Print & Litfest Submissions

2026-2027 Edition: Strange Company

Deadline: November 16th, 2026, 11:59 PM

If you are submitting unthemed work or work that cannot feasibly be printed (ie video, works longer than 3,000 words, audio), please see the “Online Submissions” tab.

Poetry Guidelines
  • All types of poetry will be considered
  • All written work should be in a single document, with each poem or prose piece starting on a new page
  • Ensure your name does not appear anywhere in the submission document(s), and if your name must appear within the content of the piece, understand that your submission screening process may no longer be anonymous unless we are able to redact it
  • A single submitter may submit work in multiple or all genres
  • Include “(poetry)” following the title of each poem
  • Up to 3 poems may be submitted in each submission window
Prose Guidelines
  • Fiction and creative nonfiction will be considered
  • All written work should be in a single document, with each poem or prose piece starting on a new page
  • Ensure your name does not appear anywhere in the submission document(s), and if your name must appear within the content of the piece, understand that your submission screening process may no longer be anonymous unless we are able to redact it
  • A single submitter may submit work in multiple or all genres
  • Include “(fiction)” or “(nonfiction)” following the title of each piece
  • Prose pieces may be up to 3,000 words each
  • Up to 1 fiction and 1 nonfiction piece may be submitted in each submission window
Visual Art Guidelines
  • Printable visual art (photography, digital art, high quality scans or photos of physical artwork, etc) will be considered
  • All visual art should be submitted as separate jpg or png files
  • Ensure your name does not appear anywhere in the submission document(s), and if your name must appear within the content of the piece, understand that your submission screening process may no longer be anonymous unless we are able to redact it
  • Include the title of each piece as the submitted file names
  • Up to 5 art pieces may be submitted in each submission window

All submission types use the below form:

Submission form

Things we think embody Strange Company:

The odd one out in a group, a clown at a birthday party, secludes forced to mingle with society (scientists, introverts), professional mourners, exotic pets, stalkers, bugs or vermin in your place of residence, strangers (your new neighbor, the person you’re next to on a flight, etc), ghost possession, otherworldly forms of life/cryptids, the feeling of being watched, the uncanny valley, feeling emotions in situations where they don’t belong (ex: feeling elated in the face of death), the feeling of a new experience/meeting a new person/starting a new job, etc

Examples of media we think embody Strange Company:

 

  • My Neighbor Totoro

  • Sixth Sense

  • Cathedral by Raymond Carver

  • Lust by Susan Minot

  • William Faulkner and Southern Gothic literature

  • The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

  • and more…