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General - opens Nov 1

Guidelines
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Closed for submissions

Upcoming reading periods

General

opens Nov 1, 2023

Guidelines

"The magazine was established to seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing. We believe that there is a need for a magazine that, first and foremost, gives new and emerging writers an opportunity to get their work out into the world."

"The magazine was established to seek out, publish and promote the very best new Irish and international writing. We believe that there is a need for a magazine that, first and foremost, gives new and emerging writers an opportunity to get their work out into the world."

Vibe

Send us your best but less intimidating

Response Time

within 4 months / 100 days

Acceptance Rate

2% / 2.7%

  • Payment

    Yes: see Genres section for details

  • Fee

    No

  • Simultaneous submissions

    No

  • Previously published

    No

  • Expedited response

    No

  • Available in print

    Yes

  • Provides contributor copies

    Yes: 1 and can order further copies at a discounted rate

  • Examples online

    No

  • Active on social media

    Yes

Accepted genres

5 genres

Fiction

short fiction; novel extracts

Flash Fiction

Max words: 1000

1-2 pages

Nonfiction

No specific limitations

Poetry

Max pieces: 3

For our Featured Poets category, you may submit 6-8 poems. Please see guidelines for eligibility.

Art

Cover artists must be over 18 and live on the island of Ireland and/or consider Ireland to be their home.

Fiction

short fiction; novel extracts

Flash Fiction

Max words: 1000

1-2 pages

Nonfiction

No specific limitations

Poetry

Max pieces: 3

For our Featured Poets category, you may submit 6-8 poems. Please see guidelines for eligibility.

Art

Cover artists must be over 18 and live on the island of Ireland and/or consider Ireland to be their home.

Statistics

We're able to provide them because you use our tracker!
You're the best!

Track submission

52

Total submissions tracked

100 days

Average response time

2% / 2.7%

Average acceptance rate

76 days

Fastest response time

127 days

Slowest response time

*Weird response times we excluded from calculations: 234 days, 711 days, 938 days

How to submit

Process

We use Submittable.

Cover letters

Here at The Stinging Fly, giving everyone a fair shake is very important to us, and we strongly encourage submissions by writers from underrepresented areas of society. But at the submissions stage, or the first reading of your work, your bio/cover letter/ publication credits have little bearing on our decision making. Many of our readers choose to read work without looking at any of the cover sheets or bios. Later, of course, we’ll want to know more about you, and your bio may or may not provide useful context. But first and foremost, your submission will be judged on its own terms, and not on your background, your achievements, or inexperience, as the case may be!

Eligibility

No specific eligibility requirements

Formatting

Your work should always be just as long (or as short) as it needs to be.

Rights for published work

We purchase first serial rights. Work published in the magazine is also published on our website. Copyright remains in all cases with the author.

Additional info

We have a particular interest in promoting new writers, and in promoting the short story form. We strongly encourage submissions by writers from underrepresented areas of society. Writers may only submit work to us under one category per submission period.

About the Magazine

Founded in 1997 | Ireland

THE STINGING FLY is a literary magazine, a book publisher, an education provider, and an online platform. We’re independent and not for profit. Our mission is to seek out, nurture, publish and promote the very best new writers and new writing.

Masthead

We currently list only main editors, more will be added later! If you are an editor, you can edit your masthead in our admin panel :)

Declan Meade

Editor-in-Chief

Lisa McInerney

Editor

Cal Doyle

Poetry Editor

Thomas Morris

Editor at Large

Examples

0 pieces from Chill Subs people