We publish in six genres—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, reviews, visual art, and translations. More specifically, however, we have two main criteria when considering work. First and foremost, the work needs to address the human consequences and realities of war or geopolitical violence. This can include focusing on the experiences of combatants, but also victims and/or witnesses since, after all, it isn’t only combatants who are affected. Second, the work needs to have literary merit, by which we simply mean the piece needs to try to be greater than the sum of its parts. Does it inspire reflection? Insight? Anger? Joy? This is what we mean by literary merit.
One piece that exemplifies our mission—of well-crafted work that explores the nuances of conflict—is Joanna Chen’s essay “Navigating a Broken World.”
Absolutely. However, we do not consider work previously published in English. Also, if your sub is accepted elsewhere we offer you our sincerest congratulations but please let us know immediately.
No. While we do publish established authors, we also prioritize writers and artists who haven’t yet been heard. The conversations we strive to ignite and/or continue are dependent on a multitude of perspectives, experiences, and interpretations.
No. We are interested in addressing the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence. As long as you are doing that, we are interested in your work.
No. We understand that in the publishing world there are vestiges of the belief that online is the dumping ground for pieces that weren’t good enough for print. However—and we can’t stress this enough—we firmly believe this practice is outdated. That is, regardless of whether we publish a piece on our website or in our journal, the piece needs to be extraordinary. The only factor in choosing where to put the piece is whether it might be better suited for online (e.g. longer work, work that uses space in innovative ways, pieces easily accompanied by audio and/or video, etc.).
Our schedule varies depending on several factors but every month we typically publish two new, online-only features; one short-form review; and one long-form review. We also may highlight community events or previously published work during any given month, but our goal is to ensure our online pieces receive the focus we believe they deserve.
No more than four months. For almost every sub, we’ll respond with an acceptance, a declination, or a decline + encourage (i.e., a nice rejection) within 120 days. An exception to this might occur if we need more time to assess the work. If that’s the case, we will still respond to you in four months if only to say we need a little more time. We’re writers ourselves so understand the frustration of waiting extended periods of time to hear back.
We’re happy that you want to send us more work; however, because our goal is to publish a diverse and wide range of voices, we ask that you wait two reading periods before submitting to us again.
No and yes, respectively. We want anyone who wants to submit to be able to do so (see note about prioritizing unheard voices). Therefore, as long as your work is on theme and has literary merit, we are interested in reading it. As for pay, we firmly believe artists should be compensated for their work (which includes us submitting contributors’ work to various prizes and promoting them on social media). We are forever searching for ways to increase our pay scale for writers and visual artists, but you can find our current one on our submissions’ page.
First, congratulations on the acceptance. Second, you will be able to revise, and our editors will work with you to get your piece as strong as it can be, but we don’t allow for significant revisions after acceptance. By significant we mean altering so many parts, or one or two foundational aspects, that the work is objectively different. We accept work that we think is strong to begin with, so adding a few more pages or removing a quarter of the stanzas is in effect making the work wholly different than what we wanted to publish.
Sure. Please email us at info@consequenceforum.org and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
We look for stories that have literary merit, but more importantly we’re after narratives that follow our mission statement: “to address the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence.” Stories that do not fall under this theme will not be considered for publication.
Literary fiction is a genre like any other fiction category, which means that there are an infinite number of ways to blend it with other traditions. That is, we don’t get caught up on classifications. We say we look for “literary” work simply because—whether right or wrong—that gets at our goal of finding stories that speak to something larger. Genre, forms, and modes are all complex, inter-related subjects, so without getting too far in the weeds, if your work speaks to our themes, and you believe it does so in an artful way, then please send it to us.
While Consequence currently does not have a word limit for fiction, we are more likely to consider stories under five thousand words (about sixteen pages). Our journal typically devotes about forty pp per issue to fiction, so anything over sixteen pages would have to blow our socks off and then some.
Yes, we do accept and encourage flash fiction submissions. If you are submitting multiple flash pieces that are less than a thousand words total, please group them on the same doc.
We do accept excerpts, but we ask that the excerpt is able to stand on its own as a narrative.
There is. You can send us one regular fiction sub and/or one flash fiction sub but no more than that. We receive A LOT of fiction subs. Also, for flash, a sub equals less than a thousand words, so you may have multiple pieces within the same submission.
Sure. Please email our Fiction Editor at fiction@consequenceforum.org.
No. We welcome poems addressing our themes in original, subtle, or unusual ways, but please don’t send us off-theme poems.
