Submission Guidelines

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General Submissions – CLOSED

Isele Magazine is currently closed for essays, fiction, poetry, interviews, visual art, and book reviews.

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Standard guidelines during reading periods:

We do not accept multiple submissions, but we do consider simultaneous submissions. Please let us know ASAP if the work submitted has been accepted for publication elsewhere.

Please do not submit previously published works (by this, we mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). However, we will consider a translated version of the work if the original language wasn’t in English.

Please include a brief cover letter with the title of your piece and a third-person bio.

Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Due to the volume of the submissions we receive, we aim to respond within six months, though it can be longer. If you have not heard from us after one year of your submission, please feel free to send a query to editor@iselemagazine.com. 

Isele Magazine requests first serial rights of your published piece. However, all rights will revert to you after publication. And, if your work is republished elsewhere, please indicate that it was first published in Isele Magazine.

We pay our contributors a modest token.

Fiction & Nonfiction Submissions

You may submit up to 8,000 words of fiction and 4,000 words of nonfiction. Please make sure your manuscript is double-spaced, preferably in Times New Roman or Garamond size 12 font. We rarely publish novel excerpts but have been known to make exceptions.

Send fiction (as a Word document attachment) to fiction.iselemagazine@gmail.com.

Send nonfiction (as a Word document attachment) to nonfiction.iselemagazine@gmail.com.

Poetry

You may submit up to 6 pages of poetry or one long poem. Please submit as a single document.

Send poetry (as Word document attachment) to poetry.iselemagazine@gmail.com.

Visual Art  

Please submit as a JPEG or PNG file. We are open to any form of visual art but we do not accept AI generated artwork.

We prefer to see 8- 10 images. Send artwork to art.iselemagazine@gmail.com.

One visual artist will be chosen/featured for the cover that we use across all social media platforms, as well as online, for each regular Isele issue. We may publish artwork by more than one artist on the website as space allows.

Please only submit art pieces the artist still retains the rights for. Works that have been previously published, posted, and exhibited are allowed as long as the artist still retains the rights.

Book Reviews

Submit up to 1,500 words. Double-spaced, Times New Roman, size 12 font.

Send book reviews to submissions.iselemagazine@gmail.com.

All accepted submissions (excluding book reviews) are automatically considered for The Isele Prizes.

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Quarterly Submissions – CLOSED

“What is grief, if not love persevering?” ― Wanda, WandaVision (2021)

For this quarterly issue of Isele Magazine, we are seeking submissions that revolve around grief. Grief from losing a loved one. Grief from giving up on your dreams and aspirations. Grief from living in a broken world. Grief from losing your health and bodily functions. Grief from losing your job. Grief from losing an animal companion. We want fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, visual art, and hybrid works that explore this theme.

Submission guidelines:

• All submissions for the quarterly issue should be submitted to quarterly@iselemagazine.com. The email subject line should read Genre: Lastname (e.g. Poetry: Angelou).
• We DO NOT accept multiple submissions. Please submit to one genre only.
• For fiction and nonfiction, submit max. 5000 words of prose.
• For poetry, submit max. 3 poems in a single document.
• For photography and visual art, submit max. 5 images in JPEG or PNG format and include a brief note detailing the concept and relevance of your work. Only submit work that you still retain the rights to. We DO NOT accept AI-generated images or artwork.
• For prose (fiction and nonfiction) and poetry, we DO NOT publish previously published works (by this, we mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). However, we will consider a translated version of the work if the original language wasn’t in English. For photography and visual art, we may publish works that have been previously published, posted, or exhibited as long as the artist still retains the rights.
• Simultaneous submissions are okay but please notify us as soon as your work is accepted elsewhere.

Submission fees and payment of contributors:

• We DO NOT charge submission fees. All submissions are free of charge.
• Isele Magazine pays all its contributors a modest token

Rights:

• Isele Magazine requests the first serial rights of your published piece. However, all rights will revert to you after publication. If your work is republished elsewhere, please indicate that it previously appeared in Isele Magazine.

The Isele Prizes

• All accepted submissions are automatically considered for The Isele Prizes.

Deadline: 29^th February 2024

We will respond to every submission no later than two months from the submission deadline. If you have not heard from us within two months, please feel free to send a query to quarterly@iselemagazine.com.