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 follow our guidelines below 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.
Cover Art: Previous issues have featured paintings and photography–both realistic and abstract. Browse our archives to get a sense of what we like.
Images have to be 600×760 (600 pixels wide by 760 pixels tall), and 72 ppi. We can resize images, but we don’t pad our images, and the image needs to take up the entirety of the cover. If the image doesn’t fit our size, we will need to crop it.
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 only send one submission at a time. If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new piece. 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. In addition, please only send one submission at a time. If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new piece. If the guidelines aren’t followed your work will be returned at our convenience, unread.
Prose Poetry: We only accept prose poem submissions (1-3 prose poems in a single Word document); no traditional forms (sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, limericks, etc.). If you send us a traditional, lineated poem, we will automatically decline it. In addition, please only send one submission at a time. If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new piece. 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 let us know 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. (Authors can learn more about how rights work here.)
Editing: Pithead Chapel reserves the right to edit manuscripts for grammar or clarity issues 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 from us in two months then query us; otherwise, please be patient. We are doing our best and giving each submission the attention it deserves.
Payment: Currently, we don’t 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.
Please adhere to these guidelines when submitting to Pithead Chapel:
- Name, email address, and phone number appears on the first page of the story or prose poem
- Work is double spaced and has a 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman)
- Document is saved as a rtf, .doc, or .docx file (we will not accept any other file types)
- Work has page numbers (this doesn’t apply to prose poem submissions)
- Pithead Chapel doesn’t consider previously published work (this includes journals, blogs, etc.)
- Please don’t send us genre fiction; we aren’t the market for it
- Please only send one submission at a time. If your submission is declined, please wait one month before sending us a new piece.
- All submissions must be sent through Submittable (click on the link below)
Please note that Pithead Chapel might temporarily close submissions from time to time—so always check this page for updates before submitting. If you need to contact us please send us an email at pitheadchapel@gmail.com.