Born in the southern reaches of New Mexico, Sky Island Journal is an independent, international, free-access literary journal. We are dedicated to discovering and publishing the finest original poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Our mission to provide our readers with a clean, powerful, focused, advertising-free literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. We believe in removing barriers between readers and access to high quality literature—especially in regions of the world that have traditionally been underserved by English language journals or completely ignored by the literary establishment.
We’ve published over 750 writers from around the world, and we have over 125,000 engaged readers in 145 countries.
We believe that every writer’s work deserves several cycles of deep-reading, real-time discussion, careful consideration, and a prompt, respectful response detailing what we appreciate (regardless of whether we accept or decline it). Our average response time is 9 days. Writers have grown accustomed to waiting 3-6 months for publications to accept or decline their submissions. With us, those days are over. You are our priority.
Join us where the desert meets the mountains: where the indigenous meets the exotic and the old ways meet the digital frontier. Enjoy our latest issues, and read our “Submission Guidelines + FAQ” page, before sending us your work:
https://www.skyislandjournal.com/submissions/
- You must be at least 18 years of age to submit.
- We only publish previously unpublished work, written primarily (50% or more) in English.
- We publish quarterly and accept submissions year-round.
- We publish accomplished, well-established authors side-by-side with fresh, emerging voices.
- A single $4.99 submission fee, via Submittable, covers one of the following: 4-5 poems (in a single document), 2-3 flash fiction pieces under 1,000 words each (in a single document), or 2-3 creative nonfiction pieces under 1,000 words each (in a single document).
- You can submit whenever you like, as often as you like.
- Do not include a cover letter or bio anywhere within your submission. Sky Island Journal receives high quality work from writers with diverse backgrounds—from traditional academic settings, as well as the rural and urban, the domestic and international. We accomplish this by not allowing writers to include cover letters or bios with their submissions. We respect your writing enough to experience it on its own merits. This creates a refreshing challenge for well-established professionals who have been favored by literary journals in the past because of their credentials, while simultaneously encouraging emerging voices: writers, young and old, who would normally be rejected out-of-hand by many literary journals because of their lack of pedigree. If we accept your work, we’ll be anxious to get to know who you are. We do not, however, want that information influencing our decisions beforehand. If your writing finds a home with us, we’ll solicit a full bio and author photo to be featured alongside your work.
- If your Submittable account automatically populates our form with either a cover letter or a bio, be sure to delete it before sending. Any submission that contains either a cover letter or bio will be declined.
- While we accept and encourage simultaneous submissions, you must contact us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- All submissions are nonrefundable.
- Sky Island Journal acquires First North American Serial Rights and First Electronic Rights for all accepted work. Upon publication, all rights revert to the author. We request that any future publications of the work recognize Sky Island Journal as the original publisher.
Website link: Issues — Sky Island Journal
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