What We Are Looking For: Notes from our Editors
 

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!

• Always open
• Pays 50 USD
• Max words: 3000
• 1 piece at a time.
• Editor: Shelby Hinte 

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

Response time 

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

Accepted Work

Writers will receive $50 for published essays.

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: Shelby Hinte & Brittany Ackerman

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.
 

Accepted Work

Writers will receive $25 for published interviews.

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

Receive a response to your submission in 1 week!

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

All fees for expedited responses go directly 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

Response time 

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

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.
 

We believe editors should uplift a writer's unique voice, not alter it to fit their own style. Our feedback aims to ask questions and provide insights that help you refine and perfect your work. 

We accept fiction pieces up to 4000 words.
 

Short Fiction 

What is included: 

• Extensive line edits/margin notes. These hyper-specific questions, suggestions, and responses will not only help to strengthen the story at the micro level—paying close attention to mood, description, diction, voice, clarity, readability, dialogue, syntax, and narrative rhythm—but also provide feedback on what we view as the most important, big-picture developmental edits for the story as they arise in the text.
• Comments related to the strengths of the piece, so writers will understand what’s working as well as what needs to be improved!

Short Fiction + 

What is included: 

• Extensive line edits/margin notes. These hyper-specific questions, suggestions, and responses will not only help to strengthen the story at the micro level—paying close attention to mood, description, diction, voice, clarity, readability, dialogue, syntax, and narrative rhythm—but also provide feedback on what we view as the most important, big-picture developmental edits for the story as they arise in the text.
• Comments related to the strengths of the piece, so writers will understand what’s working as well as what needs to be improved!
• A comprehensive letter of 1-2 pages, depending upon the specific length and needs of the story. This letter will focus on major developmental edits related to the opening hook, characterization, character and story arcs, setting, pacing, conflict and tension, exposition and scene, and endings. It will also include a paragraph summarizing the story in order for the writer to understand how a reader might view the plot and its main beats.
• Detailed questions, ideas, and mini craft lessons to help you refine your overall fiction writing skills. We’re happy to focus on specific elements as requested!
• A specifically curated list of recommended reading and listening: stories, journals, podcasts, essays, and interviews we feel might speak to the individual writer.
• One email exchange for any follow-up questions.

About Our Editors

Tamar Mekredijian

Tamar Mekredijian is working on her first novel, which was long-listed for The Masters Review 2021 Novel Excerpt Contest.She teaches English at various universities, focusing on the rhetorical mode of Narrative.   Her essays appear at Coffee and Crumbs and Literary Mama. She is the fiction editor of Write or Die Magazine and co-creator of the Write Together Retreats. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.

Suzanne Grove 

Suzanne Grove is a fiction reader and editorial consultant for Write or Die Magazine, in addition to serving as the associate editor for CRAFT. Her fiction and poetry appear or are forthcoming in The Adirondack Review, Barren Magazine, The Carolina Quarterly, No Contact, No Tokens, Okay Donkey, The Penn Review, Porter House Review, Raleigh Review, XRAY, and elsewhere. She also received honorable mention for her fiction appearing on Farrar, Straus, & Giroux's Work in Progress website.

Testimonials 

Suzanne is an excellent editor and a reader with infrared vision. She saw things I barely knew were there, and I wrote the story! I've been through Clarion and Tin House. I'm accustomed to hearing the truth, and Suzanne, in her diplomatic way, didn't hold back. My story is much improved thanks to the work she put into it. Don't let her go! —Steven Bryan Bieler
 

I am really blown away! The depth of critique and feedback was just what I needed to keep editing this story.
 

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Have a question about this service? Email kailey@chillsubs.com  

We believe editors should uplift a writer's unique voice, not alter it to fit their own style. Our feedback aims to ask questions and provide insights that help you refine and perfect your work.

We accept creative nonfiction pieces up to 4000 words.
 

What's included: 

• Line edits related to macro-level elements of the text such as voice, structure, themes, and clarity. These in-line edits are intended to provide feedback on big-picture developmental edits for the story as they arise in the text.
• A 2-page editorial letter focusing on developmental edits, questions, and suggestions
• A one-on-one 60 minute Zoom meeting to discuss the written feedback and any related questions the writer might have.
• A specifically curated list of prompts, recommended reading, and listening to support the writer in developing their work.
• One email exchange for any follow-up questions.

About our editor
 

Shelby Hinte, associate editor 

Shelby Hinte is a writer, editor, and teacher amongst other things. She has led writing workshops at San Francisco State University, The Writing Salon, and in the community, including teaching creative writing to incarcerated adults and youth on juvenile probation.   She is the Associate Editor of Write or Die Mag and has been a reader and intern for various independent presses and magazines including ZYZZYVA, Split/Lip Press, and No Contact. Her writing has been featured in BOMB Magazine, The Rumpus, ZYZZYVA, Hobart, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. She lives in Northern California.

Have a question about this service? Email kailey@chillsubs.com