Why Defuncted…?

Defuncted is a home for poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that has been previously published but was abandoned when the journals that published them shut down but did not archive the work.

Submission periods are as follows:

*** We are currently on hiatus. We realize the irony of a journal that publishes defunct work going defunct, however we are not defunct. Your work will remain archived in our journal unless you ask us to take it down. We will update when and if we decide to reopen for submissions. Thank you to all of our contributors! ***

OUR SUBMISSION GUIDELINES HAVE CHANGED SINCE LAST READING PERIOD, PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW GUIDELINES YOUR SUBMISSION WILL BE REJECTED.

If you have your own abandoned work and would like us to give it a new home, please email defunctedjournal@gmail.com. Please indicate in the subject line the type of submission, e.g., submission — poetry or submission — fiction or submission — cnf (CNF=creative nonfiction). We do not publish novel excerpts, please do not send those.

Submit up to three pieces or up to 3,000 words. If you have something that’s longer than that and you think it really belongs here, please email with the word count and we will consider.

Submission Guidelines if you ARE NOT on Medium (or you are on Medium but you prefer us to publish on your behalf):

FOR FICTION AND CNF:

• Make sure your text WRAPS within paragraphs. Some software will add paragraph breaks between lines, so be sure to fix it if that’s the case. If your submission contains numerous hard returns where there shouldn’t be any, we will ask you to resubmit a corrected draft.
• Please note: We do not have the time or the resources to edit your work. We suggest you submit the final version as it was published, and not earlier drafts. And go over your submission carefully before you send it.
• Include with your submission the name of the publication(s) where your work was originally published, the date of publication, and the issue number if available. For example: “Originally published in [XYZ Publication] on [date].” DO NOT leave the date blank. If you do not know the date or even the year at least, please explain in the email and provide your best estimate.
• Do not include a bio. We are no longer publishing bios. You may include a social media handle or a website to let readers know where to find you.

FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS:

• Submit up to the three poems.
• Please replace paragraph breaks between lines with soft returns (hold down SHIFT and hit RETURN, instead of just RETURN. It’s the only way to avoid double spaced poems.) Of course leave hard returns between stanzas, you would want a double space there.
• Please note that Medium does not allow for indents or weird formatting, so if you have special formatting in your poems it might not be possible for us to keep that.
• Check your work for typos and spelling mistakes before you submit.
• Include the name of the publication(s) where your work was originally published, as well as the date, and the issue number if known. Do not leave this information out! If you don’t know the date of publication, at least send us your best guess.
• We are no longer publishing bios. You may send us a social media handle or a website to include with your publication.

Submission Guidelines if you ARE ON Medium:

• If you are on Medium, email us a link to your draft (see this article on how to do so). We will let you know once we’ve added you as a writer and you can submit your draft to Defuncted (see the help page on how to add your draft to a publication). If you’ve already published with us, you know the drill.
• Important! DO NOT publish your story/poem before submitting it. Keep it as a draft.
• Make sure you’ve cited the name of the publication(s) your work was previously published in, as well as the date, and the issue number if known. If you don’t know the date, provide your best guess.
• Do not set more than three tags in your draft. Five is the max and we need at least two of those.
• Please provide the requisite image to go with your work.

FOR EVERYONE:

• To reiterate: We are looking for work that was previously published in a journal that has gone defunct. However, if the work is archived online and still available to read, we cannot publish it. We reserve the right to rescind any offers of acceptance if we later discover that your work is still available to read.
• Submit only once per reading period and wait for at least two months before querying the status of your submission. Most submissions will be published during the three months after the reading period closes.
• Please note that some things will not be to our liking and will not be published here.