submissions
submissions are CLOSED!
we expect to reopen for issue 4 in september 2024.
what we’re looking for
works related to the concept of the city, whatever that means to you. we're looking for your stories about city life, your odes to your favorite subway lines, your portraits of a skyscraper on fire. we're also looking for works set in cities, real or fictional, that engage with the general concept of city life and all it entails.
we embrace any and all genres, and works that span multiple genres. if you're not sure what to call your city story, we want to read it.
what we’re not looking for
we don’t want bigoted work, we don’t want AI-generated work, and we definitely don’t want bigoted AI-generated work. send that shit somewhere else.
hard sells for our editor-in-chief: excessive gore, stories centering on sexual violence, and first-person depictions of homelessness or incarceration from those who haven’t experienced it.
genre-specific guidelines
fiction
we’re looking for real stories set in fictional cities and fictional stories set in real cities. if you feel the city informs your work of fiction, we'd like to read it. when in doubt, submit!
send up to 5000 words of fiction in a (relatively) error-free PDF file. font & format are up to you.
if you’re into reading what we’ve already published, here’s a fiction piece from issue 1 that we love: The Devil I Know
nonfiction
we’re looking for stories of your lived experience in cities. tell us about your visits, about your homes, about your experiences. when in doubt, submit!
send up to 5000 words of nonfiction in a (relatively) error-free PDF file. font & format are up to you.
if you’re into reading what we’ve already published, here’s a nonfiction piece from issue 2 that we love: All the Lousy Wimps
poetry
we’re looking for poetry that speaks to city life, and we leave the interpretation of that up to you. speculative poetry, prose poetry, traditional poetry — it’s all welcome here. when in doubt, submit!
send up to 3 poems, with page breaks in between poems, in a (relatively) error-free PDF file. font & format are up to you.
if you’re into reading what we’ve already published, here’s a poem from issue 1 that we love: blr ihy ily
sim subs & prev pubs
we welcome simultaneous submissions. however, please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. we’ll congratulate you!
we do not accept previously published work. by previously published work, we mean published by other mags, presses, etc. work you’ve put on your blog or social media is totally fine by us. (for work that’s appeared in a now-defunct magazine, contact us (see bottom of this webpage) and we’ll figure it out!)
know your rights!
if your work is accepted, you will retain all authorial rights. underscore_magazine will request a nonexclusive license to publish your work on our website and excerpt your work for use in promotion.
we nominate for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. we will notify authors and ask for consent before nominating your work.
you are welcome to publish your work elsewhere after we’ve published it, as you hold the rights to the work. we would love if you credited us as your work’s first home, though!