Submission Guidelines: Fiction

Fiction Editors: Elizabeth Conway & Marie Goyette

Please submit your work using this form.

The fiction department seeks stories up to 5,000 words, including flash fiction. We most often publish stories between 1,000 to 3,500 words.

We publish writing that reflects some aspect of the mothering experience. We love stories with strong narrative structure, complex characters, beautiful language, and complicated themes. Review our General Submission Guidelines for additional tips, and please note that we do not accept fiction in which Generative AI was used for any part of the writing process.

Upload your submission and a brief cover letter as one file under “Content” on the submission form. Select “Fiction” from the “Department” dropdown menu. Submissions should be in the following format: 12-point type, with one space between paragraphs. 

Please submit only one piece at a time to the fiction department, and wait to hear back from us before submitting again.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please inform us if you need to withdraw your manuscript. 

We typically respond within three months. If you do not hear back from us within that time frame, please feel free to query. 

Literary Mama is a community of writers dedicated to supporting writers. This means editors often work one on one with writers who have trusted us with their work. If we think your submission is a good fit for Literary Mama, but don’t feel it’s quite ready yet, we may request to work with you to revise it for possible publication.

We look forward to reading your work!

For inquiries, contact us at: lmfiction (at) literarymama (dot) com. Note that submissions are only accepted via the form linked above.