currently closed to submissions

Ryan Loughlin

Upcoming Themes:

2024
NOVEMBER: Moonglades – a reflective issue
(Submission window is now closed).

2025
FEBRUARY: Dusk & Dawn (Submission window is now closed).
AUGUST: theme to be announced

Looking for: fiction

  • Literary short stories that pack an emotional punch with nuanced depth and uplifting undercurrents.

  • Stories that dive deep into the complex center of things and untie the knots. 

  • Like life, not every story has to have a happy ending, but all should have a sense of resolve or a weighty revelation that promotes hope or forward motion.

  • Give us your smart, feel-good stories, "that gave me goosebumps" (in a good way) prose, nuanced and relatable characters, situations, and topics.

Looking for: Poetry

  • Powerful / lyrical / striking / simplistic / impactful poems.

  • Poems that draw connections to readers by writing truths.

  • Words that move.

  • Poems that create vivid imagery.

  • Poems that create an unexpected depth of feeling.

looking for: Visual art

Eye-catching and impactful cover art, photography, paintings, mixed media, digital art, collages.

Guidelines:

  • Submit up to 5,000 words in prose.

  • Submit up to 5 poems.

  • Submit up to 10 pieces of art.

  • Include brief bio written in third person.

  • Attach one document with one short story or up to five poems in one document.

  • 12 pt. font and double spaced formatting is appreciated.

  • If submitting artwork, please include one PDF of all artwork you wish to submit or upload each piece (up to 10) individually.

  • Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know promptly if work is no longer available.

  • Previously published work will not be accepted.

  • We do not charge a reading fee. 

  • We are unable to offer monetary compensation for our contributors at this time, but each contributor’s work and bio will be promoted on our website and socials. Each contributor will also be considered for our Creatives Interview Series.

  • Selected works may be requested for future anthologies.

  • We do nominate for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

  • Please allow up to 6 weeks for a response.

  • We do not accept work created by AI. Any submissions not created by a human author will be automatically rejected.

impactful stories + art