Submissions

Thank you for your interest in Barren Magazine! We are currently CLOSED for all writing submissions. We are still open for photography and visual art submissions. Please see below for more information.

Barren Magazine accepts fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction about the complexities of the human condition. We also accept photography and visual art — all images in Barren Magazine are original works, not stock photography. Please read our current issue to get an idea of what catches our eye.

Please follow the guidelines below based on the type of material you are submitting. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be returned to sender and must be properly resubmitted to be considered for publication.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

  • Genre-specific guidelines can be found below.
  • If we have published your writing before, please wait 3 reading periods before submitting again.
  • Simultaneous submissions are welcomed, but we ask that you please let us know immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
  • We prefer previously unpublished material but may accept previously published work as long as authors own its copyright and provide appropriate attribution.
  • Submit written material to only one written genre per reading period (i.e., do not send poetry and fiction for the same issue). You may, however, submit both writing and photography.
  • Please allow up to 90 days for a response. We will do our best to get back with you well before this. If you don’t hear back from after this time, please feel free to contact us again. We will respond to all submissions.

HOW TO SUBMIT WRITING

  • All written content should be emailed as a Microsoft Word attachment. 12-point Times New Roman is preferred.
  • Include the following in the email body:
    • Name (as you would like printed)
    • Email address
    • 3rd person bio (limit to 100 words)
    • Optional – Author website and other social media links
    • Recommended – Author photo (600 x 600 pixels preferred)
  • Do not include personal information in the attached document. All writing submissions go through multiple review levels, and we prefer to read all submissions without author identifiers.
  • Your email’s subject line should be the genre followed by your name. (i.e., “Poetry – Sam Smith”).
  • If your submission includes sensitive themes, please mark it with a Content Warning (CW) and/or Trigger Warning (TW) with subject in both the email body AND before the title of the piece (i.e. CW/TW: abuse).

GENRE-SPECIFIC GUIDELINES

(Note: Each genre will close upon meeting its submission cap.)

Poetry: CLOSED
  • Submit up to 3 poems (maximum of 2 pages each) per submission period.
  • Send to barrenpoetry@gmail.com.
  • Send all poems in one Word document with each poem on a separate page.
  • Do not send each poem as a separate attachment or in the body of the email.
Flash Fiction: CLOSED
Fiction: CLOSED
Flash Creative Nonfiction:  CLOSED
Creative Nonfiction: CLOSED
  • Submit one creative nonfiction piece (1,000 – 4,000 words) per submission period.
  • Send to barrencnf@gmail.com.
Photography / Visual Art: OPEN
  • There is no cap on photography/Visual Art submissions.
  • Photography/Visual Art submissions are always open on a rolling basis.
  • Share your collection via Google Drive at BarrenPhotographySubmissions@gmail.com.
  • If you do not have access to Google Drive, please email photographs as attachments or in a .zip file to the address above.
  • Limit photography/visual art submissions to twenty (20) images at a time.
  • We will consider exceptions if specific collections house more than twenty photos.
  • We are more likely to publish photos in landscape mode that fit our design aesthetic that center around everyday life: architecture, nature, locales, landscapes, people, urban decay, etc. We also like abstract photos.
  • The grittier and more creative, the better.
  • Please downscale large photos to a maximum of 1920px wide (our preferred size) before submitting.
  • Title your collection.
  • Please note that we may select accepted photos to accompany a piece of writing and/or to use as headers on our website and promotional materials.

And all the rest…

We are unable to provide monetary compensation for accepted submissions at this time. We are a team of volunteers, and all funds that we raise go towards administrative costs of running the magazine. We will, however, actively promote you on social media. You should receive an email confirmation of your submission within minutes of sending. If you do not receive one, please send your submission to barrenmag@gmail.com and let us know. Email can be fickle, and we want to make sure that nothing gets lost.

Please also have a look at our statement of safety and inclusion.

Finally, please familiarize yourself with our Copyright/Terms & Conditions/Author Agreement.

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