Thank you for your interest in sending work to Bracken. We read submissions twice yearly: from March 1 through April 30 (issue published in June) and from October 1 through November 30 (issue published in January). For reminders of upcoming submission windows, we invite you to sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of this page.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

General

Bracken seeks poetry and art that correspond to the aesthetic of our journal. Bracken accepts unsolicited submissions only via Submittable. Submissions emailed to Bracken's email address will be deleted unread.

We seek work that is previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are considered. We ask that you let us know promptly via Submittable if your piece has been accepted elsewhere. Please submit only once during each submission window. We will reply to all submitters within four months. If more than four months have passed and you have not heard back from us, please query.

Before you submit, it may help to explore our past issues. We are especially interested in creative work that helps us feel our underlying oneness with all of nature.

Bracken supports diversity and welcomes work by and about individuals of all ages, classes, disabilities, ethnicities, genders, nationalities, races, religions, and sexual orientations. 

We may occasionally solicit submissions from poets and artists whose work we feel would be a good fit for the journal.

We do not consider AI-generated or AI-assisted work.

Rights

Bracken purchases first worldwide English-language serial and electronic rights for written work. Each piece we acquire will be published on brackenmagazine.com in an electronic semiannual issue. We may also excerpt writing for promotional purposes. The author retains all other rights.

Bracken features the art we select on brackenmagazine.com and promotes the artwork on our social media channels. No other rights are requested.

Submission fees and specific guidelines

Poetry: $3 per submission. Send up to 5 poems in a single document. A Microsoft Word document is preferred, but we can also accept a PDF. If the $3 submission fee is prohibitive for you, please let us know at info@brackenmagazine.com so that we can arrange for you to be able to submit without paying the fee. Please do not send your work to this email address.

Art: Art queries and cover queries are free.

Payment

We pay $30 for each previously unpublished piece of writing, $30 per art feature (which may consist of a single or multiple images), and a negotiated rate for cover art. 

Supporting our poets and artists

We do our best to promote the work we publish on social media. We nominate for the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. As volunteers, we publish Bracken for the joy of discovering work that moves us and finding new voices, and we treat all creators with respect.

Special thanks to our friends and supporters at Ko-fi, Chill Subs, Duotrope, Poets & Writers, and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.