Last week to submit!
At Fractured Lit, we’re trying something new:
We're inviting guest editors of fabulous literary magazines to work one-on-one with our submitters to improve their flash fiction. The submission process is often opaque and impersonal, so we wanted to give our submitters an opportunity to get feedback from editors and readers of literary journals. We also wanted submitters to have the chance to speak with these experts in real time about their work. Your flash chat session will be a wonderful opportunity to get some backstage understanding of what your favorite literary magazine editors hope to find in their submission queues.
This workshop is open to all writers and is an excellent way to get your work ready to submit and find readers. Please keep submissions to no more than two flash or micro stories (1,000 words total or fewer) and include a cover letter describing your piece(s).
Your cover letter should include any specific feedback you're seeking, as well as challenges you're having with the piece. When your submission is uploaded you will receive registration confirmation. Submissions will be processed in the order they are received.
Participants receive:
- up to a half-page of written feedback from your editor with specific suggestions and edits that will help elevate your flash to the next level;
- a 15-minute 1:1 live consultation with recording (Zoom) to discuss the editor’s suggestions for revision; and
- an opportunity to ask questions about the submission and publication process of a new and/or favorite literary magazine.
guidelines
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Your $80 reading fee allows up to two flash or micro stories (1,000 words total or fewer). If you are submitting two stories, please put them both in a SINGLE document.
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We allow multiple submissions—each submission requires a separate reading fee.
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Please send flash and microfiction only—1,000 word count maximum per entry.
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Double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12 (or larger if needed).
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Please include a brief cover letter with any specific feedback you're seeking and any challenges you're having with the piece. To safeguard our guest editors, please also include content warnings in the cover letter.
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A significant portion of the feedback fee is paid directly to the guest editors.
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We only read work in English, though some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
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Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work. For this editing opportunity, AI-generated work will be automatically disqualified.
The deadline for entry is June 30, 2024. The critiques and Zoom calls will be scheduled after the window closes and hopefully take place in the next 4-8 weeks.
Guest Editor Bios:
Exodus Oktavia Brownlow is a writer, editor, and creator currently residing in the enchanting pine tree forest of Blackhawk, MS. She is a budding beekeeper, a rising seamstress who has perfected the French Seam by hand, and the author of two book collections—a debut fiction chapbook called Look at All the Little Hurts of These Newly-Broken Lives and The Bittersweet, Sweet and Bitter Loves with Ethel Zine and Press and a debut book collection of essays called I'm Afraid That I Know Too Much About Myself Now, To Go Back to Who I Knew Before, And Oh Lord, Who Will I Be After I've Known All That I Can? with ELJ Editions. Exodus's favorite color is green.
Anna Cabe is a Pinay American writer. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Slate, Rappler, Vice, West Branch, The Common, Iron Horse Literary Review, Atticus Review, The Margins, The Cincinnati Review, The Masters Review, and Fairy Tale Review, among others. She received her MFA in fiction from Indiana University and has been supported by organizations like the Fulbright Program and Millay Arts. She has taught at Indiana University, the City Colleges of Chicago, and Agnes Scott College and is currently a fiction editor for Split Lip Magazine. You can find Anna at annacabe.com.
Michael Czyzniejewski is the author of four collections of stories, most recently The Amnesiac in the Maze (Braddock Avenue Books, 2023). He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Moon City Press and Moon City Review, as well as Interviews Editor of SmokeLong Quarterly. He has received a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes.
Tommy Dean is the author of two flash fiction chapbooks and a full flash collection, Hollows (Alternating Current Press 2022). He is the Editor of Fractured Lit and Uncharted Magazine. His writing can be found in Best Microfiction 2019, 2020, 2023, Best Small Fictions 2019 and 2022, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. Find him at tommydeanwriter.com and on Twitter @TommyDeanWriter.
Kim Magowan is the author of the short story collection Don't Take This the Wrong Way, co-authored with Michelle Ross, forthcoming from Eastover Press; the short story collection How Far I've Come (2022), published by Gold Wake Press; the novel The Light Source (2019), published by 7.13 Books; and the short story collection Undoing (2018), which won the 2017 Moon City Press Fiction Award. Her fiction has been published in Colorado Review, The Gettysburg Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, and many other journals. Her stories have been selected for Best Small Fictions and Wigleaf's Top 50. She is the Editor-in-Chief and Fiction Editor of Pithead Chapel.
Like Sharon Stone and the Zipper, Dr. Mike McClelland is originally from Meadville, Pennsylvania. He has lived on five different continents but now resides in the startling American Midwest with his husband, two sons, and a menagerie of ancient rescue hounds. He's the author of the short story collection Gay Zoo Day, and his creative work has appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Electric Literature, Boston Review, Vox, Observer, Wired, Fairy Tale Review, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at Eastern Illinois University, serves as the fiction editor for Bluestem, and you can find him online at magicmikewrites.com.
Eric Scot Tryon is a writer and editor from San Francisco. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Mid-American Review, Glimmer Train, Ninth Letter, Willow Springs, Los Angeles Review, The Florida Review, and has been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50, and the Best Small Fictions & Best Microfiction anthologies. Eric is represented by Carleen Geisler at ArtHouse Literary Agency. He is also the Founding Editor of Flash Frog. Find more information at www.ericscottryon.com.
Francine Witte is the author of 11 books of flash fiction and poetry. Her later book is Radio Water (Roadside Press, 2024.) Her poetry book Some Distant Pin of Light is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. She is a former NYC high school teacher and now teaches prompt workshops on Zoom for flash fiction. She has an MFA in poetry from Vermont College and an MA in English/Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton. She is the flash fiction editor for both SoFloPoJo and FLASH BOULEVARD. She lives in NYC. Visit her website at francinewitte.com.
Some Submittable Hot Tips:
- Please be sure to whitelist/add this email address to your contacts, so notifications do not get filtered as spam/junk: notifications@email.submittable.com.
- If you realize you sent the wrong version of your piece: It happens. Please DO NOT withdraw the piece and resubmit. Submittable collects a nonrefundable fee each time. Please DO message us from within the submission to request that we open the entry for editing, which will allow you to fix everything from typos in your cover letter to uploading a new draft. The only time we will not allow a change is if the piece is already under review by a reader.