We get a lot of submissions, and we thank all of you for trusting us with your work. We still love our slush pile, and always will. But we need to manage it differently.
For years we have been open for regular submissions from October through December and February through May for most categories, about nine months a year. With the closing of other literary magazines such as Tin House and the narrowing of submission windows at other venues (in some cases to as short as one month), LitMag’s response time for regular submissions has continued to lengthen, and we think it has gotten too long.
We need to adjust. But first we need to catch up. We will be closed for regular submission this fall. Our next reading period for regular submissions will be February 1, 2024 to May 31, 2024.
Our two fiction contests are important parts of the magazine that bring to our attention wonderful new writers. The reading periods for both LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction and LitMag’s Anton Chekhov Award for Flash Fiction will remain unchanged.