South 85 Reading for “Surprise Us” Issue

ISSUE: SURPRISE US | UNTHEMED

• Surprise: an unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing
• Surprise:  the feeling caused by something unexpected or unusual
• Or truly surprise us: your piece has nothing at all to do with surprise! (We mean it…that’s legit.)
• Surprise us with your wit, your wisdom, your wild, your restraint; surprise us with form, image, metaphor; your character said/did/thought what?!; show us anew that thing we’ve seen 1000 times, or show us that thing we never knew we’d want to see.
• The possibilities are endless, and we want this theme that’s unthemed to feel open to countless interpretation, introspection, and examination. As always, we’re eager to read what you come up with.

• Fiction submissions should be between 800 and 4000ish words. Please include word count. Flash fiction should be under 750ish words, submitted to the flash category. One story per submission. 

• Nonfiction submissions should be between 800 and 4000ish words. Please include word count. Flash nonfiction should be under 750ish words, submitted to the flash category. One piece per submission. 

• Poetry submissions should contain no more than 3 poems, up to 6 total pages, one poem per page.

• Please send only one submission per category (Poetry, Fiction, Flash, and Non-Fiction) during each reading period.  You are welcome to submit to multiple categories. We suggest including the title of your work in your file name.

• Submission fee = $3

• We will publish novel excerpts, provided they can stand on their own. We do not publish genre fiction or children’s stories. We encourage you to read archives of South 85 Journal and acquaint yourself with the material we publish before submitting your work. We encourage the use of a content warning if necessary, in consideration of our manuscript readers.

• All work will be considered for our Editor’s Choice Award of $100, which be given to ONE piece in the issue.

• We do not solict work; each published piece comes to us through Submittable.

• Converse MFA students, grads, and faculty are not permitted to submit work to South 85 Journal.

• We accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please promptly withdraw your piece via Submittable or email to withdraw individual poems: south85journal AT gmail DOT com.

Please include a professional bio of 50ish words written in the third person with your cover letter. 

South 85 Journal does not publish work which has been previously published, either in print or online. Our reply time is typically eight weeks or so. If AI has been used in the creation of the work, please indicate so.

We acquire exclusive first-time Internet rights only. All other rights revert to the author at publication, but we offer formal, written reassignments upon request. Works are also archived online. We are unable to pay for submissions, however thanks to an anonymous donor, ONE piece in the issue will be awarded the Editor’s Choice Award of $100. We ask that whenever an author reprints the work that first appeared in our pages, South 85 Journal be given acknowledgment for the specific work(s) involved.