The premier site for world literature. London Book Fair Award winner. Free quarterly issues, daily blog.

We take our name from the dotted line on a graph that a mathematical function may tend toward, but never reach. Similarly, a translated text may never fully replicate the effect of the original; it is its own creative act. 

Our mission is simple: to unlock the literary treasures of the world. To date, our magazine has featured work from 128 countries and 115 languages, all never-before-published poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and interviews by writers and translators such as Haruki Murakami, Lydia Davis, László Krasznahorkai, Geetanjali Shree, Michael Hofmann, Mary Gaitskill, César Aira, Thomas Bernhard, Valeria Luiselli, Tomaž Šalamun, Adonis, Chang Kuei-hsin, Dubravka Ugrešić, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Kim Hyesoon, Edith Grossman, Can Xue, Eliot Weinberger, Mircea Cărtărescu, Etel Adnan, Yiyun Li, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Douglas Kearney, and Bruno Latour. We are proud to count among our contributors 17 Nobel Prizewinners (including Olga Tokarczuk, before she became the 2018 laureate).

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Asymptote Journal

You may submit creative work of no more than 5,000 words by one author in total. For this Special Feature, we will consider works originally written in English as well as works translated into English. Here, again, is our call:
In an age of fractured focus, how do we attend—to each other, to the world, to the overlooked? 
Simone Weil once called attention “the rarest and purest form of generosity.” Mary Oliver claimed it was our “endless and proper work.” For the second installment of this new Special Feature, we seek works of fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry—written originally in English or translated into English—that engage with the politics and poetics of attention: its scarcity and its cultivation. We welcome responses that cross borders—of genre, of geography, of language—and expand our understanding of what it means to look closely, to listen fully, to dwell in the present.  Regular guidelines apply. Deadline: January 2nd, 2026

Submit to our Special Feature: On Attention (we welcome both English originals and translations into English)

General call

Please send up to 10 pages of poetry by one author translated into English. If the originals are included in the submission, the length of the entire document may reach 20 pages (that is, a maximum of 10 pages of translated work accompanied by 10 pages of original material). Please start each poem or section of a long poem on a new page unless the work absolutely demands to be read without page breaks.

Poetry

For works of literary nonfiction such as memoir and travel writing, submissions must be work translated into English. Despatch typically must involve some translation from a foreign language (e.g. excerpts from an interview). However, essays about translation may be written in English. We will also accept the occasional essay in English about literature that takes into account the global context we live in.
When submitting, please send a single document with the following materials in the following order: the original text, the translated text, and bios for both the author(s) and translator(s). And please use single-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font with non-indented paragraphs.

Literary nonfiction

You may include one or more works of short fiction or excerpts of a longer work translated into English, but please send no more than 5,000 words by only one author in total.

Fiction

You may submit short fiction, literary nonfiction (in both cases, send no more than 5,000 words by one author in total), or poetry (send up to ten pages by one poet only). For this Special Feature, we will make an exception and consider works originally written in English as well as works translated into English.
“Import the third world. Become the third world.” = the latest ghastly meme courtesy of Trump. As a journal of translation that gathers new writing from upward of 30 countries in each issue, the very essence of “linguistic hospitality” (as coined by Paul Ricœur) is very much in our DNA; now, for an upcoming Special Feature, we would like to extend this spirit of hospitality to the figure of the outsider—be it a migrant, refugee, or anyone otherwise othered. We seek fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction—written originally in English or translated into English—centering the figure of the outsider.

Submit to our Special Feature themed on Outsiders (we welcome both English originals and translations into English)

You may send a one-act play or an excerpt from a full-length play, in either case not exceeding 20 pages, translated into English. For full-length plays, send a brief synopsis first.

Drama

For works of criticism, as well as interviews given by notable translators about the art of translation, we accept submissions written in English (although we don’t mind if an interview was conducted in a different language and then rendered into English).

Criticism and Interviews

The work of literature, as Umberto Eco said, is “a sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.” In that spirit, the Asymptote blog is looking for fellow thinkers and readers in furthering our mission, by contributing to the global conversation on literature and the arts in translation.
Showcasing new writings on world literature and culture, the Asymptote blog is on the constant lookout for individual voices, probing analysis, and topicality in our postings. We have published pieces on topics ranging from global cinema, to the ethics of review, to the literature of revolution. Apart from essays, we run dispatches from international literary events, interviews, book reviews, and more. Like our journal, we are looking for creative, original, and highly engaging work that considers the role of translation in literature, the arts, and the fabric of everyday life.
We encourage writers of all stripes and colors to engage with global issues as well as particular interests. At Asymptote, we’re all about breaking borders and boundaries, and are looking for writing that does the same. (IMPORTANT: Please note that literary translations should still be submitted via the Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry or Drama portals, as all work will be considered first for the issues before they are then considered for the blog.) Rolling deadline.

