Submission Window: May 1st – May 15th, 2024
Payment: $10 per poem, $15 per short story
Theme: Food

From May 1st – May 15th, Diet Milk Magazine will be accepting submissions for its annual themed mini-issue. We will be open to poetry and prose. While the most detailed information can be found on our website, here’s a quick rundown of what potential contributors need to know!

2023 THEME: FOOD

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

• All submissions must fall under the Gothic umbrella, but aren’t required to be a specific genre
• All submissions must adhere to the current theme
• No reprints or multiple submissions
• Simultaneous submissions permitted, though we ask to be informed promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere!
• Submissions should be .doc, .docx, or .pdf

P O E T R Y :

Poets may submit up to three poems at a time. No single poem should exceed one page in length.

P R O S E :

Authors may EITHER up to 3 stories of less than 999 words OR a single story of 1k—2k words. Stories exceeding 2025 words will be rejected automatically.

Responses, Rights, & Payment

• Please allow up to six weeks for a response. After that, send a gentle nudge via email
• Diet Milk Magazine asks for first serial rights. Upon publication, all rights revert back to the creator. A contract will be provided upon acceptance
• All payments made via PayPal. For more information on pay scale, visit our website

All submissions are processed through Duosuma, available to anyone with a free Duotrope account. Our manager can be accessed through the button above after logging into or creating your account.

We don’t accept multiple submissions or, generally, reprints. However, we’re willing to consider pieces posted exclusively to an author’s website OR that have appeared in now-defunct publications. If this applies to your work, please say so in your cover letter. We encourage simultaneous submissions, but ask to be informed of an acceptance elsewhere promptly.

In addition to your work, you will be asked to submit a cover letter. It isn’t necessary to summarize or pitch your work, but please include your story or poem’s word or line count, a 50 word or less third-person biographical statement, and any applicable trigger warnings.

We encourage submissions from any author, poet, or artist interested in the Gothic, but especially those from marginalized communities.

‘Diet Milk Minis’ is a special, annual zine series, released annually! From May 1—May 15 every year, we’ll be open to submissions of poetry and prose that fits the year’s chosen theme. Themes are announced one month in advance.

Ten pieces—5 stories and 5 poems—are selected after the closing of each period and compiled into a mini issue. These will be available for purchase through our storefront in both .pdf format and as a traditional, zine staple-bound zine.

What we accept

Response times

Via: Diet Milk’s Duotrope.