Unleash Press

Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. Reprints are accepted if the author maintains rights to the work. 

Please submit only one piece of prose or up to five (5) poems or photographs at a time. All poems may be submitted in a single document. Fiction and creative nonfiction may be up to 2,000 words. Photos and art are accepted as jpeg, png
 

Note: We recently moved to Substack, where we are able to better connect with readers. As such, we are also actively looking for personal essays about creative living: its power and perils.
​Include a third-person bio of up to 200 words.

Please no AI-generated work. We plan to host an AI-focused contest soon. In the meantime, if you'd like to submit AI-generated work and feel strongly about it, please consider writing an essay about why and submitting that.

Unleash Lit acquires the non-exclusive right to include your work online and in our archives. Upon publication, rights revert to the author. We are unable to pay for submissions currently, but we will actively support our writers and nominate select manuscripts for awards.
 

For 2023, we will nominate one published work (or series) a year for our annual prize of $150. Announcements will be made in December.

Please share your work widely, and support other authors at www.unleashlit.com by reading and sharing their words. 

$1,000 advance and an optional/standard contract from Unleash Press for one winning manuscript. Finalists will be considered for publication. Novels, poetry collections, short story collections, and creative nonfiction manuscripts are accepted.

 
Full-length, completed manuscripts only. Responses will begin to go out in late December.

Guidelines:

• Submissions will be accepted until December 15, 2023. 
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if you wish to withdraw it from consideration.
• There are no refunds if you withdraw a submission.
• Please include a cover letter with a summary. Your name and contact information may appear in the cover letter area. Please leave all identifying information off of the manuscript as the first round of reading is blind.
• The minimum length of a manuscript is 30,000 words for prose or 70 pages for poetry.
• Genres accepted include fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and experimental/hybrid. 
• *Note: The publishing contract is optional and contingent on the author maintaining full rights to the work. Reprints are accepted for consideration.

Formatting:

• Please include page numbers.
• Please double-space and use a 12pt font.
• Submit as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or PDF file format.

While you wait for us to read, check out our new lit journal home at www.unleashlit.com!
 

We are looking to highlight (human) small-press authors. Please send along a completed book review of up to 500 words with an image of the book, release date, and publisher name. 

Submissions will be accepted until December 30, 2023.

• All submissions must be in English.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if the review is accepted elsewhere and you wish to withdraw it from consideration. 
• Submit as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or PDF file format.
• No revisions will be accepted once the submission is uploaded.

Reviews will be posted on www.unleashlit.com