Submission Guidelines

*We are currently on indefinite hiatus. We apologize for the inconvenience, but hope to return with a renewed vigor and vision. Thanks for your support and understanding.*

For your reading pleasure, our former guidelines are as follows:

Poetry: Verse, prose poetry, and lyric essays, or some combination of all three. Send us 3–5 poems per submission.

Essays: Short essays (5–10 min. reads) about language as an interface with the world. Include any photos that may go along with the essay. Insight, wit, and brevity are a must.

Guidelines

All submissions should be attached (Word or PDF) in an email to lightwaterlit@gmail.com. Do not put your name anywhere on submissions, as they will all be read blind. Please do include a short bio of ~50 words in the body of your email.

We’re now on a rolling submission model, so send us your work whenever you would like, but do not submit before receiving a response from your previous submission.

&c

We only accept unpublished work.

We ask for First North American Serial Rights & Internet Rights. This means we get to be the first to publish your work in print & online. Plus, your work will be published — and might live in archived perpetuity — on our website.

We may take up to 6 months to read, deliberate, and respond. We have day jobs, dogs, spouses, and woefully poetic, busy lives. Please be patient with the process.