The slush pile is where the action is—we love to find new writers. But we get a lot of submissions, more all the time, and our response time is right now longer than we (or you) want it to be. We therefore need to adjust. Regular submissions will be closed until some time in the fall.
For years our regular submissions were open from October through December and February through May, about nine months a year. But with the closing of Tin House and the narrowing of submission windows at other venues (Paris Review, Kenyon Review) in some cases to as short as one month a year, LitMag has been getting a volume of regular submissions that has prevented us from achieving a timely response time. We cannot open regular submissions at this time and still ensure reasonable response times to all.
Our three contests are important parts of the magazine that bring to our attention wonderful new writers. The reading periods for LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, LitMag’s Anton Chekhov Award for Flash Fiction, and LitMag’s Emily Dickinson Award for Poetry will therefore remain unchanged.
We thank all of you for your interest in our pages.