As we publish our third issue, we want to look back at what’s led us here. Literary journals are no small undertaking. People asked us all kinds of things — “Are you sure?” and “How much of your time does this hobby really take up?” — but when you’re passionate about writing, and getting other writers’ voices heard, we had the perseverance to push through and see it happen.
Let’s look back to 2023, when our Editor-in-Chief Rhonda and Managing Editor Ethan started this project. This journal began on the idea that writing is hard and publishing is even harder, requiring months, years or decades to see your work picked up. Our original members wanted to do something different, to make waves in the literary community, so they decided on perseverance, and subsequently rejection, as a prerequisite to being published in Eleventh Hour Literary. And while Eleventh Hour Literary is the perfect title, the journal didn’t start with that name. In fact, it didn’t have a name for many months as our editors debated on what to call this labor of love. Variations from Last Chance Literary, Nine Lives Literary, Exit Interview, and Elsewhere were considered, before finally, on May 6, 2024, Eleventh Hour Literary was coined and the work began.
After countless meetings, late night email blasts, researching writing programs and schools, contacting everyone we knew to spread the word, hanging flyers in cafes and libraries and on business boards, feeling underappreciated and unqualified…we had submissions. In our first year, we operated from Google, and while we appreciate our first platform that allowed us to get started, Submittable in 2025-26 certainly makes our lives less administrative-heavy. Putting a physical book together is a Herculean-feat and the website is a constant Atlas-task — but well worth it to see our authors celebrated, and to continue to celebrate all their future accomplishments in our Contributor Spotlights. From introducing our Eleventh Spot Workshop, to adding poetry, art and guest essays to our journal, we have taken the time to put scaffolding in place to make Eleventh Hour not just a journal but a true artistic community.
Into 2026, with a reader base of nearly 10,000 and 26,000 views total in our two years, we are happy to keep growing and recognizing our mission in every step we take. To encourage more writers to submit, we are moving forward with a more robust marketing strategy, partnering with departments on Binghamton University’s campus to field more art submissions and changing up our decision making process to keep the best pieces moving forward. As we approach 1,200 submissions (across prose, poetry and art) and more on the way, we hope to keep growing and reaffirming our mission every day. As the only journal (that we know of) that requires rejections, it is part of our philosophy to be adaptable. We will, starting this year, nominate for Pushcart and BestoftheNet; take a bigger focus on art; improve turnaround times for rejections; increase our social media presence; and so much more. Thank you to our readers for making all of this possible. Eleventh Hour Literary wouldn’t exist without you.
rejected, revised, revisited
ELEVENTH HOUR LITERARY 