When does A Literation accept submissions?

We accept submissions for each issue two weeks (14 days) from the day submissions are opened for that issue. Submissions will be accepted from that moment until 10:00 PM central U.S. time two weeks later. We will make note of the date with the announcement of the theme for that issue.

Can I submit more than once per issue?

No. You may, however, submit one piece in prose and one piece in poetry. You may not, however, submit more than one piece in the same category. Submitting more than once will result in all of your pieces being removed from consideration. If, after you’ve submitted, you discover an error in your submission that you wish to correct, please send an email to info@aliteration.com and we’ll fix it for you. We’re pretty nice people. If you wish to submit more than one poem, you may do so, as long as the total lines of all the poems are within the maximum length specified below.

How do I submit poetry?

See that green button to the right of this text that says “Submit Now”? Click it, fill in the form, and attach your poem(s) as a .doc to the email generated. It will go to the poetry submissions email. Only the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, and the Lead Poetry Editor have access to this email account. Poems are reviewed by the poetry team blindly, so only these three people will know your identity until publishing decisions are finalized.

How do I submit a prose piece?

See that green button to the right of this text that says “Submit Now”? Click it, fill in the form, and attach your piece as a .doc to the email generated. It will go to the prose submissions email. Only the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, and the Lead Prose Editor have access to this email account. Pieces are reviewed by the prose team blindly, so only these three people will know your identity until publishing decisions are finalized.

If I’m published, will my tumblr URL be included with my name?

Only if you wish. If we select your piece for publication, we will be asking you for a short bio to include in that issue’s “About the Contributors” page. This is your opportunity to speak about yourself in the third person for two or three sentences, which is quite an honor. A link to your author website may be included with this bio if you desire, but we will not update and are not responsible for the integrity of such links, so keep that in mind, and if you’re one of those people who changes your URL every time you change your pants, you probably don’t want to give us a link.

What are your technical specifications or requirements for submissions?

As mentioned above, your submission must be attached to your email in .doc format only. We do not accept any other formats, but we’re pretty nice people, so if you accidentally send something in a different format, we’ll send you a lovely reply sweetly requesting that you re-send your submission in .doc format.

Aside from that, there are no specific technical requirements through which we will seek to refuse your submission because you didn’t adhere to ridiculous specifications regarding margins and font style and size and whatnot. As I said, we’re pretty nice people. We expect you to be nice as well, which means you’ll use a nice normal font like Helvetica or Times New Roman or whatever, and you’ll make it a nice reasonable size like 12- or 14-point so that we can read it. If you want us to absolutely fall in love with you, your submission will be in 12-point font with 1-inch margins all the way around the page. And if you double-space between paragraphs in your prose submission, we’ll probably throw a parade in your honor.

And, because we’re pretty nice people, we will try our best to maintain your formatting, particularly your oh-so-clever line breaks and spacing in your poetry. However, there may be occasions where we have to adjust things ever-so-slightly to fit the formatting and layout requirements of the journal. You understand.

Okay, so there aren’t a lot of crazy technical specifications, but you must at least have some sort of length limitation, right?

Correct, astute potential submitter. Poems shouldn’t be over 80 lines in length, and prose pieces should be between 500 and 2,000 words. There’s no need to include a line count or word count with your submission, unless you have this need to impress us with your counting skills — or, you know, you have some compulsive need to include such information (we won’t judge). We’ll take you at your word unless someone abuses this rule, and we find out. If we do find out, we will punish all future submitters by amending this to require three independently-certified, witnessed and notarized word/line counts on every piece, and you will never be able to submit again.

Wait. Did you slip in up there that submissions are going to be reviewed blindly? Because I think one of your editors hates me.

Absolutely. The editing team votes on the pieces to be published, and they will not know your identity until the issue is published. That’s some exciting suspense, right? So submit away, and worry not that someone will vote against your submission for personal reasons. As for the three who will know your identity, the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, and the Lead Editor for that section, they have taken a blood oath not to exercise any veto power they might have for personal reasons, and they have no other editorial discretion.

Do you accept material that has previously been published?

