Literary Mama is always open for submissions!
Literary Mama is open for submissions year-round. Send us your best work!
Below is a quick guide to our editorial slant. Happy submitting!
More submission guidelines can be found here.
Fiction
The Fiction department at Literary Mama seeks fiction under 5,000 words about all aspects of motherhood. We look for pieces with strong narrative structure, great characters, interesting settings, beautiful language, and complicated themes. See our submissions guidelines. For additional information, check out this blog post for tips on what we look for.
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Profiles
The Profiles Department seeks profiles of writers who are mothers, or writers who write about motherhood (who may or may not be mothers themselves), or writers who have something to say to mothers. Submissions should range from 750 to 2,500 words and may be an interview (Q&A) or narrative format. More information can be found here. A sample of what the editors are looking for can be found in this post.
See our Submissions page for guidelines.
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Literary Reflections
The Literary Reflections department at Literary Mama seeks essays by mother writers, both established and emerging, focused on the creative process. We’re looking for first-person reflections, with an intellectual as well as personal focus, which explore some aspect of reading or writing as a mother. Please send submissions of 1500-3500 words to LMreflections (at) literarymama (dot) com in the text of an email (no attachments), along with a brief cover letter. See submissions guidelines for further information, and check out our recent blog post to get a feel for what we publish.
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Poetry
The Poetry department is looking for unpublished poems extraordinary in vision, craft, integrity, and originality. Poems of any length and form are welcome. Maximum of two poems per submission, please. If more than two poems are submitted, only the first two poems will be read. See our full submissions guidelines for more information and check out this blog post for tips on what we look for.
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Photography
Literary Mama seeks photography submissions to pair with the posts on our site. We are looking for photos that offer unique perspectives on motherhood, and we like photos that are artful, versus those that appear staged, and that encourage us to reflect. Please note these two excellent examples of the types of photos we seek:
If you would like to feature your evocative, creative photography on Literary Mama, you can review complete submission guidelines here and send .jpg images to: LMphotos (at) literarymama (dot) com.We always give photo credits and provide a link back to the photographer’s website.
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Reviews
The Reviews department seeks 1000 word reviews about poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction (memoir) books that address motherhood as a primary theme/subject; we also consider longer essay reviews that feature a round-up of a particular genre such as chapbooks or anthologies. We are open to both veteran and novice reviewers. Writers are welcome to pitch books they may want to review or submit reviews they have completed with Literary Mama in mind as a potential forum. We also invite reviewers to introduce themselves with relevant biographical information and clips/samples.
We exclusively publish positive reviews; although our reviews often feature critique, we favor heralding good work rather than spending time and space on work that does not merit our attention. To get a sense of our style, please read through several back issues. Please send queries to LMreviews (at) literarymama (dot) com.
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