Thank you for submitting to Trace Fossils. We look forward to experiencing your work. Please see the guidelines within the forms below, and reach out with any questions you may have.
We accept previously unpublished pieces. Responses will be sent out within sixteen weeks time.
With best wishes,
Jessie, Gideon, and the Editors
"The Art in Wake of the Artist."
We host four submission periods for our quarterly publication:
- Summer: March-April
- Fall: June-July
- Winter: September-October
- Spring: December-January
This window lies outside of regular submissions. Submissions close on November 30th at 11:59pm EST.
Poetry: Up to 3 pieces per period. No longer than 132 lines in length (a total three pages in our print issues). Submit all poetry in Times New Roman, 12pt font, single spaced. We accept .docx and .word files. Please include all submissions in ONE FILE.
Fiction: For short stories and flash fiction, we ask for one piece at a time. Maximum of 4,000 words (roughly 15 pages). For anything shorter than 300 words, we max out at three submissions per period.
Nonfiction: Personal essays, journalism, memoirs, critical essays and the like. One piece per reading period. Maximum of 4,000 words.
Hybrid: One piece per period. Maximum of 15 pages.
*ATTENTION: This category is reserved for pieces that are hybrid of form, including lyric essays, multimedia essays, pieces with both poetry and prose, and the like. If your hybrid piece identifies overwhelmingly with another category (ex. a prose poem), submit it under that category and not hybrid. If you're questioning whether your work falls under hybrid, contact us via email.
Art/Multimedia: Up to 3 pieces per submission period. Submit all photography and multimedia as TIFF and JPEG files. Submissions must have an image quality of at least 300 ppi. Please include all submissions in ONE FILE.
Please make sure that your name does not appear anywhere within your doc. It ruins the fun of anonymity.
We pride ourselves on publishing upcoming artists. Feel free to mention past experience within your author bio, but that was, well, past. We are interested in the now. Reinvent.
We encourage simultaneous submissions. You’re welcome to have your piece running in multiple tabs; just keep us updated if you are accepted elsewhere.
Most decisions are made within sixteen weeks of submission. We will read the piece when we can dedicate the most time to it. Our masthead is composed of students, so if we are not turning over your pieces, trust that we are writing our own beside you.
We ask for First Serial Rights for all pieces. All rights revert back to the creator after six months— within that period, monogamy is a big thumbs up for us. Since we only publish unpublished work, it’s important to us that you tell everyone after about your first time. We reserve the right to republish the piece or include it in any anthologies, as well as to display it in our archives.
Unfortunately, because we are broke, we are not a paying market. We print a yearly anthology; all who are accepted into our print publication will receive one contributor copy.
In case you skimmed through the rest, we only accept unpublished work. We crave your freshest thoughts.
Don't expect heavy edits from our team. We trust that you send your best work. Plus, if we have major changes, it’s probably not right for us anyway.
If you believe your work may be sensitive to some readers, include a trigger warning. We don’t read cover letters until after, so put a small note at the top of your submission document.
This review holds no tolerance for bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, and prejudice of the like. Any pieces that preach that gospel will be immediately turned away, and the artist will be barred from future submissions.