Creative Nonfiction Issue 30
Ends on
What we want
The Ear is looking for nonfiction essays that get us thinking and feeling on deeper levels. Short or long, personal, lyric, or research-based essays: send us work created from the reality of the world in carefully chosen and woven words. Feel free to explore our website to learn more about the staff and our past selections.
What to include
You may submit 1 essay (5,000 words max).
There is no need for a bio or cover letter. We want to make decisions based on the work itself, so we'll contact you for more info as needed. To keep the focus on the work, we ask that you do not put any identifying information anywhere on your submission. Don't worry: Submittable knows who you are!
You are welcome to submit work to other genres during this reading period, but you may only submit once per genre per reading period. We want the freshest stuff: please share only previously unpublished work. Personal blogs or social media are okay, but we cannot acquire rights from official publications. Additionally, The Ear does not accept A.I. generated work.
We're a small volunteer staff. You might have to wait several months to hear back, so simultaneous submissions are okay. If your story is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it immediately using Submittable's Withdrawal function. What happens after you submit
Your work is always reviewed by multiple people who don't know anything about you. We often wait until we've considered every submission to make final decisions, so it may take two or three months beyond our close date before you hear back. Please be patient with us as we lavish everyone's work with the attention it deserves!
If your work is accepted, we'll reach out via Submittable to let you know. (Please be sure your notifications are on!) We'll invite you to submit a bio and more detailed contact information at that time. We will copy-edit the work, but we always have conversations with our writers about any proposed changes. Once your proofs are approved, your work will be published both in print and online.
We ask for first American serial rights, but all other rights revert back to the creator. Just give us a shoutout in future, and tell your friends how great we are!
Payment is two copies of the print journal, and our undying love and affection. If your work is not accepted, don't be discouraged! Keep sending your work out, and try sending us something else in the future!
We regret that the volume of submissions and size of our staff means that we cannot send personalized feedback to each writer.