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Write about what you know, and what do you know better than your own secrets?

-Raymond Carver

 

FICTION SUBMISSIONS

Carve is seeking good honest fiction in the form of short stories. We want emotional jeopardy, soul, and honesty. Craft and control are tantamount to our connection to the characters. We highly recommend reading recent stories to get an idea of what we’re looking for.

We accept submissions year-round. Please submit only one short story at a time. Wait for a response before you send another. Please see sidebar for current response times.

In our mission statement, we iterate that we want to provide feedback whenever possible. If you note that you’d like any kind of feedback, we’ll certainly try to oblige. We provide notes or comments on about 10-15% of rejected submissions, far more than most high-volume literary magazines. If you’d like in-depth comments and a personal response from the editor, check out Editing Services.

We provide monetary compensation to our contributors. Payment varies between $20-$50 for accepted stories. All authors are paid the same rate per story within a single issue.

 

GUIDELINES

Eligibility

Open to U.S. and international, but stories must be in English.

No genre fiction; literary fiction only. Novel excerpts only if it stands alone as a story.

Stories must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions accepted if notified promptly that story is accepted elsewhere.

Please use our Submission Withdrawal form at the bottom of this page to notify us if your submission is accepted elsewhere. We’ll send you congratulations. (We know how hard it is to get published out there!)

Formatting

Word count limit: no minimum, max 10,000.

Please do your best to format submissions as follows:

-double spaced
-at least 1” margins
-author name, story title and page numbers in header

Cover Letter

If submitting online: Submittable provides a form for cover letters/bios that is accessible to readers and editors.

If submitting by mail: a brief bio/cover letter is welcome. Please be sure to include email and phone number.

 

HOW TO SUBMIT

Online

We use Submittable (formerly Submishmash) to manage our online submissions. We charge a $3 reading fee for all online submissions to offset basic hosting/server costs and to pay our contributors. You can avoid this fee by either becoming a Premium Edition subscriber or mailing your story via USPS. (Premium Edition subscribers also receive priority consideration in their submissions.)

Submit your story.

Premium Edition subscribers only: Submit your story.

Postal Service

There is no fee to send your printed story to us via U.S. postal service (but you still have to pay for postage). Please be sure to include a SASE.

Please do not send via Registered Mail or require in-person signature. We are night owls and often pick up the mail late at night outside of normal business hours.

International submitters: Please do not include any return postage or coupons. They rarely work. Instead, include your email and we’ll respond that way.

Submit your story to:

Carve Magazine
ATTN: Fiction
P.O. Box 701510
Dallas, TX 75370

 

Are you a ‘Reject!’?

If we rejected a story of yours that later got published elsewhere, we’d like to hear from you. Learn more about our REJECT! feature and the chance to get your work published again, in our Premium Edition.

 

SUBMISSION WITHDRAWAL

You can withdraw a snail mail submission right here on our site using our withdrawal form. Saves you time, so you can get back to writing.

To withdraw your submission on Submittable, please login to your account.