Fiction & Poetry Submissions CLOSED
Exposed Bone will be open for written submissions in May. If you have not received notice of your submission from the summer 2023 call, please contact us.
We use Submission Manager to accept and decline work. If you're ready to submit, want to update your information, or check your submission status, click the button below.
Guidelines & Information
Exposed Bone publishes fiction, poetry, and hybrid works in an annual print edition of roughly 100 pages.
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Note that we're committed to publishing and uplifting the voices of those from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, members of the LGBTQIA2+ community, and those from other disenfranchised or underrepresented groups. If you're not alright with that, this likely won't be your piece's home.
General
Work must be previously unpublished, and you must be over 18 years old when submitting. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your submission ASAP if it's accepted elsewhere (and in that case, congrats from us!). If your work is accepted, we will reach out to you to verify that your piece is still unpublished and that you're continuing to allow us to publish it.
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Upon submitting, please provide a bio that is less than 250 characters, not words, in the comment box of your submission. You do not need to provide this bio with every submission so long as it is attached to the first one.
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There is no hard ban on content. Please just understand that we are a journal produced for everyone, so anything hateful will be rejected. Besides that, we welcome unconventional and sensitive topics.
Our Rights and Yours
As editors, we reserve the right to make small edits in grammar, punctuation, and spelling per our house style. We will reach out with questions about larger changes, but do note that refusing certain edits may mean a rejection of your piece.
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By submitting to us, you allow us first world English rights for physical and electronic publication, exclusive until our publication. All rights will then revert to you. We also take nonexclusive archival rights, which allow us to display and house your work on our site for a maximum of five years.
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We reserve the right to submit to third parties for awards and secondary markets. For example, Verse Daily.
Fiction/Hybrid Works
We will consider up to three (3) pieces in each reading period. All fiction pieces and hybrid works have a max word count of 3,000. Format should be in Times New Roman in 12 pt. font. Please submit pieces individually as a .doc or .docx file.
Compensation &
Response Time
Unfortunately, compensation cannot be monetary at this time, and we will instead be giving contributors one (1) free copy of the edition they're published in.
We will respond no later than September 15. If you do not hear from us by then, please contact us.
Poetry
We will consider up to five (5) poems in each reading period. Each poem has a two (2) page limit and must be submitted as individual documents in 12 pt. Times New Roman. Due to the experimental nature of poetry, we understand the need for occasional deviance, but please do note printing restrictions will apply to what pieces we accept.
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Visual poetry is accepted and should be submitted to this category. However, please note that our content pages are done with only black ink at this time. These can be accepted as .jpg or .png files.
We Don't Want
Essays, reviews, opinion pieces, erasure poems (blackout poems), translations, pieces fully in other languages, and excerpts will not be accepted.
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As writers, editors, and readers, we do not condone the use of AI, and we will not accept any pieces written through any AI software.
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Pieces that stray from our guidelines may be taken into consideration, so please ask us!