Pithead Chapel electronically publishes art, literary fiction, nonfiction, and prose poetry monthly. At present, we only accept submissions under 4,000 words. All submissions that fall within our guidelines will be considered for an upcoming issue. Because of Submittable's costs and policies, we cap our submissions at 300 per month across all genres, and will close our windows early if we reach this cap, re-opening on the 1st of the following month.
Please only submit one submission at a time: prose poem (1-3 poems in a single doc.), story, or nonfiction piece and wait for a response before sending us another submission.
Cover Art: We're looking for cover art for our upcoming online issues. Previous issues have featured paintings and photography--both realistic and abstract. Browse through our archives to get a sense of what we like.
Fiction: We only accept one story per submission and this includes flash fiction. Please make sure the word count doesn't exceed 4,000 words. In addition, please wait until you receive a decision from us on the first submission before sending us another. If the guidelines aren’t followed your story will be returned at our convenience, unread.
Nonfiction: We're interested in personal, memoir, lyric, flash (short-shorts), and experimental essays; we aren't interested in critical essays. Please make sure the word count doesn't exceed 4,000 words. If the guidelines aren’t followed your work will be returned at our convenience, unread.
Prose Poetry: We only accept prose poem submissions; no traditional forms (sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, limericks, elegies, etc.). If you send us a traditional, lineated poem, we will automatically decline it. In addition, please wait until you receive a decision from us on the first prose poem before sending us another. If you need to withdraw any individual poem (and not the entire submission of poems) from consideration, please email us at pitheadchapel@gmail.com and let us know the title(s) that are no longer available.
Simultaneous Submissions: We do accept simultaneous submissions; however, please contact us immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.
Rights: If your work is accepted by Pithead Chapel, you’re granting us First Serial Rights, along with nonexclusive Electronic Archival Rights, to showcase your work indefinitely on our site. At the time of publication, all rights revert back to the author. If you republish the work elsewhere, all we ask is that you please credit us as the first publisher.
Editing: Pithead Chapel reserves the right to edit manuscripts for clarity without notification if necessary. If a manuscript requires a substantial amount of editing, we will notify the author of such changes for review before publication.
Response Time: We’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible about your submission. If you haven’t heard back from us within two months, query us; otherwise, please be patient. We are doing our best and giving each submission the attention it deserves.
Payment: Currently, we don’t have any way to pay contributors. We don't get paid either. We hope to pay our contributors someday, but as of now we can only publish and help promote your writing.
We're looking for cover art for our upcoming online issues. Previous issues have featured paintings and photography--both realistic and abstract. Browse through our archives to get a sense of what we like.
Images have to be 600x760 (600 pixels wide by 760 pixels tall), and 72 ppi. We can resize images, but we don't pad our images, and the image needs to take up the entirety of the cover. If the image doesn't fit our size, we will need to crop it.
Submit up to three pieces at a time. After we respond, you're welcome to submit again if you have more work that fits.
You'll retain the rights to your work, and you may send art that has been featured in other arenas--gallery shows, portfolios--but we ask that you do not submit art that has already appeared in another literary journal. In addition, you must be the copyright owner of your submitted work.
Selected art is incorporated into our cover design, which includes our logo. Each cover will be featured the duration of the month, then may be accessed from the "archives" portion of our site.
Fiction submissions up to 4,000 words should be submitted here. We only accept one story per submission and this includes flash fiction.
Please adhere to these guidelines when submitting to Pithead Chapel:
Name, email address, and phone number appears on the first page of the story
Work is double spaced and has a 12-point font
Work has page numbers
Pithead Chapel doesn’t consider previously published work (this includes journals, blogs, etc.)
Please don’t send us genre fiction; we aren’t the market for it
Your third-person bio should be included in the cover letter
Please submit one story at a time and wait for a response before sending us another
If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new piece
Nonfiction submissions less than 4,000 words should be submitted here.
We're interested in personal, memoir, lyric, flash (short-shorts), hybrid, and experimental essays; we aren't interested in critical essays.
Please adhere to these guidelines when submitting to Pithead Chapel:
Name, email address, and phone number appears on the first page of the story
Work is double spaced and has a 12-point font
Work has page numbers
Pithead Chapel doesn’t consider previously published work (this includes journals, blogs, etc.)
Your third-person bio should be included in the cover letter
Please submit one piece at a time and wait for a response before sending us another
- If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new piece
Important: We only accept prose poetry; no traditional forms (lineated poems, sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, limericks, etc.). If you send us a traditional, lineated poem, we will automatically decline it.
Please submit 1-3 prose poems within a single Word document and wait for a response before sending us another. If you need to withdraw an individual poem (and not the entire submission of poems) from consideration, please send an email to pitheadchapel@gmail.com and let us know the title(s) that are no longer available.
Here are a few prose poems that we admire: The Fire Cycle by Zachary Schomburg and Two Prose Poems by Nin Andrews.
Please adhere to these guidelines when submitting to Pithead Chapel:
- Name, email address, and phone number appears on the first page of your submission
- Work is double spaced and has a 12-point font
- Document is saved as a rtf, .doc, or .docx file (we will not accept any other file types)
- Pithead Chapel doesn’t consider previously published work (this includes journals, blogs, etc.)
- Your third-person bio should be included in the cover letter
- If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new poem or poems