Submission Guidelines

Kindly read our submission guidelines below before submitting your work to us. If there are any questions in regard to the submissions, email us at submissions@lorelorn.com or click the link below to use our contact form.

Submission Categories

Poetry

Please submit up to 5 poems at a time, with a maximum of 10 pages total.

Narrative poetry is especially welcome, but the work should still feel at home within Lore Lorn: folklore, legend, superstition, inherited stories, invented lore, local tales, ghost stories, strange customs, or stories made to be told again.

Fiction

Please submit one story at a time, up to 5,000 words.

We are interested in stories where folklore, legend, superstition, oral storytelling, or invented lore is central to the work.

We do not accept conventional short fiction with folklore added only as decoration.

Nonfiction

Please submit one piece at a time, up to 5,000 words.

We welcome essays and nonfiction exploring folklore, legends, traditions, superstitions, oral storytelling, story origins, local beliefs, cultural practices, monsters, myths, and the ways stories survive, change, and travel.

Reviews

Please submit one review at a time, ideally between 800 and 2,500 words.

We welcome reviews of books, folklore collections, retellings, anthologies, well-known stories, and other works relevant to Lore Lorn.

More Information

Simultaneous Submissions

Simultaneous submissions are welcome, and we encourage them.

If your work is accepted elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can withdraw it from consideration.

Multiple Submissions

You may submit to more than one category during the same reading period.

We advise however, that you send only one submission per category at a time and wait for a response before submitting again to that category.

Previously Published Work

We currently consider previously unpublished work only.

Work that has appeared in a literary magazine, anthology, book, public website, blog, newsletter, or other public publication is considered previously published.

Work published on the writer's personal social media page is considered unpublished.

The folklore, legend, tale, or source material itself may of course be old, traditional, inherited, or previously recorded.

Formatting

Please upload your submission as a DOC, DOCX, or PDF. Prose should be presented in a clear, readable font and preferably double-spaced. Poetry may retain its original formatting.

Please include the title of your work and your name in the document unless otherwise stated on the submission form (like in the event of a contest).

Response Time

We aim to respond to submissions within 4 weeks for general submissions. If you have not heard from us after that, you are welcome to query.

Rights

For previously unpublished work, Lore Lorn requests first publication rights and non-exclusive archival rights, allowing us to keep the work available in the issue and in our online archive.

After publication, all other rights remain with or revert to the author. If the work is later republished elsewhere, we ask that Lore Lorn be acknowledged as its first place of publication.

Awards & Nominations

We believe exceptional work deserves to travel well beyond our pages. Each year, Lore Lorn considers eligible work published in the journal for relevant literary prizes and anthologies, including The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and Best Spiritual Literature, as well as other awards for which a piece may qualify.

Nominations are made at the discretion of the editors and according to the eligibility requirements of each award. Contributors will be notified if their work is nominated.

Payment

While we are only able to offer publication, nominations, and a proud mum to you right now, we are well aware of how important it is to get paid for your effort in writing, being writers ourselves, and we are working towards being able to compensate you for your work in the near future.

Generative AI

We do not accept work written or substantially generated, in part or in full, by generative AI.

The use of ordinary spelling, grammar, formatting, or accessibility tools is not prohibited.

A Final Note

Lore Lorn is open to writers everywhere.

We care more about the strength of the tale than your publication history. New and established writers are equally welcome.

Hybrid submissions

We welcome hybrid and experimental work that crosses forms or resists easy classification. The folklore, tale, belief, or tradition should still be central to the piece.