Submission Guidelines
Hello writers and readers,
The Rejoinder is excited to announce we’re open for submissions! We publish serialized fiction that can be broken up and published in four or five parts. Stories should have a strong sense of movement, and the storytelling should be enhanced by the drama of weekly section breaks. We want plot: cliffhangers, action, consequences, and other memorable moments that will keep readers returning week after week. Show us complex and surprising characters, vivid settings, and sentences that propel us forward.
We especially love reading work that pushes the edge of literary fiction. We are not afraid of genre, so send us your historical, fantastical, and speculative stories as long as they still hold a literary bend.
How to Submit
To submit a story for consideration, please email us your story with four or five clearly delineated section breaks and a 3-5 sentence synopsis of the piece. The synopsis can be very simple: use no more than 150 words to explain where the story is headed across its parts.
The sweet spot for our stories is around 7,000 words. We don’t have hard limits, but would be hard-pressed to publish something shorter than 6,000 or longer than 12,000 words. If you have something that you think would be a great fit and is outside that range, please reach out.
We’ll be open for submissions on April 15 and will remain open until July 15 or we hit our cap. We’re particularly enthusiastic about publishing a sweeping, gay story for Pride. If yours fits the bill, please note that in your synopsis.
The nitty-gritty
Send submissions as a Word Doc (PDF is fine too) to rejoindermag [at] gmail [dot] com
Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please notify us if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
