Writers whose work we love per genre:

Non-fiction: T Kira Madden; Krys Malcolm Belc; Melissa Febos, Eula Biss, and Claudia Rankine.

Fiction: Carmen Maria Machado, Jesmyn Ward, R.O. Kwon, Celeste Ng, and Andrea Lawlor.

Poetry: Oliver Baez Bendorf, Donika Kelly, Mary Oliver, Aracelis Girmay, Natasha Trethewey, and Claudia Rankine.

Blog: Anything experimental and innovative; we love work that explores the complexities of experience and identity.

Visual Art: Anything out-of-the box, anything strange and off-putting, anything grotesquely and overtly political & intersectional. JPEG or PNG, 600 dpi please.

Through our Submittable manager. We do not accept email or paper submissions. We aim to respond to submissions within five months.

We ask that your submission follow these guidelines:

— A single .doc or .docx document (excepting art submissions) that contains your work. Please read the genre guidelines below for information about formatting your work.

— Your Cover Letter, written in the Submittable portal, should include your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and a brief bio.

— Fiction & CNF subs should be 4k max; Poetry subs should be 5 poems max, no more than 10 pgs total; Blog submissions are 2k max.

Please note that So to Speak has a no-tolerance policy for work that perpetuates harmful stereotypes against marginalized individuals or groups. Such pieces will be rejected outright.

Simultaneous subs are okay (and even encouraged); please withdraw your piece promptly if it is accepted elsewhere.

We consider previously unpublished prose, poetry, and art. Upon agreement of publication, So to Speak acquires First Electronic, Anthology, and Archival Rights. Once published, all other available rights revert back to the author. If the piece is accepted for further publication, we request that So to Speak be credited as the place where the piece first appeared.

Yes! All accepted contributors for the fall and spring issues will receive a modest monetary prize for their work.

We publish twice a year – a print issue in the fall, and a digital issue in the late spring.

The Blog publishes year-round; unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to pay our blog contributors.

The best way to understand if your piece is a fit for us it to read our latest issue, which you can find on our home page.

We do not accept submissions from George Mason MFA students within 5 years of attendance and/or graduation. But after that, yes!