Meh. We’re a start-up. We aren’t picky. It’s perfectly okay to recycle an earlier piece that you’ve posted on Tumblr or elsewhere, as long as it hasn’t appeared on Tumblr within 90 days prior to your submission. We don’t know why you’d do that, when you have this opportunity to submit something new and fresh that the world has never seen, but if you want to do so, that’s fine. However, it better have been previously written and/or published by you. We’re so not cool with plagiarists. We are pretty nice people, but we are not nice to plagiarists. If you submit a plagiarized piece to us, we’ll find you and cut off your thumbs. That’s a lie, we could never — and would never — do that, no matter how much we wanted to. We will, however, cut you off from ever submitting to us again. And also, we will all be very, very mad at you. You don’t want us to be mad at you.

After you’ve submitted it, please refrain from publishing it on Tumblr or elsewhere until we’ve made our editorial decision. If we choose to publish your work, we ask that you refrain from posting more than a brief excerpt (less than 10% of the work as a whole) of your piece until 90 days after the release of that issue. If you choose to post your piece after 90 days has elapsed, we’ll think you’re really awesome if you add a line to the bottom that states the piece was previously published in A Literation. If you link back to our website and/or one of the many retailers where the issue can be purchased, we’ll fall to our knees and begin spontaneously worshipping you.

Do you accept collabs?



Just make sure that, in your email, you identify all authors as well as their tumblr URLs. At this time we are not, however, accepting collabs with non-tumblr writers, because part of the mission of this journal is to highlight the rich and diverse writing community on tumblr. And don’t get all tricksy and have your writer friend you want to write with create a tumblr just so y’all can submit a collab. We will know, and we will frown upon you.

Okay. I have a serious question. What are the copyright implications if my piece is published in A Literation?

You retain the copyright in your work. By submitting your work, you are granting us the right to publish and distribute your work; nothing more, nothing less. This right (or “license”) is non-exclusive. We do ask that, if you are selected for publication, you refrain from publishing your entire piece on tumblr for 90 days after the fact, as detailed above. This is just as a favor to us, in recognition of the fact that we’re pretty nice people. You may publish an excerpt to promote the journal if you really really want, but pretty pretty please don’t publish the entire piece. You want your avid readers to purchase the issue you were featured in, yeah?

Is A Literation non-profit?

A Literation is 100% non-profit, and anticipates incorporating as a fully tax-exempt non-profit corporation at a later date. Details on this will be revealed at that later date.

When will I be notified if my submission is accepted or rejected?

If you’re “rejected”? Never. Sorry, but that’s work. If accepted, you will be notified within the final week of the month, via an unsigned message from info@aliteration.com before the issue is published.

Oh, and we have honors each issue, so: If you are selected as “Chief’s Choice” (the #1 submission selected by the EIC), you’ll get a spiffy message from the EIC. If your piece is chosen as “Editor’s Choice”, you’ll receive a shiny message from the ME. If your piece is selected as a “standout” by the Lead Editor for the category you submitted, you’ll be notified by that Lead Editor.

Sounds pretty straight forward. Is there anything else I should know?

You should read and understand the Terms and Conditions of Submission before submitting your work. For your convenience, here they are:

By submitting your creative writing (hereinafter “Work”) to Literation Publications(hereinafter “Publisher”) for consideration for publication, you affirm, represent and warrant that Work is original and you are the sole copyright owner (or, in cases of a co-written piece or collaborative Work, owners). By submitting Work you grant Publisher a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, transferable license to reproduce and distribute the Work in connection with Publisher’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting or redistributing all or part of the publication A Literation in digital or print format through any media channels. The rights that you grant to Publisher under these terms are effective on the date you submit your Work. Except as set out above, you retain all right, title, and interest in your submitted Work, and may publish Work or submit it for subsequent publication anywhere in any form at any time. You do not have to ask Publisher permission to republish your Work or submit it for publication elsewhere, but we do ask that if Work is published elsewhere, it is accompanied by a mention that Work was previously published in A Literation. Publisher does not endorse any content published, and any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein is solely the author’s. Publisher expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection to any content published. Publisher does not permit infringement of intellectual property rights in A Literation, and Publisher will remove any Work if properly notified that publication of Work infringes another’s intellectual property rights. Publisher reserves the right to remove content without prior notice.