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. 

Types of Work We Consider

Send typed, unpublished material only (we consider work published anywhere online to be previously published). If work is submitted simultaneously, please let us know as soon as possible if it is accepted elsewhere. Please only submit work in one genre at one time.

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 within 4-6 months.

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Please note, we do not publish the same author twice in the same volume year.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. 

Rights

Grain purchases First North American Serial Rights and First Digital Publication Rights only. Copyright remains with the writer or artist.