Submission Guidelines
We are overjoyed you want to share your work with us. Below you will find our overall submission guidelines as well as specific guidelines for each genre. Please read carefully. Happy writing!
Please send only one submission per genre during our reading period.
We prefer previously unpublished work, but we are open to reprints, especially if your piece hasn't been published in its full form before.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but if your work gets accepted elsewhere, please email us right away.
We’re looking for exciting new stories; if you are submitting an excerpt of a longer work it should be an entire story that can stand on its own. Please inform us if the piece you are submitting is an excerpt.
Please do not have your name on the document you are submitting.
If you are submitting prose, please include the word-count in the body of your email.
Please include a maximum 50-word bio written in the third person within the body of your email, not on your submission document.
Please only submit using a Word Document. Include the genre you are submitting and LastSyllable in the title of your document. For example, Fiction.LastSyllable.
We value original work; do not plagiarize or submit AI-generated writing.
If you have a piece that is not compatible with Word formatting or has been made with the help of AI generation, please see the Open Genre guidelines.
If you have been affiliated with PLNU within the last 5 years, you are not eligible for publication in our journal. We welcome you to return and submit to us once 5 years have passed. If you have questions about your eligibility, email us at lastsyllablelit@gmail.com
We are accepting submissions through October 31st.
Submission Guidelines
We are currently closed for submissions at this time, but we invite you to read what we have published to get an idea of what we like or simply to enjoy! We will be open for submissions in the fall.
Please send only one submission per genre during our reading period.
We prefer previously unpublished work, but we are open to reprints, especially if your piece hasn't been published in its full form before.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but if your work gets accepted elsewhere, please email us right away.
We’re looking for exciting new stories; if you are submitting an excerpt of a longer work it should be an entire story that can stand on its own. Please inform us if the piece you are submitting is an excerpt.
Please do not have your name on the document you are submitting.
If you are submitting prose, please include the word-count in the body of your email.
Please include a maximum 50-word bio written in the third person within the body of your email, not on your submission document.
Please only submit using a Word Document. Include the genre you are submitting and LastSyllable in the title of your document. For example, Fiction.LastSyllable.
We value original work; do not plagiarize or submit AI-generated writing.
If you have a piece that is not compatible with Word formatting or has been made with the help of AI generation, please see the Open Genre guidelines.
If you have been affiliated with PLNU within the last 5 years, you are not eligible for publication in our journal. We welcome you to return and submit to us once 5 years have passed. If you have questions about your eligibility, email us at lastsyllablelit@gmail.com
We pay contributors $20 upon publication. We ask for first publication rights and acknowledgement as the first place of publication upon future reprints. All rights remain with the author upon publication. The work will be archived on the Last Syllable website indefinitely.
Fiction
Please use 1.5 spacing, font size 12 serif, and include page numbers.
Our sweet spot word count: 5,000-25,000.
We are open to all kinds of fiction!
Creative Nonfiction
Please use 1.5 spacing, font size 12 serif, and include page numbers.
Our sweet spot word count: 5,000-25,000.
We want your creative work. Please do not submit scientific reports or purely analytical pieces.
Poetry
We’re looking for linked poems and long poems. Send us your crown of sonnets, your slam winner, your numbered sections, your double sestina, etc.
For multiple poems, start each poem on a new page with the title bolded.
Please only submit 1-3 poems at a time.
We prefer poems that are longer than one page, but shorter than five pages.
Open Genre
Does your work of text refuse to be defined by genre? Consider submitting it here!
We accept song lyrics, multimodal stories, comics, and other experimental forms. Have fun with it.
Any submissions that employ the assistance of AI software such as ChatGPT should be submitted in this category with a brief description outlining why and how the AI was utilized.
Open genre submissions should be sent in whatever format best showcases the work.