Submission Guidelines

Writers are readers, too! During the winter and summer, we run our Writers Are Readers, Too fundraiser. When submitting, you will receive a copy of our current issue. Regular, open submissions will reconvene in the spring and fall. Thank you for reading Eckleburg! We look forward to reading your words, too! Please view our guidelines below.

 

Being a good lit citizen means supporting lit pubs. Donate. Buy. I’m going to show some #AWP17 mags that you need to support…. @NoTokensJournal, @EckleburgReview, @open_letter. Meakin Armstrong (Guernica)

It’s a fantastic issue. The most exciting and adventurous and gutsiest new magazine I’ve seen in years. Stephen Dixon

Refreshing… edgy… classic… compelling. Flavorwire

Progressive…. NewPages

Eye-grabbing… fun… bold… inviting… exemplary. Sabotage

Listed among Wigleaf‘s Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions 2012

Eclectic selection of work from both emerging and established writers…. The Washington Post

 Literary Burroughs D.C…. the journal cleverly takes its name from the The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald…. Ploughshares
 
 

Proud member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses
Supporter of VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts

FICTION SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Temporarily Closed

We accept previously unpublished and polished prose up to 8,000 words year round, unless announced otherwise.  We are always looking for tightly woven short works under 2,000 words and short-shorts around 500 words. No multiple submissions but simultaneous is fine as long as you withdraw the submission asap through the submissions system. During the summer and winter months, we run our Writers Are Readers, Too, fundraiser when submissions are open only to subscribers. During the fall and spring, we open submissions for regular unsolicited submissions.

Note: We consider fiction, poetry and essays that have appeared in print, online magazines, public forums, and public access blogs as already being published. Rarely do we accept anything already published and then only by solicitation. We ask that work published at Eckleburg not appear elsewhere online, and if republished in print, original publication credit is given to The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review. One rare exception is our annual Gertrude Stein Award, which allows for submissions of previously published work, both online and print.

 

ANNUAL GERTRUDE STEIN AWARD IN FICTION

Temporarily Closed

1st Prize $1000 and publication. Accepting entries year round. Eligibility: All stories in English no more than 8,000 words are eligible. No minimum word count. Stories published previously in print or online venues are eligible if published after January 1, 2011. Stories can be submitted by authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed. Each individual story must be submitted separately, with separate payment regardless of word count. Eckleburg editors, staff, interns and current students of The Johns Hopkins University are not eligible for entry.

ANNUAL FRANZ KAFKA AWARD IN MAGIC REALISM

Temporarily Closed

1st prize $1000 and publication. Accepting entries year round. Eligibility: All stories in English and magic realism no more than 8,000 words are eligible. No minimum word count. Stories published previously in print or online venues are eligible if published after January 1, 2011. Stories can be submitted by authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed. Each individual story must be submitted separately, with separate payment regardless of word count. Eckleburg editors, staff and interns are not eligible for entry. Submissions for the Franz Kafka Award are currently closed.

NOVEL AND STORY COLLECTION MANUSCRIPTS

We publish short works at Eckleburg. At this time, we do not publish novel, long memoir, essay collections, story collections or poetry collections. We do offer manuscript workshops at The Eckleburg Workshops. If you are looking to place a manuscript, we can suggest several excellent small and large presses whose excellent books are promoted through our Eckleburg Book Club — i.e., Random House, Graywolf Press, Coffeehouse, Tinhouse, St. Martins Press and more.

POETRY SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Temporarily Closed

We are now accepting previously unpublished poetry of all forms. Please submit 1 – 5 poems as separate files in separate submissions. Please do not submit them all on one document. During the fall and spring, we open submissions for regular unsolicited submissions.

Note: We consider poetry (and fiction) that has appeared in print, online magazines, public forums, and public access blogs as being published. Rarely do we accept anything already published and then only by solicitation. Once the piece is published in Eckleburg, the author is welcome to re-publish the work anywhere and everywhere. In these cases, we ask that the original publication be credited each time to Eckleburg.

POETRY COLLECTION MANUSCRIPTS

We publish short works at Eckleburg. At this time, we do not publish novel, long memoir, essay collections, story collections or poetry collections at Eckleburg. We do offer manuscript workshops at The Eckleburg Workshops. If you are looking to place a manuscript, we can suggest several excellent small and large presses whose excellent books are promoted through our Eckleburg Book Club — i.e., Random House, Graywolf Press, Coffeehouse, Tinhouse, St. Martins Press and more.

NONFICTION SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Temporarily Closed

We accept polished creative nonfiction/essays up to 8,000 words year round, unless announced otherwise. Preferences veer toward shorter works under 1500 words with an arts and culture focus. If you wish to include a bio, please keep it short, under 200 words.

