submissions
submissions are now closed.
we will reopen in march 2025 after a pleasant hibernation.
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.
we are also looking for cover art! send us your art!
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: gore, stories centering on sexual violence, and 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, but do not send us your address (unless you want to receive mail).
please allow 3 weeks for a response.
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, but do not send us your address (unless you want to receive mail).
please allow 3 weeks for a response.
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, but do not send us your address (unless you want to receive mail).
please allow 3 weeks for a response.
if you’re into reading what we’ve already published, here’s a poem from issue 3 that we love: city of mine
cover art
we’re looking for art that speaks to city life. any style, any medium. go nuts, we might love it. when in doubt, submit!
send up to 3 pieces of art in a PDF file. (we will ask for a high-quality image format version upon acceptance.)
please allow until the end of our submission window for a response.
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 the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. see our past noms here. 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!