Submission Guidelines

We welcome submissions of poetry, prose poems, flash fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid work.

SUBMISSIONS ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED

We are looking for writing that addresses the way narrative and presence adhere to place and the way they vanish. We encourage broad interpretations of what the idea or image of an empty house might evoke. This includes but is not limited to writing about home, landscape, place, memory, and of course, the atmosphere of previously inhabited spaces.

Reading Periods: Submissions will be open January 1 – 31 (issue publication in June) and July 1 – 31 (issue publication in December). Please note that these windows may close early or be extended depending on how many submissions we receive, with a limit of 500 submissions per cycle; any such changes to these reading periods will be announced on this page and on social media. Since the number of submissions will be capped, please be advised that we will read only one submission per author per reading period.

Fiction and Nonfiction: We’re willing to read up to 2000 words per prose piece, though we prefer works in the 500-1500 word range. Please submit pieces longer than 1000 words one at a time. If you would like to submit a suite of up to 3 pieces shorter than 1000 words, please submit these in a single document.

Poetry: Feel free to send us 1-3 poems per submission in a single document.

Formatting Guidelines: Please send your work in a single .docx or .pdf file, double-spaced for prose, single-spaced for poetry, using Times New Roman or another standard font.

Housekeeping: We welcome simultaneous submissions, but please contact us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. We do not accept multiple submissions; please only send one submission per reading period. Even if you have received a rejection from us in the past, we invite you to submit again, and we welcome previous contributors. If your work appears in our current issue, please skip the next reading period and submit during the second upcoming period—we’d be thrilled to read more of your work but would also like to give others a chance!

While we prefer previously unpublished work, we are willing to read work that has appeared on an author’s personal site or blog or at an online venue that has closed provided that the work is otherwise no longer available or appears in a significantly different form and appropriate acknowledgements are included. We do not accept translations at this time.

Photo Series: Occasionally we may include one photo series per issue that we feel resonates with our focus on place, home, and memory. Each series will consist of a short artist's statement and 6–12 photographs that share a common vision or theme. We do not require the series to tell a specific narrative (as in a photo essay), however we are also not looking for a random selection of images. Rather, we would like to see a collection of photographs that speak to each other and express an idea as a whole. To get a better idea of what we might like, we recommend taking a look at our first photo series in Issue Two from Jamie Paul. To enquire about or propose a series, please contact us. Within your proposal, please include a cover letter with a brief third-person bio, an artist's statement, and a Dropbox or Google link for the work you would like us to consider.

Payment & Rights: Acceptance grants Empty House Press First Serial Rights, along with nonexclusive Electronic Archival Rights, to showcase your work indefinitely on our site. At the time of publication, all rights revert back to the author. If you re-publish the work elsewhere, please credit us as the original publisher. While we are unable to offer payment at this time, our goals for the future include a funded writers retreat and other opportunities for our contributors.

Inclusion Policy: Empty House Press strongly believes in the importance of community and justice. We seek to amplify underrepresented voices, including but not limited to the voices of women, people of color, Black and Indigenous peoples, immigrants and refugees, lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, nonbinary, and other individuals and communities facing discrimination. We do not welcome bigotry or language of oppression – racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, ageism, body-shaming, cultural appropriation, harassment – in any form. We reserve the right to reject or remove any work from authors we determine to have violated this mission. We strive to acknowledge and learn from any mistakes on our part, and to work with our writers, readers, and the literary community at large in the pursuit of illumination and connection through words. As we all move together in the direction of equity and justice, here are BLM-endorsed resources to help keep the momentum lifted and energized: Ways To Help.

To Submit: Please send your writing in a single document together with a short cover letter and third-person biography using the "Submit" button below. If you don't hear from us within three months, feel free to contact us to inquire about your submission's status. We look forward to reading your work!