No Longer Ongoing Submissions: Midnight Breakfast

At the time of this last update, Midnight Breakfast is still an active market. However, our definition of Ongoing Submissions has evolved and we will list their calls as we see them open.

Payment: 50 if we select your work for publication in Midnight Breakfast.

I want to submit to Midnight Breakfast!

Great! We’re currently open for fiction, nonfiction, and interview submissions.

So…what should I submit?

To get the best idea of what we’re looking for, we encourage you to read our back issues, which are conveniently available for free on this very website. We publish one issue per month, with six pieces per issue, which means we have to be a bit selective. On a practical level, we’re looking for unpublished work in the range of 1,000-10,000 words. On a conceptual level, we want to be wowed. Nothing excites us more than a good story with emotional depth. We believe everyone has a story to tell and we want to share as many of these, from as diverse a selection of experiences, as we can.

Fiction: We’re open to loose genre, though we tend to skew more towards literary and speculative fiction. We also love a good, well-written humor piece. What we’re not looking for: fan-fiction, erotica, or anything that requires excessive world-building (as much as we love Game of Thrones in these parts, that kind of work isn’t for us).

Nonfiction: We’re looking for personal essays and/or cultural criticism with a narrative bent. We’re particularly interested in reading about people and cultures that are often underrepresented or otherwise marginalized.

Interviews: We love longform conversations between interesting people. We’re mostly intrigued by literary interviews, but if you’ve recently spoken with a musician, visual artist, activist, or any handful of folks worth spending some time with, we’d be happy to consider your piece. Please do not send any interviews more than 5,000 words. (If your interview is more than 5,000 words, feel free to send an excerpt, and we’ll let you know if we’d like to read more.)

Sadly, we’re currently not accepting poetry, or anything that requires excessive and specific formatting.

In that case, I’ve got something I think you’re going to like.

Fantastic. Submit it to [email protected] as an attachment (either a Word Document or a PDF). Please only send one submission at a time and make sure your name, email, and any other pertinent contact info are in the document, and include the name of your piece as well as the genre (fiction, nonfiction, interview) in the subject line of your email. We’ll give it a read and get back to you as soon as we can. We’ve got a small staff, so please give us at least a month to give your submission the consideration it needs before checking in. And we accept simultaneous submissions, so please be kind and let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.

I hear you pay your contributors…

Yes, we do! More than 150 generous donors made it possible for us to compensate all our writers and artists for their hard work during our first year. We’re currently able to offer $50 if we select your work for publication in Midnight Breakfast.

How do I submit my art?

We solicit artists to create original work inspired by a specific piece we’re publishing. If you would like to be considered to illustrate a piece, you may submit your art portfolio to our Managing Editor, Nevan Scott, at[email protected].

I made an awesome breakfast last night. How do I send you photos/recipes?

It’s mind-boggling that you’ve come this far and… Were hash browns involved? We could really go for some hash browns right now.

Anything not answered here that you’re dying to know?

Drop us a line at [email protected] and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Via: Midnight Breakfast.