Submission Guidelines
Grain magazine, published four times per year, is an internationally acclaimed literary journal that publishes engaging, surprising, eclectic, and challenging writing and art by Canadian and international writers and artists.
Please adhere to the following guidelines. Do not submit more than once and in one genre only (subsequent submissions will neither be read nor returned). Due to the high quantity of submissions received, we are only able to publish one submission per author per volume year. If you have work currently under consideration by Grain, please do not submit again until you have received a response.
Grain has a nine-month submission period that runs from September 15th to June 15th. Our regular submission period is closed.
We are open for submissions from historically under-represented and/or marginalized communities, June 16 - Sept 14, 2026. Please follow all regular submission guidelines.
Types of Work We Consider
Send typed, unpublished material only (we consider work published anywhere online to be previously published). Please only submit work in one genre at one time.
If work is submitted simultaneously, please let us know as soon as possible if it is accepted elsewhere by email to grained@skwriter.com.
Poetry: Individual poems, sequences, or suites up to a maximum of 6 pages.
Fiction: To a maximum of 3500 words.
Literary Nonfiction: To a maximum of 3500 words.
Other writing: Queries for submissions of work in other forms (i.e. short plays, comics, translations, etc.) are welcome. You may submit such queries through Submittable or by email.
Visual work: Mainly by invitation, though queries are welcome by artists living in Canada only.
Sending Work
All submissions adhering to these guidelines will be read.
Response time is typically 6 months. To inquire about the status of your submission, please email grained@skwriter.com (do not use the Submittable message option).
Please note: Because of our special call for submissions for our Spring 2026 issue, from New and Emerging Saskatchewan writers, those writers not from Saskatchewan will be read and considered for our Fall 2026 and Winter 2027 issues. This means our response time will be longer than usual. We appreciate your patience. Thank you!
Submissions must be typed in readable font (ideally 12 point, Times New Roman). Pieces of more than one page must be numbered.
If you need to update or edit your submission, please use the Message feature in Submittable.
Include a cover letter with all contact information, title(s) and genre of work you are submitting, and a total page count. A brief bio is highly recommended.
To help Grain support writers of diverse communities and identities, we encourage applicants to self-declare if they identify as a writer who is a member of group or groups experiencing marginalization and underrepresentation. (i.e. Black, Indigenous, or Person of Colour, 2SLGBTQ+, or Disability).
Please note, we do not publish the same author twice in the same volume year.
All work must be original, and human-generated, from start to finish. We do not accept submissions of any kind that were written, developed, or assisted by AI tools such as ChatGPT.
Payment
All contributors, regardless of genre, are paid $50 per page to a maximum of $250, plus 2 copies of the issue in which their work appears. Visual work published inside the magazine (reproduced in black and white) and on the cover (in colour) is paid at the same page rate as text contributions to a maximum of $500. International contributors will receive payment by PayPal or cheque. Cheques are issued in Canadian dollars.
NOTE for International Submitters (currently living outside of Canada): Beginning September 15, 2024, writers submitting from outside of Canada will incur a $5.00 CA reading fee. We are able to offer a limited number of fee waivers to those writers for whom the reading fee is prohibitive; please email grainmag@skwriter.com to inquire about fee waivers and before submitting your work. Update: We have reached our limit for this quarter. We kindly ask that you please wait and inquire again at the next quarter, September 15. Thank you for your patience.
Rights
Grain purchases First North American Serial Rights and First Digital Publication Rights only. Copyright remains with the writer or artist.
To support writers of diverse communities and identities, Grain is keeping its summer submission period open to writers of historically under-represented and/or marginalized groups from June 16 to September 14, 2026.
We encourage applicants to self-declare in their cover letter if they identify as a writer who is a member of a group or groups experiencing marginalization and/or underrepresentation, (i.e., Black, Indigenous, or Person of Colour, 2SLGBTQA+, or Disability).
On the submission form, in the TITLE space, please list the GENRE of your submission.
Please follow all our regular submission guidelines. https://grainmagazine.ca/submit