We are open to a variety of subjects, such as thoughts about and experiences with current politics, in the US or beyond; cultural critiques; feminist critiques; science writing; medical writing; nature writing; interviews; literary journalism; essays; experimental nonfiction; etc. We’re interested in submissions from a multitude of voices on a multitude of subjects. Our world is vast and varied, and we want our stories to reflect that world. 
 

 

ANNUAL ANAĬS NIN AWARD IN NONFICTION

Temporarily Closed

Accepting entries year round. Eligibility: All stories in English and nonfiction no more than 5,000 words are eligible. No minimum word count. Essays published previously in print or online venues are eligible if published after January 1, 2011. Essays can be submitted by authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed. Each individual story must be submitted separately, with separate payment regardless of word count. Eckleburg editors, staff, interns and current students of The Johns Hopkins University are not eligible for entry. Coming Soon…

ESSAY COLLECTIONS AND MEMOIR MANUSCRIPTS

We publish short works at Eckleburg. At this time, we do not publish novel, long memoir, essay collections, story collections or poetry collections at Eckleburg. We do offer manuscript workshops at The Eckleburg Workshops. If you are looking to place a manuscript, we can suggest several excellent small and large presses whose excellent books are promoted through our Eckleburg Book Club — i.e., Random House, Graywolf Press, Coffeehouse, Tinhouse, St. Martins Press and more.

GALLERY | VISUAL & INTERMEDIA ARTWORK

Temporarily Closed

Send us a link for your online portfolio that includes all the works (at least 3, 10 or more even better) that you would like us to consider for the Gallery. You can also send a 100 to 200 word bio. If accepted, we will request attached, high resolution jpegs of the chosen works. Gallery submissions currently closed.

Music, Film and Arts Commentary | Send a YouTube link via email along with a short 100 to 200 word bio. The submissions link is below.

MUSIC, FILM & INTERMEDIA

Temporarily Closed

Send us a YouTube link of your video and a bio. Performance submissions currently closed.

THE ECKLEBURG BOOK CLUB

Send your book cover, publication information and short excerpt to the Eckleburg Book Club. We are not accepting self-published books, etc. If you own the publishing company or work integrally as a regular staff editor (as opposed to guest editor) with the publishing company that published your book, Eckleburg considers your book to be self-published. Open to all Eckleburg contributors and readers.

 

THE SELFIE INTERVIEW

Submit your Selfie Interview and shout out to our 10,000+ Eckleburg community via newsletter, Twitter, FB and more. Open to all Eckleburg contributors and readers.

REVIEWS

Eckleburg is not accepting ARCs or press releases for books at this time. We do, however, offer a fantastic Book Reviews Workshop.

Some members of our editorial staff and some of our contributors write reviews for other venues such as The New York Times, Washington Post, New York Journal of Books, Washington Independent Review of Books and more and will post notices of these reviews at Eckleburg; however, our editors work directly with the outside venue editors in acquisition and assignment of these reviews. It is a common practice at these venues that reviewers review only work by authors who the reviewer does not know personally or work with personally. Please do not contact our editors about press releases or reviews of your book for Eckleburg. You should contact the review venues directly.

We are, however, very happy to consider your book for our Book Club and/or an excerpt of your published book for Eckleburg publication as long as it works as a standalone short fiction. Please see below information at Book Club. We do offer manuscript workshops at The Eckleburg Workshops.

Eckleburg

RIGHTS & COMPENSATION

RIGHTS | If accepted, you are granting Eckleburg first North American serial, promotional, non-exclusive anthology (online and possibly print), and archival rights. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication. If the piece is subsequently published in another venue, we ask you to source Eckleburg as first publication. All fiction, poetry, nonfiction and visual art submissions will be considered for our annual print. Authors of works that are accepted for the print will be contacted by the editors.

PAYMENT | Print contributors receive a free copy. Print contributors who are also Eckleburg award winners receive award prize money up to $1000. Contributors will receive 60% of Adopt a Writer donations made through their individual contributor pages.

RESPONSES | Response times usually run three months or longer; however, we sometimes respond within the day. If we haven’t responded by six month’s time, please contact us here.

AWARDS | Editors will nominate works at appropriate times through the year. Individual authors/poets who are nominated will be contacted privately.

WITHDRAWALS | Please withdraw your submission through your personal Submittable account created upon submitting. This is your personal account and Eckleburg editors do not have access to it.

THE SELFIE INTERVIEW | All contributors past, present and future are invited to complete The Selfie Interview. The Selfie Interview is also open to contributors as well as readers/writers who have not been published at Eckleburg. Share your Selfie Interview with our 10,000+ and growing Eckleburg community.

ECKLEBURG BOOK CLUB | Open to all writers, readers and contributors. (Currently not accepting self-published titles.) Submit to the Eckleburg Book Club and share your title with our 10,000+ and growing Eckleburg community.

EVENTS LISTING | Open to all writers, readers and contributors. Have a reading coming up? A gallery showing or performance? Shout it out to our 10,000+ Eckleburg community.