Blog

For our Spring 2026 issue, we are partnering with the Slovenian Book Agency to host a showcase of contemporary Slovenian writing—specifically literary fiction, literary nonfiction, drama, and poetry. We’re especially keen on introducing new voices to the Anglophone world. Translators whose work is published in this showcase will be paid €100 per article. As with this year's Korean literature Feature, submission fees will be waived. For this Special Feature, we will only consider works translated into English. Regular guidelines (including word count) apply. Send all work via Submittable, and only if absolutely not possible, via editors@asymptotejournal.com with the subject header “SLOVENIAN FEATURE.” Deadline: March 1st, 2026.

Submit to our paid Slovenian Literature Feature

For the Visual section, we seek features on artists who work at the intersection of art and literature, with a focus on work that includes multilingual or translated textual elements.  Many of our features have been in the interview or conversation format, but we are also be interested in featuring artwork, films, or a visual adaptations of a work. We also seek performance art, community-based projects (murals, educational initiatives, for example), street art, artist books, and inventive design that makes visible the connections in and among multilingual and translated texts. 
In keeping with Asymptote's mission of featuring global literature, we especially, though not exclusively, invite work that originates outside of an English-language context, as well as socially engaged work and art that challenges political or linguistic borders, explores elements of linguistic identity, or pushes at the limitations of language. Please visit the archive to see the work that’s been featured in the past and reach out if you’d like to pitch or work together to develop an idea. 
If you are an artist looking to be featured, please submit a query first, providing a URL to your portfolio website.
Aspiring guest artists (including photographers) are encouraged to try for our guest artist positions by submitting a cover.

Visual Pitches

You may submit creative work of no more than 5,000 words by one author in total. For this Special Feature, we will consider works originally written in English as well as works translated into English. Here, again, is our call:
Across the world, the vocabulary of exceptional weather is becoming strangely ordinary:record-breaking,unprecedented,once-in-a-century. Wildfires rage through another summer; cities swelter under extreme heat; elsewhere, floods swallow streets and homes. Climate change, once spoken of principally in the future tense, is increasingly the weather of the present.
For this upcoming Special Feature, we invite submissions that reckon with the climate crisis at every scale: the planetary and the intimate, the spectacular disaster and the almost imperceptible alteration. Who is protected, who is exposed, and what happens to our ideas of home and season as the world around us changes? We are also interested in what climate change does to language, memory, and our sense of time. How do we narrate a crisis whose causes may lie centuries behind us and whose consequences stretch centuries ahead? We especially welcome unexpected approaches, including works in which climate change enters through a side door: through a vanished word, a strange summer.
Submissions may take the form of fiction, poetry, or literary nonfiction. General guidelines apply. For more details, visit our full submission guidelines here. Deadline: September 20th, 2026.

Submit to our Special Feature: The Weather Has Changed (we welcome both English originals and translations into English) - Fiction

Submit to our Special Feature: The Weather Has Changed (we welcome both English originals and translations into English) - Nonfiction

At a moment when algorithms flatten attention into metrics and noise, Asymptote continues to prove that literature can still cross borders with urgency, beauty, and consequence. Readers have called the magazine “a literary and moral treasure,” “the beating heart” of an international community, and “a vital force for good in the world.” Valeria Luiselli once wrote: “Every time I think of Asymptote I stop fearing for the future of translation.”<div><br></div><div>For Phase III of our recruitment drive, we are looking for talented designers to join our international team, as well as guest artists interested in shaping the look and atmosphere of a single issue.</div><div><br></div><div>Working alongside editors and fellow creatives around the world, graphic designers help translate the journal’s literary vision into compelling visual form across our website, social media, newsletters, campaigns, and other digital materials. We are also inviting illustrators to collaborate with us on a single quarterly issue. Each guest artist works with our editors to create a visual world in conversation with the issue’s writing—bringing an independent artistic vision to a truly global gathering of literature. </div>

Asymptote Journal

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Featured Call

Submit to our Special Feature: The Weather Has Changed (we welcome both English originals and translations into English) - Fiction

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