Passages North publishes original fiction, poetry, short-shorts, nonfiction and hybrid pieces. We print one annual issue, as well as weekly online bonus content throughout the school year. We welcome submissions from everybody. To get a better sense of what we like to see in submissions, see our specific genre guidelines below.
A few things to keep in mind when submitting:
- Though Passages North does not pay contributors at this time, we promise to treat your work with care and to shout our love via our social media platforms. Contributors receive two copies of their issue of the magazine.
- Subs to shorts, poetry, and nonfiction/hybrid categories are usually open from September 1 through April 15. We may sometimes close within this window if we receive a high volume of submissions.
- Fiction is usually open September 1 through October 15, and January 1 through February 15. We may sometimes close within this window if we receive a high volume of submissions.
- While we allow authors to have active submissions in different genres, we ask that you use your best judgment and avoid overloading our editors.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but we ask that if a piece is accepted elsewhere, you withdraw the piece and let us know immediately.
- If we're closed when we would otherwise be open, it's because we've hit our free submission limit for the month. Please check back on the first of the next calendar month, or submit through our Rocket Fuel category for a small fee.
- If you’re wondering if your submission needs a content warning, go ahead and add it to your document and know that we appreciate your care.
We look forward to reading your work!
The Passages North poetry editors are looking for work that is honest, conscious of craft and form, knows rules and breaks them, owns its transgressions, and challenges conventions. We want to feel punches to the gut and goosebumps of excitement. We are very much open to poems that are experimental or nontraditional and encourage submissions that get us discussing, questioning, and thinking.
Please submit a packet of 1-3 poems for consideration. If you need to withdraw part of your submission, leave us a note in Submittable.
Genre editor: Patricia Killelea
We're looking for all manner of well-written, innovative creative nonfiction (up to 4500 words) including, but not limited to, lyric essays, personal essays, memoir, and literary journalism. We enjoy work that pays attention to form and language—whether traditionally or experimentally—and explores and challenges the boundaries of the genre. We seek work that is pathologically curious. That said, our primary concern is not with one particular component of creative nonfiction, but with the quality of the work.
In addition to standard (whatever that means) submissions, Passages North wants your hybrid work. Send us your orphans, your bastards, your bumpings, and your grindings, whether whimsical, grave, or neither.
Note: Submissions with extensive use of color are less likely to be publishable in our issues, though not impossible.
Genre editor: Matthew Gavin Frank
Send us up to three short-shorts (fiction, nonfiction, prose poems, hybrids) all pasted into one document. For us, a short-short is anything beneath 1000 words (though we’re not bean counters).
On brand for our short-shorts: snowy + magical, density + clarity, mystery, precision, unique worlds and voices, honesty, restraint, suggestion, an image that makes us stop and re-read, meditations that make us feel lost but not alone, a final moment that breaks us.
If you need to withdraw part of your submission, please leave us a note via Submittable.
Genre editor: Jennifer A. Howard
We love experimental CNF forms so much that we made a whole new category! In Visual Essay, we are seeking work that plays on the page, bringing in color, texture, dimension; we're drawn to pieces in which the look is as meaningful as the content. We'd like to consider new meanings of the word "collage." Draw us in, consider the physicality of your work in our hands, turn us into Flat Stanley as we traverse the 2d space... and of course, above all, give us work that is curious and compelling.
Note: Submissions with extensive use of color are less likely to be publishable in our issues, though not impossible.
We always want to keep regular submissions free, but if you'd like to contribute a small donation to PN, this is the spot. Your contribution helps us showcase literature that matters. Rocket Fuel submissions will be processed at the same rate, and with the same consideration, as regular submissions. Please see below for a brief overview of our genre guidelines. We can't tell you how much we appreciate your generosity. Thank you!
Guidelines
Poetry:
Please submit a packet of 1-3 poems in a single document. If you need to withdraw part of your submission, leave us a note in Submittable.
Creative Nonfiction/Hybrids:
Please submit 1 piece up to 6,500 words.
Fiction:
Please submit 1 story 1,000 - 5,000 words in length.
Short-Shorts
Submit up to three short-shorts (fiction, nonfiction, prose poems, hybrids) up to 1,000 words in a single document.
Send us your best fiction up to 10,000 words. We're open in terms of content and form. The contest fee is $15.00 per story and submissions will close April 15, 2024.
Judge: María Alejandra Barrios
First prize: $1000 and publication in Passages North. One or more honorable mentions may also be selected and published.
All entrants receive a copy of the contest issue.
Submissions must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if the piece is accepted elsewhere (refunds are not available). Students of Northern Michigan University and close friends of the Passages North staff are not eligible.
Send us your best short-shorts (1000 words maximum). We open to any genre: stories, nonfiction, prose poems, hybrids, etc. Submit up to 3 short-shorts in a single document. The contest fee is $15.00 per entry and submissions will close April 15, 2024.
Judge: Stephen Fishbach
Stephen Fishbach is a Pushcart-winning writer, reader, parent, podcaster, and Survivor legend. Learn more about Stephen at his website: https://stephenfishbach.com/ and follow him on twitter or on instagram.
First prize: $1000 and publication in Passages North. One or more honorable mentions may also be selected and published.
All entrants receive a copy of the contest issue.
Submissions must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if the piece is accepted elsewhere (refunds are not available). Students of Northern Michigan University and close friends of the Passages North staff are not eligible.