
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Short fiction, creative nonfiction, reportage, poetry, photography, and visual art all play.
As for theme: broadly, the world as told by Montanans.
A few words to the wise: use AI to originate work and you will be choked out with a Full Nelson, then disqualified; win, lose, or even bother to submit, stay off the Internet as much as your lifestyle can reasonably allow.
Specifications and guidelines for each category are noted in the below accordion sections.
Honorariums: $200 per published long-form creative nonfiction, short fiction, and reportage piece; $35 per poem; photography and visual art to be negotiated by placement size.
- No longer than 5,000 words per entry.
- All unpublished works welcome, written in any year, for any purpose (i.e. a class). Exceptions will be made for self-published work with minimal online traction at time of submission (if so, please note this in your submission document, with a link).
- As best as one reasonably can, relate the piece(s) to themes, pitfalls, joys, etc. of the day. Make of that what you will.
- No AI slop.
- Submit the document(s) with the following file extension: lastname_shortfiction_entrynumber, i.e. smith_shortfiction_1
- Add a full name (pen names OK) and a good contact email at the top or bottom of the document contents.
- No longer than 5,000 words per entry.
- All unpublished works welcome, written in any year, for any purpose (i.e. a class). Exceptions will be made for self-published work with minimal online traction at time of submission (please note this in your submission document, with a link).
- As best as one reasonably can, relate the piece to themes, pitfalls, joys, etc. of the day. Make of that what you will.
- No AI slop.
- Submit the document(s) with the following file extension: lastname_creativenonfiction_entrynumber, i.e. smith_creativenonfiction_1
- Add a full name (pen names OK) and a good contact email at the top or bottom of the document contents.
- No longer than 5,000 words per entry.
- Unpublished submissions only.
- Reports should center events/topics of evergreen value.
- Pieces should be executed in “literary journalism” form.
- No AI slop.
- Submit the document with the following file extension: lastname_originalreport_entrynumber, i.e. smith_originalreport_1
- Add a full name (must be your real name) and a good contact email at the top or bottom of the document contents.
- No word count restrictions. But no epics, please!
- All structures welcome.
- Unpublished submissions only. Exceptions will be made for self-published work with minimal online traction at time of submission (if so, please note this in your submission document, with a link).
- No AI slop.
- Submit the document(s) with the following file extension: lastname_poem_entrynumber, i.e. smith_poem_1
- Add a full name (pen names OK) and a good contact email at the top or bottom of the document contents.
We are (proudly) not techy folk. Therefore, we can’t seem to compel the website upload form to accept files over 20MB, compressed folders, folders (in general), or files without .jpg, .jpeg, or .png extensions.
Therefore, if your intended submission file is over 20MB, export it just below that—in the event we select your photo for print, we will reach out to you to ensure we have the largest file size with the highest resolution quality. Tedious and inefficient, but it is what it is.
- All styles welcome.
- Resolutions between 150-300dpi.
- Files must be in .jpeg, .jpg, or .png extensions (in the event we select your photo for print, we will reach out to you to ensure we have the largest file size with the highest resolution quality).
- Unpublished photos/pieces only. Exceptions will be made for self-published works in an online portfolio or shared to personal socials.
- All subjects welcome. As best as one reasonably can, the subject should evoke the themes, pitfalls, joys, “moments,” etc. of the day.
- No AI slop.
- Submit all photos with the following file extension(s): lastname_visual_entrynumber, i.e. smith_photo_1, or smith_visualart_4
- Submit a single written document describing/captioning the photo(s), including a date, location, title (if applicable), medium, inspiration, etc.
- Add a full name and a good contact email at the top or bottom of the document.
*Any and all works will never be published without net-ninety (maximum) payment arranged from date of publishing. Unpublished works will be filed into a slushpile, and if selected for a subsequent edition, you will be notified and paid according to negotiated per-word/per-placement rates. Your personal details, including name, email address, etc., will never be shared to an outside party without written prior consent.
