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.
- 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 academic timelines, 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.
- 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.
- Should you need to withdraw one or all parts of a submission, please do so using the messages field on Submittable. Do not email withdrawal statements as they don't always make it through spam filters.
- 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 wait until you receive a response to one submission before sending another in the same genre. 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.
- Creative nonfiction should observe a 5000 word limit
- Please include a cover letter either in the body of the submission or in the designated comment box. Include a brief bio (100-150 words) and list of titles submitted
- No previously published work
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is taken elsewhere
For a complete list of submission guidelines on all genres, please see our submission guidelines page.
- Creative nonfiction should observe a 5000 word limit
- Please include a cover letter either in the body of the submission or in the designated comment box. Include a brief bio (100-150 words) and list of titles submitted
- No previously published work
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is taken elsewhere
- Fiction submissions should observe a 5000 word limit
- Please include a cover letter either in the body of the submission or in the designated comment box. Include a brief bio (100-150 words) and list of titles submitted
- No previously published work
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is taken elsewhere
For a complete list of submission guidelines on all genres, please see our submission guidelines page.
- Fiction submissions should observe a 5000 word limit
- Please include a cover letter either in the body of the submission or in the designated comment box. Include a brief bio (100-150 words) and list of titles submitted
- No previously published work
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is taken elsewhere
- Submit 3-5 poems in a single document
- Please include a cover letter either in the body of the submission or in the designated comment box. Include a brief bio (100-150 words) and list of titles submitted
- No previously published work
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is taken elsewhere
For a complete list of submission guidelines on all genres, please see our submission guidelines page.
- Submit 3-5 poems in a single document
- Please include a cover letter either in the body of the submission or in the designated comment box. Include a brief bio (100-150 words) and list of titles submitted
- No previously published work
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your work is taken elsewhere
- We accept photography, mixed media, well-lit and well-composed pictures of textiles, jewelry, paintings, drawings, sculpture and more.
- Submit 3-5 images at a time
- Previously published / exhibited work is accepted, provided we can credit the photographer
- Visual arts submissions are published one per issue and are accompanied by an in-depth interview, which we will request after acceptance
- Individual pieces and artists will also be considered for short features on our blog, Facebook and Instagram pages
- We accept .jpg, .tiff and .png files
For a complete list of submission guidelines on all genres, please see our submission guidelines page.
- We accept photography, mixed media, well-lit and well-composed pictures of textiles, jewelry, paintings, drawings, sculpture and more.
- Submit 3-5 images at a time
- Previously published / exhibited work is accepted, provided we can credit the photographer
- Visual arts submissions are published one per issue and are accompanied by an in-depth interview, which we will request after acceptance
- Individual pieces and artists will also be considered for short features on our blog, Facebook and Instagram pages
- We accept .jpg, .tiff and .png files
*At this time, Collateral is only considering reviews of books written by past and current Collateral contributors. If you have reviewed a book by one of these authors and would like us to consider it for publication, please go ahead and submit it here. Previously UNpublished reviews only.*
Have you read or written a book you'd like us to consider for a review? Submit a cover letter here (please don't submit a review until we've responded and asked you to do so) with:
- a brief (100-200 words) synopsis of the book
- author's name and publisher / publication date (we are more likely to publish reviews for books released in the past 10-12 months)
- your own name and contact information
- a brief (100 words or less) explanation of why reviewing this book suits Collateral's mission
We write our own reviews and publish the reviews of other writers, and we're interested in all genres and lengths. Please do not submit previously published reviews at any time; simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you tell us if it is picked up elsewhere.
If you would like to mail us a copy of the book, please state this in your cover letter and we will give you a mailing address. Please note that books cannot be returned and do not guarantee a published review.
We look forward to hearing from you!