No, please wait until our next reading period, when we’ll be delighted to see new work from you! When you do send new work, be sure to remind us about your last submission and the invitation to re-submit.
There is. We ask that you send us only one submission per reading period. That sub, however, can have up to three poems in it.
No problem. Please email our Poetry Editor at poetry@consequenceforum.org.
While Consequence currently does not have a word limit for nonfiction, we are far more likely to consider essays under four thousand words (about fourteen pages). Our journal typically devotes about forty pages per issue to nonfiction, so anything over fourteen pages would have to make us spit out our Cheerios.
While Consequence currently does not have a word limit for nonfiction, we are far more likely to consider essays under four thousand words (about fourteen pages). Our journal typically devotes about forty pages per issue to nonfiction, so anything over fourteen pages would have to make us spit out our Cheerios.
There is. Please send us no more than two subs per reading period.
No problem. Please email our Nonfiction Editor at nonfiction@consequenceforum.org.
All visual art submissions must reflect the mission of Consequence Forum. We seek strong content that engages our readers and reflects concern for the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence.
All forms of visual art interest us, but we tend to publish in our journal and on our website paintings, drawings, sculptures, mixed media, multi-platform works, films, videos, photographs, dances, performances, and illustrations. Also, if we publish your work, we will request the nonexclusive right to publish/embed it on our other publishing platform (e.g. if we publish it in our journal, we may want to use it on our website too).
For the journal, we devote eight pp for the art spread. Sometimes we’ll have a single image cover two pages, so this doesn’t necessarily mean we need or are looking for eight unique productions. Dimensions for the journal are 6″ x 9″ and will include a one- or two-page intro by our Art Editor. Standard high res images are required for publication. For online, we’ll feature up ten images or about six minutes of video.
There is. We ask that you send us no more than two subs in any given reading period. However, if a sub has numerable pieces to it (i.e., a collection), then please group the pieces into a single file.
Sure. Please email our Visual Art Editor at visualart@consequenceforum.org.
Please include a translator’s note about the significance of the original writer (to you and/or to CF readership) and/or about your translation process for this particular submission. As well, include your bio in third person which includes previous translation publications, as well as the bio of the original writer.
We’re interested in, of course, themes dealing with the human consequences and/or realities of war or geopolitical violence. To that, we’re most interested in themed pieces that are viewed from fresh and profound perspectives. Pre-21st century writers are fine—especially those in the public domain. However, we’re especially interested in contemporary writers and collaborations between translators and writers or co-translation teams.
Follow the same guidelines for poetry and prose submissions.
Accepted submissions exhibit the highest possible quality and craft. The portion of your translation submission that appears in English must be as strong, and must sing as beautifully, as the original. Surprising and unique language and presentation is a plus; archaic language and under crafted presentation (especially when unnecessary) is not appreciated.
We do not consider previously published translations.
Also, we view translation as a collaborative practice, so we do not accept self-translations, unless the work is co-translated by the author and another translator.
Translations. Regardless of if you are submitting prose or poetry, if the work is a translation, it should be submitted via that portal in Duosuma.
There is. These subs can be of any genre (prose, poetry, comics, etc.), but please send us no more than two during a reading period.
No problem. Please email our Translations Editor at translations@consequenceforum.org.
Most importantly, the review must reflect our mission, which is to address the human consequences of war or geopolitical violence. We have a broad interpretation of this so if you are unsure, please email our Reviews Editor: reviews@consequenceforum.org
No. We scan for and currently accept no AI-generated texts or hybrids.
The reviews should be very well written: incisive, informative, balanced, memorable, and balanced. We appreciate a strong point of view, but we don’t publish love letters or takedowns.
We like reviews that take their time and go into depth, but we have a strict maximum of three thousand words.
The essential requirements are to convince us that you can write well and that your review conforms to the themes stated in the CF mission (see #1).
We welcome reviews in other languages, although for publication a translation into English is required to accompany the non-English text. At the moment we are only able to evaluate reviews or translations written in Spanish, French, or German. A special arrangement would be necessary for evaluating reviews written in other languages. Please email the Reviews Editor (reviews@consequenceforum.org) if you have questions about this.
We welcome reviews of works in other media, especially film, theater, music, dance, visual art, mixed media, etc.
We publish reviews of works published or presented within the last year. This might include, however, a contemporary production of an ancient theatre piece or a new translation of an older text. The same would go for a new presentation of non-contemporary art, music, dance, drama, etc.
