SUBMIT

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

PROSE AND POETRY SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

OUR AESTHETIC: Eleventh Hour Literary has no restrictions on subject matter. We accept literary prose (fiction, creative nonfiction or essays) and poetry. We also accept ephemeral works, including artwork and photography, for our e-phemeros project.

Eleventh Hour Literary is the journal of perseverance. Our only requirement is that a piece has been previously rejected and revised since it was initially sent out. The writers we want to publish have sat with their work; they have considered their rejections and have actively worked on their pieces before sending them to us. The story they send us should not be identical to the story sent to the first few places that rejected it. The poems we receive should have changed since their first submission cycle. Nor should Eleventh Hour Literary be the last place the writing is sent. We want the work of writers who have faith in what they have put on paper and will keep revising and submitting until that work finds a home.

We invite participants to send us your highest-quality short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, poems and art.

HOW TO SUBMIT: Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please submit a cover letter, including a short but detailed description of the rejections you have received from other journals. This letter should include (at minimum) a list of journal names and the approximate date you received it. We do accept submissions from current Binghamton University students, faculty, staff or alumni. We accept international submissions, but they are ineligible for any honoraria or prize.

PROSE: Creative nonfiction, essays or fiction submissions should be no longer than 7,000 words. Diverse voices and hybrid or experimental forms are encouraged. Accepted stories will be well-worn and well-loved. We’re looking for narrative-driven tales that engage and grab us, whether edgy, fanciful or immersive. Most of all, they should be memorable. As long as it’s high-quality, genre and speculative work is always invited. 

We DO NOT, and will not, ever accept stories written by AI. Please save those for someone else!

POETRY: We are now accepting poetry! Please submit 1-5 poems in a single document. We read both free verse and traditional forms. International submissions are accepted, so long as the piece is written primarily in English. We’re looking for poems with the grit to grow in the face of each rejection. Why does this specific piece have the heart for perseverance? What is it saying that needs to be heard? Feel free to use the cover letter to tell us what revisions have been made throughout the poem’s life.

While we seek unique content and are open to different forms, we appreciate a Times New Roman 12-point font. We won’t ever publish something written by AI. Unless it serves a particular purpose, we won’t publish something with explicitly sexual content and will never accept pieces with racist or prejudiced agendas.

ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY: Eleventh Hour Literary is happy to accept art and photography to serve as cover art, or as “installations” in our e-phēmeros project. These should somehow reflect, A) the theme of perseverance, or B) the written work it is being submitted alongside. However, we cannot currently offer honoraria to this type of published work.

To learn more about our Open Access Policy, click here.

To learn more about our Peer Review process, click here.

To read our Ethics and Malpractice Statement, click here.