AL DENTE In cooking, pasta or risotto al dente (/æl’d?nte?/, Italian: [al ‘d?nte]; lit.?’to the tooth’) is cooked to be firm to the bite, requiring a brief cooking time. The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. In contemporary Italian cooking, it is considered to be the ideal consistency for pasta.
What does al dente mean to you? To your neighborhood vampire it probably means something different. How about to the prospector mining gold?
Send us something that you haven’t overcooked!
We’re looking for flash prose (up to 500 words) fiction and nonfiction, as well as poetry, drama, visual art, and multi-media submissions. Deadline: July 5, 2026.
PUBLISH 9/1/2026
When you send in your submission, as you should with any submission, the piece should be polished and complete with no grammar mistakes and no misspellings.
Please don’t use AI to make your submission.
YES! Do look at the magazine. We have unusual covers, great writing and art, and we always submit to Best of the Net & Pushcart.
All work must be original and must belong to the author. Works that have been previously published will not be considered. Stories must be complete and self-contained (i.e., do not submit chapters of a larger work). NOTE: Accepted works will be published as submitted without editing; as such, in addition to the originality of the work itself, we are looking for manuscripts that are clean and press ready. Be sure to review your grammar, spelling, tenses, proper punctuation, and other general rules of the written word before hitting “Send.”
Please include a brief bio (0-200 words, with links) to be included on the contributors’ page of the magazine if your work is chosen. Feel free to use AI to write, edit, or tighten up your bio.
We will potentially follow up each issue with a live Zoom reading if authors are interested.
