Unleash Lit  champions authentic storytellers across diverse communities.

We accept new work, reprints, and simultaneous submissions. Please promptly withdraw your work if you would no longer like us to consider it for publication.  

Regular submissions are open Jan 1 - June 30 and August 1 - November 30

We are currently looking for ekphrastic responses to writing, art and photography that we've published in the past. If you are responding to a particular piece, please let us know the publication date, title and author. 

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. Multiple prose submissions will be accepted but must be submitted separately. 

Photos and art are accepted as jpeg and png., and up to five (5) images are allowed in a single submission.

Note: We recently moved to Substack, where we can 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 for Unleash Lit. In the meantime, if you'd like to submit AI-generated writing and feel strongly about it, please consider writing an essay about why and submitting that. If you'd like to submit AI-assisted art, consider our art contest, but mention the digital partnership (as specified in the guidelines).

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

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, but we will actively support our writers and nominate select manuscripts for awards.

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

Dear Body, is a cross-border literary anthology that invites you to write letters to your body, sparking honest, creative, and necessary dialogue around menopause, fertility, aging, and hormonal changes. By using the powerful, intimate epistolary form, we aim to normalize conversations that are too often silenced or stigmatized. Whether humorous, raw, celebratory, or reflective, we invite letters (in poetic or prose form) that speak to the nuanced experience of womanhood, across identities.

This anthology will be edited by Ashley Holloway and Jen Knox

 Guidelines:

• Submissions will be accepted until January 12, 2027. 
• All submissions must be in English.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if the story is accepted elsewhere and you wish to withdraw it from consideration. 
• There is a submission fee of $15. There will be no refunds of reading fees.
• All contributors will receive a paperback copy of the anthology.
• All accepted work will be considered for the Editors' Prize, which includes $150. 

Formatting:

• Epistolary essays or poems should have a total word count of no more than 2,000 words. Poets may submit up to five poems per submission.
• Please include page numbers.
• Please double-space and use a 12pt font.
• Please remove any identifying information from the submission.
• Submit as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or PDF file format.
• No revisions will be accepted once the submission is uploaded. You may withdraw and resubmit.

Unleash Press is charging $15 to cover the costs of putting together a quality publication, covering mailing and contributor copy costs as well as paying the editor's choice winner. Submission does not guarantee acceptance and there are no refunds.