Miracle Monocle is now open for submissions. We will close when we reach our submission caps.
To learn more about our editorial process and practices, please visit our Editorial Code of Conduct.
The journal is university-affiliated, so our publication cycles are determined by the academic calendar. We begin reading for our Fall issue in August and publish in December; we begin reading for our Spring issue in January and publish in May. We will not hold submissions for more than one semester.
General Guidelines:
There is a $3 fee for all regular submissions. The purpose of this fee is to pay for the use of our submission management system. We ask that writers submit only original, unpublished work. Any use of AI must be explicitly noted in a cover letter. We do not currently pay contributors, but we do offer exceptional support to our writers in the form of social media coverage, reviews of new books, award nominations, and prize monies.
Miracle Monocle welcomes submissions to its Award for Innovative Writing in the Fall. The intent of this award series is to celebrate literary experiment. The prize includes a package of honors including: publication of the winning piece in an upcoming issue of Miracle Monocle, an official award letter, and a $200 prize.
Miracle Monocle publishes the results of the annual Calvino Prize, an award recognizing outstanding fiction in the fabulist mode, in its Spring issues. This award is facilitated by the University of Louisville and comes with a $2000 cash prize.
Miracle Monocle accepts simultaneous submissions, but we request that submissions accepted elsewhere are withdrawn as soon as possible. We publish only previously unpublished work. We will make every effort to respond quickly and respectfully to your work. If you suspect we have overlooked or misplaced your submission, please contact us here: miraclemonocle@gmail.com. Please visit our site to review our archives before submitting.
The editorial staff of Miracle Monocle, the award-winning online literary journal housed at the University of Louisville, is pleased to announce an open call for submissions to the sixth installment of its print micro-anthology series.
When night falls and the campfire burns out, what stories get buried in the embers and trails of smoke? Tales That Survived the Fire seeks to remember the myths and legends that have been passed down through generations; to resurrect forgotten heroes and gods, and to rewake the creatures that once haunted nightmares. From the Native American wendigo to the Filipino dwende, from the Irish banshee to the African Anansi, we invite mythologies, legends, and folklore that rarely reach Western readers. Although we welcome reimagined stories of Greek and Roman mythology, we encourage retellings of tales that have been sidelined and silenced in mainstream Western media. This anthology is for the readers and writers who are drawn to the stories of their ancestors, and for those who still believe that speaking these tales aloud can summon ancient spirits.
Please submit no more than three poems, pieces of flash, or short hybrid works; no more than three images in JPEG or TIFF format; and no more than one longer work of fiction or literary nonfiction. If you are submitting multiple short pieces, please include them in the same file. There is no fee for submission and we will remain open for entry until we reach our quota or until 3/1/2026. BIPOC contributors are especially encouraged to submit. We look forward to reading your work.
For fiction, please submit one piece of 1,000-10,000 words. We make space for a broad range of stories—from flash to very long short stories—but we do not publish novellas, novels, or excerpts. We accommodate traditional realism and experiment alike.
For creative nonfiction, please submit one piece of 500-10,000 words. We're looking for essays with aspects of personal narrative, reporting, and the lyric; we're also interested in flash. Please do not send excerpts of longer works unless the piece can stand alone.
For poetry, please submit no more than three pieces. (We'd prefer if you submitted multiple pieces within one document instead of creating multiple entries.) We like unique voices that encourage us to reevaluate ourselves and the world around us, poetry that makes the familiar seem unfamiliar. We appreciate work that takes risks and offers unexpected surprises.
For the experimental and not-easily-defined, please submit no more than three pieces. (We'd prefer if you submitted multiple pieces within one document instead of creating multiple entries.) We’re interested in flash, microfictions, nano fictions, and the like. We’re also fans of hybrid and collaborative work. In other words, we like to play host to writers who straddle the lines between genres. Length is negotiable, though flash tends to turn into something else when it exceeds 1500 words. Send your genre Frankensteins our way; they’ll find a safe home here.