We strive to promote the tremendous cultural diversity of contemporary American literature, alongside international voices both in English and in translation.

It is the editors’ belief that American literature is thriving, both in terms of aesthetics and cultural inclusiveness. 

Waxwing believes that American voices are, at their cores, both multicultural and multinational, and so the editors’ mission is to include American writers from all cultural identities — in terms of race, ethnicity, indigenous tribe, gender, class, sexuality, age, education, ability, language, religion, and region — alongside international voices, published bilingually. 

Waxwing aims to broadcast as widely as possible, in each and every issue, singular voices — and to hear these voices together, in all their harmony and dissonance.

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Waxwing Literary Journal

We are open for flash fiction submissions (one to three stories, 1000 words or less) until we reach our cap of 300 submissions of flash. 
Waxwing wants to publish fiction and nonfiction that can stand alongside poetry: stories and essays where language is the primary concern. We seek writing that is like the characters and creatures we named the journal after—Daedalus made something that had never before existed, Icarus joyfully dared to do what hadn’t been done, and the eponymous birds seem to be what they’re not. We're interested in narratives that risk, that come close to failing but land on the other side, not in the sea, and like the red tips of feathers that look like sealing wax, we love flourishes. We're not interested in virtuosity that pleases the masses, but we do crave intensity, and stories that feel a little dangerous. We seek to showcase the particular and the peculiar, the odd and the revelatory—we want to read stories and essays that make us feel like we are learning something, even if it’s something we can’t quite explain.

Flash Fiction

Fiction

We welcome submissions of visual art for our covers. We publish three issues per year, so we will accept three works of visual art per year. We will consider art year round.
 

Please send one to three images at a time, no more than once per year. The files should be jpegs or any file that displays the image well enough. If the image is accepted for publication, we will ask for a high-res image.

Waxwing publishes poems that sing—of the self, but also of the world. We love poems that love language, love it like a lover, and so wrestle and caress and grind and tease, for the pleasure of it but also the weight of it. We love poems that mean something, whether through the quick electric thrill or the long steady haul. We love poems that are living and breathing, and know they will die. Poems that have the stink of the world on them. Poems that are not mysterious, but mysteries. Poems that keep you up at night, and get you out of bed in the morning. Poems that took something of great worth out of the poets who wrote them, so that they could give it to us.
Waxwing will close when we hit our cap of 300 submissions for the month. Please try to submit in the first couple of days in the month, as we often reach our cap quickly. We will reopen for poetry again in April.
Please send one to five poems and place them all in one document. Use spacing and formats appropriate for your poems—that is, submit them the way you wish them to look.

Poetry

We will remain open in the month until we hit our 300 submission cap. While we're open to longer work, we typically publish essays under 5,000 words. Please note that book chapters or excerpts should read well as stand alone pieces. We also love flash nonfictions (<1,000 words)—send up to three flash nonfictions in one document, or one longer essay. Double-space your manuscript and include page numbers.
Waxwing wants to publish fiction and nonfiction that can stand alongside poetry: stories and essays where language is the primary concern. We seek writing that is like the characters and creatures we named the journal after—Daedalus made something that had never before existed, Icarus joyfully dared to do what hadn’t been done, and the eponymous birds seem to be what they’re not. We're interested in narratives that risk, that come close to failing but land on the other side, not in the sea, and like the red tips of feathers that look like sealing wax, we love flourishes. We're not interested in virtuosity that pleases the masses, but we do crave intensity, and stories that feel a little dangerous. We seek to showcase the particular and the peculiar, the odd and the revelatory—we want to read stories and essays that make us feel like we are learning something, even if it’s something we can’t quite explain.

Nonfiction

Waxwing is open to translations of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Waxwing publishes literature in translation as artistic creations with their own integrity, and with the goal to connect artists that otherwise might not be connected. Translations are especially important to Waxwing for this reason, as well as for the potential they have to create a powerful dialectic between two minds. As such, Waxwing is seeking work in translation that shows a dexterity with language, as well as the courage to ask the harder questions about the world and about the act of translation itself.
We will remain open each month until we hit our 300 submission cap. Submitters should follow the guidelines that correspond to the genre they are translating. If your submission contains multiple pieces, please put all of them in one document for submission. Translation submissions should include the translated work in its source language, along with any permissions necessary to publish the work in both languages. Waxwing will ask translators for a “Translator’s Note” that contextualizes the work upon publication — please see previous issues for examples of what these notes look like.

Waxwing Literary Journal

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