Web Edition Submissions
Ninth Letter will be accepting submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for our web issues to be published at ninthletter. Submissions will be open from September 1 to November 1.
Winter 2026 Theme: Performance
The theme for this issue is performance. To perform is to, for some audience, create the illusion that reality is this, rather than that. We do this everywhere–our social (and social media) lives, our dress, our relationships, our feelings, our genders, all performed in their ways; all around us there is the low hum of wishful artifice imparting an intended impression onto seen and unseen—perhaps even imaginary–spectators. Taken to its logical conclusion, a reasonable, if cynical, truth emerges: performance, in our day-to-day, is so essential, so inextricable from our quote-unquote “authentic selves,” that perhaps the authentic self is simply the sum of a lifetime of performances–that the show has somehow become its own type of truth. In professional wrestling, the word for this is “kayfabe”–the unspoken agreement that not only is the show inextricable from reality, but that, in essence, the performance is the reality. Or is it? How do we perform, and for whom? Send us your work!
General Guidelines:
You may submit up to three poems, or one piece of short prose (fiction or nonfiction) of up to 3500 words; please also include a cover letter that briefly explains how you see your work connecting to the theme. Note: work submitted without this information may be withdrawn. Acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, .rtf, and .pdf. See submittable for genre specific guidelines.
Submit your work for this special feature at ninthletteronline.submittable.com. Submissions sent via snail mail will not be considered for this issue. Email submissions are not accepted and will not be read.
Unless otherwise requested, please submit only once per reading period. We do not accept submissions of previously published work (including work published on personal blogs or social media sites). Please do not send multiple submissions within the same genre.
Formatting Note:
Our website does not allow justified text, so works with fully justified text blocks will not be considered for publication.
Publication Terms and Payment:
Authors whose work is selected for this web issue will be offered payment of $25 per poem or $75 per piece of prose, plus an exclusive discount for a one-year print subscription.
Response Time:
We strive to respond to your submission to our web issues within four months. Please wait until that time has elapsed before querying about the status of your submission.
