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.