Submissions Guidelines
New Submissions Guidelines (2025 - Effective June 1st)
We accept submissions two ways:
or,
Email (wrongturnlit@gmail.com) - your subject line should be: “SUBMISSION, GENRE, TITLE”
Both methods should include the following:
A cover letter - this can be as basic or elaborate as you like, but we do require a short biographical statement to be published alongside your work (again: as basic or elaborate as you like)
Fiction - one short story or flash fiction, 500-1500 words in length (double-spaced with pages numbered in a serif font such as Times New Roman or Garamond, size 12)
Poetry - one poem (single-spaced, no more than five pages; we are unable to recreate funky line breaks, so don’t get carried away)
Nonfiction - one essay, personal narrative or whatever, 500-1500 words in length (double-spaced with pages numbered in a serif font such as Times New Roman or Garamond, size 12)
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.When you submit to us, you agree to this arrangement.
Submit only once until you have heard from us. Afterwards, you’re free to submit again. Wanna know what we like? There’s plenty for free on Substack for you to read. But really, we don’t like repeating ourselves.
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer monetary compensation for accepted works right now, but we do have a large audience, and we love to promote our contributors long after we’ve published them.
For fiction and nonfiction, submit anytime.
For poetry, we will be open for the month of August. Then again, at some point, which we will announce here.
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.
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.
We try to respond as soon as possible, but depending on the volume of submissions, sometimes it may take up to six months. After that, reach out to us.
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
If your work is subsequently published elsewhere, we would greatly appreciate your acknowledgement of Wrong Turn Lit as the site of first publication.