What we publish
We publish fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, hybrid works, translations, book reviews & visual art. We are a biannual online publication. We love a wide range of genres and styles, especially writing that is innovative in form and progressive in content.
This year, we wanted to bookend our Winter issue with the Summer issue. And so, after Issue 35: First Words, comes Issue 36: Last Words. We want you to send us your writing that has all the charge and desperation and absolute importance of the last words you'll ever write. We want the last words between lovers, the utterances that eek out of the cracks of a broken heart or perhaps the lines that break the heart of another. We want the last words before everything went sideways, before everything ended and perhaps began anew in that ending. What are the words you would share with us if they were the only things we'd remember you by? How do your characters want to be remembered? What is the secret you need us to know before you go or the truth that comes out, that slips, that last thing you wish we'd ever hear but can't take back anymore now that it's out? If you had one last thing to give us, one last thing to say, one last thing part of yourself that needed a voice before the silence, what would it be? We want that. But more important than any theme, we welcome all submissions as long as they're honest and authentic - what we want most of all is your best work. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished (with the exception of translations - see genre guidelines).
Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.
We acknowledge that literary spaces traditionally have centered the white, heterosexual, cisgender male experience at the expense of other voices. We want to break from that tradition and are therefore especially interested in reading work from those who are often marginalized in literary spaces, including Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); all women, including but not limited to, trans and cis women; LGBTQIA+ people; agender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people; people with disabilities; and people who live at the intersections of identities.
Limits
Fiction: 5,000 words (or 3 pieces of up to 1,000 words)
Creative Nonfiction: 5,000 words
Poetry: 3 poems per submission
Hybrid: 5,000 words (may include up to 5 images, B&W only)
Translations: 3 poems or 5,000 words of prose (must include original piece)
Book Reviews: 500-750 words (books must have been published within the past year)
How to submit
Please submit your work through submittable.
No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.)
Include a bio of up to fifty words along with your cover letter.
We do our very best to respond within 6 months, but due to the volume of submissions, it can sometimes take longer.
Guidelines
-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).
-International submissions are welcomed, but English only this year.
-Multiple submissions are welcome at $3 per submission, but please, no more than one submission per genre at a time.
-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.
-No submissions from current FIU students.
-Submissions accepted from FIU alums two or more years after graduation.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Reviews & interviews
No unsolicited submissions or requests, please.
Contact
Sometimes, the English language is simply not enough to say what needs to be said. Certain feelings are experienced in another language and so too are the lines and stanza and scenes that come out of them. And sometimes, in the act of translating those lines and feelings from one language to another, we can come to understand them in new ways. We want to try and lean into this multivalence of expression by offering a space for translations. The works translated can be your own pieces or be written by fellow authors, so long as you receive the author's permission, which we request you make sure you have before submitting. Translations must be accompanied by the original work, a short bio of the author and translator, and a description of how the translation came to be (we are interested in the connections made not only between language but between authors and between the different iterations of the content). Additionally, we request you include the original publication history. The original piece can be previously published so long as the author has retained the publication rights, which we recommend you also check before submitting. Currently, we are only accepting Spanish-English translations as that is all our staff has the ability to work on, but we hope to expand this in coming issues. Both the original work and the translation must be created without the use of AI. Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.
Limits
We accept poetry submissions with up to 3 poems total and fiction, CNF and Hybrid manuscripts up to 5,000 words. For stories of 1,000 words or less, you may send up to 3 stories in a single submission, all of which should be included in the same document and each piece should begin on a new page. Original works should be in the same document as the translations.
How to submit
Please submit your work through submittable.
No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.)
Include bios of up to 50 words for the original author and the translator, a brief contextualization of the translation, and original publication history along with your cover letter.
Guidelines
-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).
-International submissions welcomed, but English only this year.
-Multiple submissions welcome at $3 per submission.
-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.
-No submissions from current FIU students.
-Submissions accepted from FIU alumni 2 or more years after graduation.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Contact
gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com
What we publish
We want stories that scare us, that arouse us, that overwhelm us with joy or with misery - stories that make us feel something. Maybe they teach us something that we didn't know or maybe they leave us with a more meaningful understanding of something we thought we understood but hadn't seen through your eye and the eyes of your characters. We want characters we know in our bones or want desperately to meet, characters who stay with us and who we carry around like family or blood enemies or both. We want a voice that reads distinctly and utterly like you, that we can hear in every line from the first paragraph to the last. We don't care if your story is 2 pages or 20, we just want those pages to move us some place new by the time we get to the end. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished. Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.
Limits
We accept fiction manuscripts up to 5,000 words. For stories of 1,000 words or less, you may send up to 3 stories in a single submission, all of which should be included in the same document and each piece should begin on a new page.
How to submit
Please submit your work through submittable.
