borrowed solace is open to submissions for several months at a time, twice a year. We post on our website when we are open for submissions, so please check back for updates. Please do not submit any fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or art when we are closed for submissions. . Any submissions received when we are closed will not be considered for publication and you will need to resubmit when submissions reopen.
We publish one themed issue and one unthemed issue per year. Our themes are generally vague and can be interpreted many ways, but still, submissions received leading up to the publication of a themed issue must in some way fit with the theme. If you have questions about a theme or specific issue, please contact us by emailing us at the email listed on the “Contact” page above.
We prefer stories that do not include excessive violence or erotica. If you wish to include such things in your story, it needs to have a purpose – prove to us that it is significant to the story or characters and it won’t be a problem. We do not accept any work with racial slurs or political commentary.
We accept stories and/or poems if you have submitted them in the past to us as long as they are different and refreshed from the last time. We may ask you to resubmit your work to an upcoming journal for future possibilities.
We do not accept reprints or tolerate plagiarism. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please withdraw your submission if it is accepted elsewhere. To do this, log into our submissions manager and click on “Withdraw a Submission.” If you submitted multiple pieces and wish to withdraw only a certain piece, contact us by emailing us at the email listed on the “Contact” page above.
At this time, we are unable to monetarily pay our contributors. If your submission is chosen for publication in borrowed solace, you will be paid in digital contributor copies of the journal, and our undying gratitude for allowing us to be a platform for sharing your work!
Please ensure that your submission meets the following requirements before submission and read the requirements in their entirety:
Formatting
Please use Calibri or Times New Roman font and include your name and the word count of the story/poem somewhere on the first page of your submission. Please also submit as a word document, (we do not accept PDFs, unless it is for art) with your name and the genre as the document name (ex: Tom Williams Fiction).
Fiction
For more details on what we look for in fiction, read The 411: Fiction on the blog!
We are looking for fiction that artfully tells a story and reveals truths about humanity. Make us think – but not about how your story is full of typos, mismatched information, or clumsy characters. We want something unique and refreshing that makes it hard to stop reading!
Please submit only one piece of full-length prose or three pieces of flash fiction at a time. The maximum amount of pages we are able to consider is 15. Unfortunately, we do not have space in each edition to accept stories any longer. Standard manuscript formatting applies.
We are open to submissions regardless of genre, but good genre stories will transcend categorization. Make us fall in love with your characters and plot, and everything else will fall into place.
Poetry
For more details on what we look for in poetry, read The 411: Poetry on the blog!
We are looking for artful and thought-provoking poetry that makes us fall in love with language all over again. We are not partial to form, but prefer our poems to look like poems – no prose poems, please. We know this makes us old-fashioned but we’re okay with that – we’re the grandmother of the poetry world. We are happy to consider prose poetry if it is submitted as either flash fiction or nonfiction.
Poets can submit up to four poems per submission (if your poems are extraordinarily long, please be mindful of that and only submit one or two poems.) Please ensure that each poem is complete and each one begins on a new page.
Creative Nonfiction
For more details on what we look for in nonfiction, read The 411: Nonfiction on the blog!
We are looking for creative nonfiction that tells a true story in a unique and creative way. Make us want to keep reading! We are open to most types of creative nonfiction – memoir, flash nonfiction, prose, literary journalism, etc. We embrace all walks of life and we want to experience how solace has crept into the moments of your life.
Please submit only one piece of full-length prose or three pieces of flash nonfiction at a time. The maximum amount of pages we are able to consider is 15. Unfortunately, we do not have space in each edition to accept stories any longer.
Art & Photography
For more details on what we look for in art, read The 411: Art on the blog!
We are always looking for art to feature for our cover and section headings, and if we receive enough submissions, we hope to be able to have an art section in each issue of the journal. We prefer to see striking and thought-provoking paintings, drawings, and photography, but are open to other mediums as well.
Please submit up to three pieces as high-resolution photographs to our submission manager. Be sure to include your contact information with your cover letter.
We’d appreciate it if artwork and photography were tastefully done – please no nudity. If you are questioning whether something would be a good fit for the journal, take a look at our last editions. We prefer not to have people in the art we publish, but rather odd nature herself.
For being bold enough to release your innermost workings into the world, we thank you. We hope to be able to give your hours of editing and composing a home, but most of all we look forward to seeing what you’ve come up with.
Best of luck,
The editors
Borrowed Solace 