Submitting Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, or Photography to Muscle & Blood Literary Journal

We are now taking submissions for Issue 2 of Muscle & Blood Literary Journal, due out in 2011.

Before submitting, please read Issue 1 of Muscle & Blood Literary Journal to familiarize yourself with the kind of work we publish.

Send fully-realized works. Simultaneous submissions are OK as long as you tell us if your work is accepted elsewhere. Reprints are considered but we’re unlikely to print them. We are both a print and electronic magazine and ask for First North American Serial Rights and First Electronic Rights to any work we accept. Query if we don’t respond after two months.

We cannot promise detailed feedback on works we reject, but will try to help as much as possible.

We nominate up to six writers each year for the prestigious Pushcart Prize, and will inform you at the time of nomination.

Photography: We are primarily looking for black-and-white photography. Please submit photographs in PNG, GIF, or JPG format, in that order of preference. Higher resolutions are preferred. You may submit as many photographs as you like. Send to art-submit@muscleandblood.com with “Muscle & Blood”, “Photography”, and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief bio of under 100 words.

Poetry (English): We are looking for well-rounded, well-executed poetry which is meaningful and aesthetically strong. Experimental poetry would be more likely to find a home at our sister journal, Liebamour. No haiku. You may submit up to 5 poems which should be in a single .doc or .rtf file. The file should be no longer than 5 pages. Send it as an attachment to poetry-submit@muscleandblood.com with “Muscle & Blood” and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief bio in your email of under 100 words.

Poetry (other languages): We accept poetry in languages other than English as long as you submit both the original version and an English translation. It should be well-rounded, well-executed, meaningful and aesthetically strong. No haiku. You may submit between 1 and 5 poems. Either paste in the body of an email or attach in one .doc or .rtf file, and send to translation-submit@muscleandblood.com with “Muscle & Blood”, “Poetry”, and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief bio of under 100 words. If you’re submitting a translation of another writer’s work, include bios for the original writer and translator.

Short fiction (1,000 to 5,000 words): We live by the creed that “less is more” and prefer stories with a lot of dialogue. Literary fiction only please–we no longer consider genre fiction. We also consider flash fiction; see the next section. One submission at a time. Attach in one .doc or .rtf file and send to fiction-submit@muscleandblood.com with “Muscle & Blood”, “Short fiction”, and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief bio of under 100 words.

Flash fiction (under 1,000 words): We want flash pieces that don’t waste words and are interesting throughout. We do not consider genre flash fiction. You may submit up to five at a time. Attach in one .doc or .rtf file and send to fiction-submit@muscleandblood.com with “Muscle & Blood”, “Flash fiction”, and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief bio of under 100 words.

Creative nonfiction (1,000 to 5,000 words): We consider creative nonfiction that deals with issues of modern society. Writers should have a fresh, creative voice. One submission at a time. Attach in one .doc or .rtf file and send to nonfiction-submit@muscleandblood.com with “Muscle & Blood”, “Creative nonfiction”, and your last name in the subject line. Include a brief bio of under 100 words.

Queries, questions, etc. can be sent to our Editor-in-Chief, Benjamin C. Krause, at benjamin@muscleandblood.com. Please do not send submissions to this address.