• All manuscripts must be double-spaced for fiction and nonfiction. Poetry may be single-spaced.

  • All manuscripts should be formatted in a readable (12 point) font, with at least 1 inch margins.

  • Please include a brief cover letter. Remind us if we know you.

  • Be sure your full name and contact information (including email) appear on the manuscript.

  • Please address your submissions to the appropriate editor (i.e. Nonfiction Editor, Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor). 

  • Simultaneous submissions are accepted; writers must notify The Normal School immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.

  • We consider only previously unpublished work. We also do not accept email submissions. Please do not contact our editors regarding a submission via their personal email addresses or social media. Hard-copy submissions are not accepted.

  • Please check your Submittable page for our current open submission period.

 
 

creative nonfiction

Nonfiction:

Submission Guidelines for Nonfiction: Double-spaced, 12-point (readable) font, with name, address, and email on the submission. Format the document as .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf. Please include a brief cover letter, and remind us if we know you.

For the current Submission Period, we will consider essays, memoir, and other forms of creative nonfiction of NO MORE than 5000 words, with contemporary styles and an attention to language, form, and consciousness. Our ideal word count is around 3500, but we're open to more as well. We especially encourage submissions from Black and Indigenous writers, writers of color, writers with disabilities, writers from LGBTQIA+ communities, and voices that have been historically under-represented and minoritized in the publishing world.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but let us know immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere. We consider only previously unpublished work.

 
 

Fiction

Fiction:

Submission Guidelines for Fiction: 5000 words maximum. Double-spaced, 12-point (readable) font, with name, address, and email on the submission. Format the document as .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf. Please include a brief cover letter, and remind us if we know you.

We are looking for stories that experiment with form, genre, voice, character, and beyond; stories that engage with and push beyond the boundaries of convention. Send us your stories that are strange, surreal, and sincere, stories that dip into the unexpected and meaningful. We are particularly excited to read stories by historically marginalized writers. Read a few of our most recently published stories to get an idea of what we’re passionate about.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but let us know immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere. We only consider unpublished work.

 
 

poetry

Poetry: 

Submission Guidelines for Poetry: Limit 5 poems per submission. Single-spaced, 12-point (readable) font, with name, address, and email on the submission. Format the document as .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf. Please include a brief cover letter, and remind us if we know you.

Send us your weird, your strange, your hybrids, your rough edged, thorned, and deadly. We want the poetry that captures, transports, conjures, imagines, materializes you on a page. We consider poetry of any form, style, or focus. Stretch out language(s), blend them, if your work is bilingual/trilingual/a polyglot, send us the magic. The poems that don’t seem to fit, that the mold can’t seem to hold, we want them to find a home here. Black and Indigenous people, and people of color; LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and other voices that have been historically under-represented and marginalized, help us redefine normal.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but let us know immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere. Please notify us of withdrawals by sending us a note through submittable. We consider only previously unpublished work.

IF your work is inspired by or borrows heavily from the work of other poets/writers/artists, please tell us about this in your cover letter.

 
 

Multi-media

Multimedia:

We seek submissions that use more than one medium to tell a story. This includes but is not limited to comics, graphic fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, photo and video essays, spoken word pieces, and audio prose and poetry. We especially encourage submissions from Black and Indigenous writers, writers of color, writers with disabilities, writers from LGBTQIA+ communities, and voices that have been historically under-represented and minoritized in the publishing world.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but let us know immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere. We do not accept previously published or displayed multi-media work.

 

art and photography

Art and Photography:

The Normal School seeks original fine art, digital art, and photography to feature in our online magazine. Our goal is to celebrate visual artists and provide a space for them to get some exposure. We especially encourage submissions from Black and Indigenous artists, artists of color, artists with disabilities, artists from LGBTQIA+ communities, and voices that have been historically under-represented and minoritized in the art world.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but let us know immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere. We consider only previously unpublished work.