We are very excited to be accepting submissions for our third issue, which is slated to be released in June! We will be selecting five creative nonfiction pieces to make up this issue. 

(If you missed our past issues, here are Issue #1: Private Terrors and Issue #2: Elliptical Love) 

Here is what you need to know about Issue #3: 

Theme: Threshold Reckoning
 

About our guest editor 

Amy Lin 

Amy Lin lives in Calgary, Canada, where there are two seasons: winter and road construction. Her debut memoir, Here After, was named a Best Book of 2024 by Kirkus, The Globe and Mail, CBC Books, NPR, and ELLE. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, and she writes the Substack At The Bottom of Everything, where she wonders: How do we live with anything?

What she is looking for:

“There are moments when reality reveals itself as something other than what we thought. I am seeking work that explores these coming-of-age thresholds—points of reckoning, revelation, or surrender, where something is irrevocably reshaped. Quiet or cataclysmic, chosen or forced, what unites them is the impossibility of return.

I invite work that lingers in these crossings, including but not limited to: the borderlands of multiraciality, the labor of assimilation, the work of grief, the rupture of faith. Whatever the moment, I am in pursuit of work that considers its texture, composition, and weight—the instant of recognition, the erosion of certainty, the moment reality redraws itself entirely.

How did you get there? What is only visible in hindsight? Where has it taken you? And what does it mean?”

Details 

Please use Times New Roman, 12-point font, and double-space your work. Send finished drafts of up to 3,500 words in an attached doc. The first page of your document should include:

• The title(s) of the piece(s) you are sending
• Name
• Phone number
• Email address

Response time 

Writers will be notified by May 30th if their piece is chosen. We appreciate your patience.  
 

Accepted Work

Writers will receive $50 for published essays and be featured in our second issue. 

We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere. No previously published works. 

Submission Fees

• Free Submission period: Every first week of the month (1st—7th)
• Regular Submission Period: $3 per submission (8th — end of month) 

This fee helps us cover operational costs and allows us to pay writers and our editors.
 

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font and double space your work. Send finished drafts of up to 4,000 words in an attached Word doc. The first page of your document should include:

• The title(s) of the piece(s) you are sending, 
• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Your brief cover letter with third person bio

What We Are Looking For: Notes from our Editors  

Tamar Mekredijian, Fiction Editor 

Tamar is looking for character-driven stories with a strong central emotion.  Don’t be afraid to break her heart. She is drawn to characters who make mistakes. She wants to read stories that make her look at life closely and see beauty in the shadows. She is looking for attention to details that are usually overlooked, and she isn’t afraid of surprises.  

Suzanne Grove, Fiction Editor

Suzanne is most often drawn to character-driven fiction with a focus on interiority and a penchant for highlighting the surreal elements in everyday life. She most appreciates characters who are haunted in some way—by their pasts, by the hope and uncertainty of the future, by their own conflicting desires, and by the space between what they need and the achievement of those needs. Her favorite stories don’t necessarily adhere to traditional ideas about plot structure, but rather propel themselves forward via constant micro-tensions and questions raised on the page. She is looking for stories that allow us to step into the unknown while simultaneously holding up a mirror and pushing us to go deeper within ourselves. More than anything, she’s seeking stories driven by unique and diverse narrative voices and a strong sense of style at the line level.

Response time 

We aim to get back to writers within 3-6 months. We appreciate your patience.
 

Accepted Work

Published pieces will be accompanied by original artwork, a special interview feature with our fiction editor, Tamar, and a shared feature across our social media platforms. 

Thank you for submitting to Write or Die! We look forward to reading your work! 

Receive a response to your submission in 2 weeks!

This service is open year round, even when our general fiction submissions are closed. 

All fees for expedited responses go to our editors. 

*Please note that if your work is under serious consideration by our editorial staff, your expedited submission might take up to, but no longer than, an additional week. 

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We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere. No previously published works. No submission fee. 

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font and double space your work. Send finished drafts of up to 4,000 words in an attached Word doc. The first page of your document should include:
 

• The title(s) of the piece(s) you are sending, 
• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Your brief cover letter with third person bio
   

Accepted Work

Writers will receive $200 for published fiction pieces as well as a special interview feature with our fiction editor, Tamar. Published pieces will be accompanied by original artwork, and writers will receive a media kit to display their work across social media.
 

What We Are Looking For: Notes from our Editors 

Tamar Mekredijian, Fiction Editor 

Tamar is looking for character-driven stories with a strong central emotion.  Don’t be afraid to break her heart. She is drawn to characters who make mistakes. She wants to read stories that make her look at life closely and see beauty in the shadows. She is looking for attention to details that are usually overlooked, and she isn’t afraid of surprises.
 

Suzanne Grove, Fiction Editor

Suzanne is most often drawn to character-driven fiction with a focus on interiority and a penchant for highlighting the surreal elements in everyday life. She most appreciates characters who are haunted in some way—by their pasts, by the hope and uncertainty of the future, by their own conflicting desires, and by the space between what they need and the achievement of those needs. Her favorite stories don’t necessarily adhere to traditional ideas about plot structure, but rather propel themselves forward via constant micro-tensions and questions raised on the page. She is looking for stories that allow us to step into the unknown while simultaneously holding up a mirror and pushing us to go deeper within ourselves. More than anything, she’s seeking stories driven by unique and diverse narrative voices and a strong sense of style at the line level.
 

What We Are Looking For: Note from our Editor, Shelby Hinte
 

Essays: We are interested in essays that focus on the writing life and especially love work where the personal intersects with the critical. We love essays that examine how publishing, reading, teaching, spirituality, sexuality, identity, obsession, labor, and family shape writing. Unconventional book reviews, insights on niche literary topics, lyric essays on craft, and stories about writing that are also about something seemingly unrelated really excite us. More than anything, we like to be surprised, so if you think you have something that speaks to writing or literature in some way, send it to us!

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font and double space your work. Send finished drafts of up to 3,000 words in an attached doc. The first page of your document should include:

• The title(s) of the piece(s) you are sending, 
• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Your brief cover letter with third person bio

Submission Fees

• Free Submission period: Every first week of the month (1st—7th)
• Regular Submission Period: $3 per submission (8th — end of month) 

This fee helps us cover operational costs and allows us to pay writers and our editors.
 

Response time 

We aim to get back to writers within 3-6 months. We appreciate your patience.
 

Thank you for submitting to Write or Die! We look forward to reading your work! 

What We Are Looking For: Notes from our Editors 

We accept pitches from interviewers interested in covering authors with a forthcoming or recently published book. We are especially interested in featuring books by debut authors and/or books published by indie presses. 

• Always open
• Pays 25 USD
• Editors: Nirica Srinivasan 

We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere. Submit one piece at a time. No previously published works. No submission fee.
 

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font and double space your work. Send finished drafts in an attached Word doc. The first page of your document should include:

• The title(s) of the piece(s) you are sending, 
• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Your brief cover letter with third person bio

Response time 

We aim to get back to writers within 3-6 months. We appreciate your patience.
 

Thank you for submitting to Write or Die! We look forward to reading your work!