SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

General tips:

  • Please read our mission statement before submitting. We are looking for work that draws us into the impact of war and military service beyond the combat zone. Consider reintegration, waiting, exile, homecoming, escape, injury, loss, home front, discharge, military/civilian divide & politics, and the communication of these experiences in art. Push the envelope, though; show how this impact is translated in ways we may not have seen yet.

  • Our editorial vision is to be as inclusive as possible and ideologically diverse. We are interested in amplifying voices of minorities and the marginalized, and we recognize that our archives don’t yet reflect the full diversity of writers in the world. That said, we especially encourage submissions from artists of underrepresented backgrounds, including LGBTQ, veteran, and artists of color. We are committed to publishing high-quality fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art that speaks authentically about the collateral impact of violent conflict.

  • We read submissions year-round, but our deadline for the spring issue is March 1 (published in May), and September 1 (published in November).

    • Because Collateral is run in part by writers on an academic timeline, there can be occasional delays in our response times. We ask that you wait 4-6 months before querying about the status of your submission. Send queries through our Contact page or email us at collateralsubmissions[at]gmail[dot]com.

      1. Responses are sent to the email address writers provide. Please make sure your address is correct.

  • We do not accept previously published poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction, so please don’t send it. We do, however, consider previously published visual art.

  • If you must withdraw one or all parts of a submission, do so using the messages field in Submittable. Do not email withdrawal notices.

  • Our blog, launched in November 2018, features reviews of books published by our contributors and occasionally books by other authors writing on related topics. If you would like to suggest a book for review, please follow the guidelines on our Submittable link.

  • We are happy to accept simultaneous submissions, but please limit submissions in the same genre to three per reading period. Feel free, however, to submit in multiple genres at once.

  • We love our contributors, but we ask authors to wait one year after publication to submit more work.

  • For manuscript submissions, we prefer Word or PDF files (JPG, TIFF or PNG for art).

    Formatting:

  • Please include a cover letter with your name, contact info and brief bio either in the body of your submission or in the designated comment box on the submission form.

  • Fiction and creative nonfiction should be double-spaced. Poetry can be single-spaced.

  • Fiction and creative nonfiction pieces should avoid going longer than 5000 words. Send poems in batches of 1-5 that total no more than ten pages.

  • Should your prose include references, please format them using Chicago style.

  • Send 3-5 pieces of visual art at a time. We accept photography, mixed media, well-lit and well-composed pictures of textiles, jewelry, paintings, drawings, sculpture and more.

     

  • Collateral acquires first serial internet rights to the pieces we publish. All other rights remain with the author.