (forthcoming or already published), send us an email or direct message.
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 Lit as the site of first publication.
Questions
If you have any questions about any of the above, feel free to shoot us a direct message here on Substack.