Dearest human: Contest submissions will open in mid-June. General submissions will open in September. xoxo, Magpie

We seek the following for general submissions:

Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, humor, experimental/wildly unclassifiable, and visual art—artwork, photography, collage, comics. The prose word limit is 1500. For poetry, submit 1-3 pieces. For visual art, submit 2-4 pieces. We strongly favor work with depth and unique insight that explores the human condition and leans toward unusual, possibly urgent, and slightly unhinged. Life is absurd, and we like being moved in unexpected ways by its absurdity. To make sure we’re a good fit for each other, view our issues. All content is free.

Humor is all about, well, humor. Currently, we’re accepting terrible pitches and delightful 5th-grade book reports. More on humor subs.

Pub basics

We publish a bound, online issue (no paywall) and feature individual contributor pages.

We only accept submissions through Submittable, and submissions are generally open unless we’re between issues or have reached our capacity, emotionally and Submittably. Note: Poetry subs tend to fill quickly. If you don’t see an option to submit poetry, poetry submissions have closed for that reading period.

We cannot offer payment at this time, but we hope to by late 2025. We don’t charge a submission/reading fee for general submissions. Only submit to one category per reading period. Multiple submissions will be declined.

Submissions must be previously unpublished, original, and from the original creator. (Shared on your personal social media or personal blog is fine. We don’t consider this a publication.) We only accept stories written by corporeal humans. We don’t consider AI-written stories. For artwork, it should not have been previously published online or in a major print publication.

Our current response time is within three months. Each editor reads every submission in their genre, so sometimes hearing from us can take a little longer. We only read for one issue at a time.

Rights & releases

Your work belongs to you! We will publish, lovingly promote, and maintain a copy online. If your submission is later published elsewhere, please mention its home on Magpie Zine.

P.S.

No-no’s: racist, queerphobic, transphobic, misogynistic, xenophobic, fascist, exploitative, ableist, or appropriation of experiences and communities that aren’t your own. We also refrain from publishing creators whose work may not espouse these views but who personally do. We reserve the right to remove your work, without notice, from our site if we become aware of cringey behavior, plagiarism, or other stipulations not enumerated here.

If we have already published your work, please wait three issues before sending us more.

If a piece was previously declined, please do not resubmit it unless encouraged.