Thank you for your interest in So to Speak! The best way to get a sense of what we publish is to read our most recent issue(s), available on our website.
Please note we only accept previously unpublished work for all categories. Do not send us a piece you have sent us before unless we ask to see another version.
Blog submissions will open periodically throughout the year for themed calls. Please submit book reviews, interviews, essays, etc. See our website for additional submission information. It's always a good idea to read a few of our blog posts (outside of a limited series) for a sense of what we're looking for.
We offer fee-free submissions for Black and Indigenous writers always. This will be available as a separate form when submissions are open.
If you are not a Black or Indigenous writer and the submission fee presents a financial hardship, please email us at sts@gmu.edu to request a fee waiver.
Affiliates of George Mason University may not submit their work for consideration until at least five years after their graduation date.
For more information, please visit our submissions page.
Our Winter 2026 Issue of So to Speak is an all-new collection of intersectional fiction, poetry, CNF, and visual art, with cover art by Mayah Monet Lovell.
For physical print copies ($9): please select the add-on of "Mail me a print copy!" at the bottom of this submission form. We will mail out the issues by the end of February -- and probably throw in a back issue or two with your order.
For digital copies ($4): please proceed to check out without clicking additional buttons. The issue will be emailed to the account associated with your Submittable.
Fill out this form to receive 2-3 back print issues of STS! You can indicate which volumes, or get a randomized assortment.
The fiction team is looking for short stories and flash fiction pieces that engage, challenge, and surprise us. We particularly love stories that tackle multiple intersections (of race, class, ability, sexuality, and/or gender identity) and allow us to hear points of view that often go unheard.
We’re inspired by many great intersectional feminist authors doing important work. We admire fiction by Toni Morrison, Carmen Maria Machado, Ottessa Moshfegh, J.M. Coetzee, and Julia Armfield.
In our time at So to Speak, the fiction team has seen many stories that reflect the perspective of white, cisgender, heterosexual women. While no content area is “off limits” for us, we ask that you submit work that contributes something new to the conversation. We prefer to read stories that come from an "Own Voices" perspective—in other words, stories that feature characters who explore intersections and perspectives the writer is familiar with. All contributors will receive a $100 prize.
Formal Guidelines
In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:
- A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with one prose fiction piece not exceeding 5,000 words, OR up to 3 flash/micro pieces not exceeding 1,000 words each. All fiction submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about intersectional feminism.
We do not accept content generated or edited by AI. In addition, please do not use AI for your cover letter.
You may only submit one fiction piece/packet per submission window. You may submit to other genres in this submission window, as long as you pay the submission fee each time.
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/submissions
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/about
So to Speak is seeking nonfiction with an intersectional feminist lens. Get weird. Be reflective. Tell us the gray areas and the questions you are still trying to unfurl. For what we're looking for, look to the work of Haven Steel in our 2026 summer digital issue, Dani Putney in our summer 2025 digital issue, or Jade Green's "Mushroom Clouds" in our 2025 annual print issue. Outside of our journal, we deeply admire the work of prolific writers like Vivian Gornick, Melissa Febos, Ashley C. Ford, Carmen Maria Machado, and Maggie Nelson. These writers investigate themselves and the world around them in complex, nuanced ways.
Bex (Nonfiction Editor) is looking for personal essays with stakes, explorations of gender, and long-form nonfiction that converses with art, fact, and experience.
Gemmalee (Asst. Nonfiction Editor) is looking for narrative essays and experimental pieces with discovery/transformation of identity, and nonfiction that braids culture with personal experience.
To our staff, being an intersectional feminist is a commitment to lifelong learning—an intellectually open acknowledgment that systems, institutions, individual people, and places do not operate the same for every person. We want nonfiction that aligns with this perspective. While no content area is “off limits” for us, we ask that you submit work that seeks and speaks its own embodied truth.
We aim to be a space for voices occupying intersections that are not always heard. We deeply admire complex and sophisticated nonfiction that puts its subject under a tight lens. We appreciate the integration of research as a means of diving deep into the personal. All contributors will receive a $100 prize.
Formal Guidelines
In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:
- A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with a single prose nonfiction piece that should not exceed 5,000 words, OR up to 3 micro/flash pieces not exceeding 1,000 words each. All submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about how you relate to our magazine’s mission of intersectional feminism.
We do not accept content generated or edited by AI. In addition, please do not use AI for your cover letter.
You may only submit one nonfiction piece/packet per submission window. You may submit to other genres in this submission window, as long as you pay the submission fee each time.
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/submissions
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/about
To our staff, being an intersectional feminist is a commitment to lifelong learning; an open acknowledgment that systems, institutions, identities, and places do not operate the same for every person. We want to read poetry that aligns with this perspective, challenges our understanding of form and language, explores new landscapes, and speaks its own embodied truth.
