SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Garden Lit Submission Guidelines
Amplifying Voices
NOTE: AS OF JUNE 24, 2025, TO BE ADDED AS A WRITER: COMMENT ON THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE:
Welcome to the Garden of Neuro Institute’s literary publication on Medium
Garden Lit publishes stories in all forms: poetry, prose, essay, fiction, non-fiction, and visual arts. We also accept book and movie reflections, travel experiences, and memoirs.
Our mission is to:
- Amplify & support the voices of women and marginalized people
- Engage writers from around the world
- Lift each other up
- Share our skills and passions
We accept previously published works, with author rights. Please include publishing acknowledgments.
We invite you to explore our sister publications.
Core Beliefs
In the Garden, we believe in mentorship, helping each other grow, and a culture of mutual respect.
We will not tolerate bullying of any kind. Bullying will result in automatic removal from our publication.
Editorial Philosophy
Garden of Neuro Institute Publishing strives to support the author’s voice while offering gentle editorial suggestions and help with typos. As editors, we seek to elevate your writing. We are particular about things like grammar, punctuation, and usage. Understanding each other begins with clarity. We ensure our readers can read without stumbling or falling.
Please properly credit the photographer under each photo in your piece. You are welcome to add something in the caption connecting the image to your submissions. Humor is welcome! Please click your photo and add ‘Alt Text’ (at right). This is a brief description of the image for people who need help seeing what it is. Alt-Text is also great for making your writing more visible to search engines.
For example, in the photo at the top of this article, I used “Garden Lit Medium Publication Guidelines. Come write with us!” and then I added, “A long hallway lined with thick pillars. Open to one side, there is a lush garden just outside, and plants line the walls. The hallway leads to a large door at the end.” as the Alt Text to help search engines connect readers with our topic.
Please examine your pieces before submitting them. Revise them, correct them, love them.
Please have patience if your work is not immediately published. Our volunteer editors respect contributors’ work and time and will respond as soon as possible, usually within 3 to 5 days of submission. Occasionally, this can take up to two weeks. We are small but mighty!
Add Your Voice
We welcome authentic voices. We are open to a wide range of topics and forums. See our full list of topics here.
If you would like to write and be published in the Garden, let us know in a comment below. You will be added as a writer.
Topics
Medium uses one-word descriptors, aka “Topics,” to categorize and sort the multitude of amazing content on the platform.
If you want your writing to appear behind a tab on our main page, be sure to use one of the topics listed here:
We rotate these topics on the navigation bar to showcase collections and contributors’ work.
We ask that authors use these two required topics:
Garden of Neuro
You/Author’s Name
Then choose up to three more topics for your story. The larger the audience in a topic category, the more potential you have to reach your audience.
Here are a few suggestions —
Poetry
Literature
Women
Culture
If you publish in a language other than English, please include an English translation.
Be a Featured Writer!
As we rotate navigational tabs, we will use one page on the navigation bar for a featured author. To be featured, remember to use your name as a topic in all the work you submit to the Garden of Neuro Medium Publication.
Upcoming Writer’s Events and Opportunities
- Wordsmith’s Weekly — always free and open to the public
- Write Like Stephen King — a quarterly event — begin and finish your novella
- March Writer’s Retreat — a 3-day generative writing workshop in March
- One Mind Book Club — a quarterly live event with deep study and course works for one new book every three months
- Kitchen Table Talks — an in depth deliberative live conversation on topics that matter
The Garden Stage on Substack. Here, we are growing a quarterly story contest for paid subscribers. The winner of the contest will receive 1/2 of the quarter’s subscription income.
Your content may also be curated into the forthcoming Garden Literature print magazine we will launch in 2025. Authors of chosen pieces will be published in this new, exclusive, gorgeous literary print magazine. Those chosen to be published will receive a free one-year subscription to The Garden Stage Substack.
We also invite you to explore the Garden of Neuro Institute Publishing website. We love helping writers from all stages of their publishing journey produce high-quality, engaging, and entertaining books.
Thank you for sharing your story with the world!