No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.)
Include a bio of up to 50 words along with your cover letter.
Guidelines
-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).
-International submissions welcomed, but English only this year.
-Multiple submissions welcome at $3 per submission.
-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.
-No submissions from current FIU students.
-Submissions accepted from FIU alumni 2 or more years after graduation.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Contact
gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com
What we publish
We're looking for poems that have a pulse, whether rhythmic or racing. We want pieces with blood flowing through them. We want to read poems about love and heartbreak, we want sexy poems and sad poems, we want poems of life changing horrors and everyday truths, occasionally we like poems about flowers. What we want most is a poem that stays with us, that lives with us, that we can't look away from and can't unsee and wouldn't want to if we could. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished. Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.
Limits
Please send up to 3 poems per submission. All poems should be included in a single document, with each piece starting on a new page.
How to submit
Please submit your work through submittable.
No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.)
Include a bio of up to 50 words along with your cover letter.
Guidelines
-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).
-International submissions welcomed, but English only this year.
-Multiple submissions welcome at $3 per submission.
-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.
-No submissions from current FIU students.
-Submissions accepted from FIU alumni 2 or more years after graduation.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Contact
gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com
What we publish
Our CNF tastes are about as varied as the genre. We love a vulnerable memoir that tells the truth standing naked in a mirror just as much as we love an essay that reshapes the way we imagine a place we've never been or changes the way we hear the lyrics of a song we thought we knew the lines to. We love a piece that propels us along a straight line through time and memory just as much as we love a piece that winds and meanders through musings and emotions in moves we can't quite predict but somehow make sense in the end. Mostly, we love CNF that feels like we're talking to someone we trust, someone we know is being honest, someone we want to have conversations with because we like the way they think and we like the way they make us think. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished. Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.
Limits
We accept creative nonfiction manuscripts up to 5,000 words.
How to submit
Please submit your work through submittable.
No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.)
Include a bio of up to 50 words along with your cover letter.
Guidelines
-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).
-International submissions welcomed, but English only this year.
-Multiple submissions welcome at $3 per submission.
-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.
-No submissions from current FIU students.
-Submissions accepted from FIU alumni 2 or more years after graduation.
-We respond within 1 month of the submission period close date.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Contact
gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com
What we publish
We want your hybrids that defy easy categorization. Send us your lyric essays, your haibuns, your prose poems anything else that blends genre and bends genre, breaks genre or maybe even makes a new genre. Of all the tabs in this submittable portal, this one is the hardest to define, which is the point - we're looking for the kind of work that redefines the form rather than strictly adhering to it. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished. Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue
Limits
We accept hybrid manuscripts up to 5,000 words. If your work includes visual components, we are currently only accepting pieces with a maximum of 5 images and the images must in black and white.
How to submit
Please submit your work through submittable. No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.) Include a bio of up to 50 words along with your cover letter. If the submission requires special formatting, please any include requests and instructions in your cover letter and feel free to send PNG or PDF files in the submittable messages to the editors in addition to your primary chosen file upload.
Guidelines
-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).
-International submissions welcomed, but English only this year.
-Multiple submissions welcome at $3 per submission.
-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.
-No submissions from current FIU students. Submissions accepted from FIU alumni 2 or more years after graduation.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Contact
gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com
We are searching for book reviews on books that have been published within a year. Send us reviews that contain a brief summary, and an analysis that really gives us perspective and a unique take on literature. Book reviews are expected to be within 500-750 words, have the book title, author name, and year of publishing. Reviews should focus on books published within the past year, although in certain cases, exceptions can be made.
Guidelines:
- All submissions must be in English.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if the review is accepted elsewhere and you wish to withdraw it from consideration.
- Submit as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or PDF file format.
General submissions for visual art are now open
Although Gulf Stream Magazine is predominately a literary journal, we also publish visual art. Our aims are to enhance our issues and provide a platform for up-and-coming artists.
Unfortunately, we can't pay for the art we publish (yet). But our magazine does offer you a chance to get your work independently published and seen by a large audience. If we select your work, we would also publish your artist’s bio, website and social media links.
What are we looking for?
We consider original work by the artist in any medium, including painting, drawing, photography, graphic illustrations, photos of installations or sculptures. We have eclectic tastes—we like the pretty and the ugly, the loud and quiet. If it is fresh and original, please send it our way.
Guidelines
Please submit no more than 5 pieces per submission.
Give each image file the correct title as you would like it to appear in the issue, if accepted.
Upload as .jpg format, at the highest resolution possible at no more than 100K. To understand the difference between resolution and file size, and how your image will appear on our site, please see this helpful Wordpress article on Image Size and Quality.
Fine Print
Our fee is the minimum possible to cover our submittable costs. For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors.
Copyright Info
We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.
Contact
gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com