Welcome to Electric Literature's submissions hub!
We have a number of categories, including Essays, Recommended Reading, and The Commuter. Please scroll down for information and guidelines on the category you are interested in.
Looking for member submissions? You received an email with the members only submission links when you joined. If you can't find that email or believe you never received it, please email editors@electricliterature.com. Please include the full name associated with your membership so we can confirm your subscription.
For more information on membership and benefits, please reach out to wynter@electricliterature.com.
Prose, Poetry, and Graphic Narratives: The Commuter — The Commuter is closed for submissions. Members of Electric Literature can submit year round. Join today!
Members of Electric Literature can submit year round. Join today!
The Commuter is our home for poetry, flash, graphic, and experimental narratives. It publishes weekly on Wednesday morning, and has showcased the likes of Caroline Hadilaksono, Aleksandar Hemon, Jonathan Lethem, Lindsay Hunter, Tahirah Alexander Green, and Julia Wertz.
Please keep the following guidelines in mind:
- For Prose, submit one or more pieces, either standalone or connected, in a single document. The total word count should not exceed 1500 words. We encourage writers to push boundaries.
- For Poetry, submit 4–6 poems in a single document, and please limit the page count to 8. Keep in mind that due to our digital platform, not all poems may render exactly as they appear in a PDF.
- For Graphic Narrative, we are interested in both traditional and non-traditional forms of visual storytelling. Submit up to 3 pieces of narrative illustration, comics, mixed media narrative, or genre-negative oddments. For comics, each piece should contain a minimum of 3 panels. The total page count of your submission should not exceed 20 pages.
- Please submit all genres in .doc, .docx, or PDF.
- Please submit only once per category.
- Work previously published in any form cannot be considered.
- Please include your email address.
- If your work is selected, we offer a total payment of $100.
- Writers with a submission pending with Recommended Reading may still submit to The Commuter.
All submissions will be accepted through our Submittable page. For a sense of the kind of work we publish, check out recent issues of The Commuter, our 280-character contest winners, and Recommended Reading’s 300th issue.
For candid advice from our editors on how to make your poems, flash, graphic, and experimental narratives stand out, watch our video "How to Get Published in The Commuter."
General Fiction: Recommended Reading — Recommended Reading is closed for submissions. Members of Electric Literature can submit year round. Join today!
Members of Electric Literature can submit year round. Join today!
- Recommended Reading publishes fiction between 2,000 and 10,000 words. (For fiction shorter than 2,000 words, check for open submission periods to The Commuter.)
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please notify us immediately if a piece is accepted elsewhere. Work previously published in any form cannot be considered.
- Response time is six to eight months.
- Upon acceptance, we can offer authors $300 for publishing rights.
- During the general submissions periods, writers may submit one piece per period.
- Writers with a submission pending with The Commuter can still submit to Recommended Reading.
- Please do not submit a story already previously rejected by Electric Literature, even if the story has been revised (unless you've been invited to do so by an EL editor).
For candid advice from our editors on how to polish your first pages and revise your work, check out our "Submission Roulette II" event and our video "How to Get Published in Recommended Reading."
Essays: Personal Narrative — Personal Narrative is closed for submissions. Members of Electric Literature can submit year round. Join today!
- Submissions must be full drafts of personal essays submitted via Submittable
- While there are no restrictions on form or subject matter, submissions should center narrative and consider what it means to essay; in other words, write to interrogate, investigate, adventure, and introspect
- Submissions must be between 2,000 and 6,500 words in length
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know immediately if a submission is accepted elsewhere
- Previously published work will not be considered
- Response time is approximately six to eight months
- Writers may submit once per submission period, but writers can have active submissions across other EL categories. (This does not apply to year-round submitting members. For more information on member submissions, please refer to the welcome email you received when you signed up as member, or email wynter@electricliterature.com.)
- Upon acceptance, we can offer authors $100 for publishing rights, with 90-day exclusivity
- For more information on what we’re looking for, please watch our salon on EL’s General Nonfiction Program
Calling all readers! Electric Literature is now accepting applications to join our editorial team as a volunteer reading for Recommended Reading, EL’s weekly fiction magazine. Recommended Reading publishes one story a week: a mix of original work, forgotten classics, and forthcoming excerpts, each with a personal foreword by today’s best writers. The magazine receives a large volume of submissions, and a committed corps of volunteer readers is essential to helping the editors of Recommended Reading find new, unknown, and/or overlooked talent.
Responsibilities include:
- Reading ten pieces per week, ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 words for Recommended Reading.
- Providing concise but thorough responses (one to two paragraphs) for each submission, with a clear YES or NO recommendation for each.
- Meeting weekly reading deadlines, and clearly communicating with editorial staff when scheduling conflicts arise.
The ideal applicant is:
- An avid and attentive reader
- A proactive and responsive communicator
- Self-motivated and able to meet deadlines
- Able to express themself clearly in writing
- A regular reader of the category who is familiar with its back catalogue
- An educational background in literature and/or professional experience in literary criticism, editing, and creative writing is a plus, but not required
- An active participant in their local literary scene, and an avid reader of contemporary writing
This is a volunteer position that requires a commitment of approximately six hours a week for six months, with an opportunity to renew.
Current readers are not allowed to submit their own work for consideration in the category they are reading in. Discussion of submissions outside Electric Literature is strictly prohibited, and will result in immediate termination.
For a sense of the kind of submissions you’ll be reading, visit the Recommended Reading archives.
If you are interested in reading for Recommended Reading, please submit your resume and a two-paragraph response/critique of a story published in Recommended Reading. If your resume is selected, the application process will also include a reading test.
Applications will be accepted through 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Sunday, March 22 and reviewed on a rolling basis.