We’re interested in poems that engage, challenge, and surprise us. Poems that tackle multiple intersections (of race, class, ability, sexuality, and/or gender identity) and commit fully to chosen images and structures. Right now, we’re particularly obsessed with poets Claudia Rankine, Layli Long-Soldier, Mary Szybist, Don Mee Choi, Louise Glück, Sylvia Plath, and Mary Oliver. All contributors will receive a $100 prize.
Formal Guidelines
In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:
- A single doc., docx., or pdf. file with up to 5 poems. Your submission should not exceed 10 pages.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about intersectional feminism.
We do not accept content generated or edited by AI. In addition, please do not use AI for your cover letter.
You may only submit one poetry packet per submission window. You may submit to other genres in this submission window, as long as you pay the submission fee each time.
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/submissions
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/about
So to Speak is seeking fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art with an intersectional feminist lens. To our staff, being an intersectional feminist is a commitment to lifelong learning—an acknowledgment that systems, institutions, identities, and places do not operate the same for every person. We aim to be a space for voices occupying intersections that are not always heard. All contributors will receive a $100 prize.
Formal Guidelines
In your submission, please upload and enter the following information:
For fiction, we adore the way Toni Morrison, Carmen Maria Machado, Ottessa Moshfegh, J.M. Coetzee, and Julia Armfield deftly explore intersections of gender, sexuality, and race. We love the grotesque and the speculative.
- Upload a single doc., docx., or pdf. file with one fiction piece not exceeding 5,000 words, OR up to 3 flash/micro pieces not exceeding 1,000 words each. All fiction submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about intersectional feminism.
For poetry, we’re particularly obsessed with poets Claudia Rankine, Layli Long-Soldier, Mary Szybist, Don Mee Choi, Louise Glück, Sylvia Plath, and Mary Oliver. We want poems that challenge our understanding of form and language.
- Upload a single doc., docx., or pdf. file with up to 5 poems. Your submission should not exceed 10 pages.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about intersectional feminism.
For creative nonfiction, we admire the work of prolific writers like Vivian Gornick, Melissa Febos, Ashley C. Ford, Carmen Maria Machado, and Maggie Nelson. Get weird. Be reflective.
- Upload a single doc., docx., or pdf. file with one nonfiction piece not exceeding 5,000 words, OR up to 3 flash/micro pieces not exceeding 1,000 words each. All nonfiction submissions should be double-spaced with numbered pages.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about intersectional feminism.
For visual art, we're excited to see everything from digital drawings and oil paintings to sculptural works and comics! Some of our favorite artists include Amy Sherald, Tschabalala Self, Sasha Gordon, Ana Mendieta, Jenna Gribbon, and Martha Rosler. We love art that challenges us--politically, emotionally, spiritually--through a variety of traditional & experimental mediums, including color and collage.
- Upload up to 5 submissions in jpg., png., or tif., format at 300 dpi, labeling each file as LastName_Title.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief statement about intersectional feminism.
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/submissions
Find more information on our Mission Statement here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/about
You may submit to multiple genres per submission window. You may not submit multiple pieces/packets within the same genre outside the aforementioned guidelines.
We do not accept content generated or edited by AI. In addition, please do not use AI for your cover letter.
So to Speak is looking for art that is implicitly or explicitly intersectional. Artists of all backgrounds and experiences are encouraged to submit work of any visual medium that is not video/audio-based. We are excited to see everything from digital drawings and oil paintings to sculptural works and comics.
We strongly believe that artists do not have to have classical training to make great art. We love art that challenges us--politically, emotionally, spiritually--through a variety of traditional & experimental mediums. We love color, collage, and overtly political themes. Our favorite artists include Amy Sherald, Tschabalala Self, Sasha Gordon, Ana Mendieta, Jenna Gribbon, and Martha Rosler.
All contributors will receive a $100 prize.
Formal Guidelines
- You may submit up to 5 pieces of art per submission period, whether in a single entry or multiple entries.
- All submissions must be in jpg, png, or tif formats at 300 dpi. Please label each file as LastName_Title.
- A Cover Letter that includes your name, address, phone number, email address, how you heard about So to Speak, and brief bio describing your background as a writer or artist and any applicable awards or publications.
- A brief description of how you see your piece (implicitly or explicitly) fitting into our intersectional feminist mission.
We do not accept content generated or edited by AI. Please don't use AI for your cover letter or artist statement—we would rather hear your authentic voice and do not evaluate based on grammar.
Find more information on our Submission Guidelines here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/submissions Find more information on our Mission Statement here: https://www.sotospeakjournal.org/about