General guidelines
Submissions are currently closed. Our guidelines remain below for reference.
If you’re not familiar with Structo and the kind of writing we like, please take a few minutes and glance through a back issue. They’re all freely available online.
We strongly encourage submission of works in translation and writing which moves on the boundaries of genre and form. We publish writing from established writers and new voices. If you don’t see yourself well represented in the pages of literary magazines, we would especially like to hear from you.
We are now digital-first: a weekly online release schedule capped twice a year with a new print issue. Submissions chosen for the magazine will appear both online and in print.
Contributors will receive a flat fee of £25 if work is selected for the issue—regardless of form and length of submission—as well as a copy of the print edition. Payment is via Paypal. We continue to support our writers long after publication. As Structo grows, more and more subscriptions are gifted to agents, publishers, anthologists and reviewers. We submit work to the Pushcart Prize, Stack Award for Best Original Fiction and Forward Poetry Prize, amongst others.
Specific guidelines and links to send in your work can be found below, as well as a general FAQ. If anything isn’t clear, please let us know.
Submission details
Fiction
Short stories of up to approximately 4,000 words will be considered, both original stories and new translations of non-English language texts. We will consider one story per author per issue, and submission of original and unpublished work in any genre is very welcome. The only essential is that your story makes us want to read on.
Poetry
We will consider up to three previously unpublished poems in English or new translations from other languages. Hybrid forms are welcome. Please include all your poems together in one submission. We will consider one batch of poems per issue.
Submission FAQs
Why do I need to include a magazine photograph?
For issue 15, we asked those sending in work to include proof they had recently supported a literary magazine. The outcome was more wonderful than we had any right to expect: an engaged bunch of writers sending in some of the strongest writing we’ve ever received.
We were torn about doing the same thing again. On the one hand we don’t want to put arbitrary barriers in-between potential contributors and the magazine, but on the other it did make the process fun again; the response from writers and others was heartening, it was great to see the magazines people are reading, and we received hardly any scattershot submissions, which made the job of reading more enjoyable for our team.
And so, for the foreseeable future, alongside submissions of short stories and poetry, we are also asking for a photo of a literary magazine (any literary magazine) bought recently. Not sure how to do this? Here’s some inspiration from that issue.
What if I cant afford to buy any literary magazines?
This is important, as some literary magazines are expensive. On the other hand, others are an absolute bargain, especially digitally. For example, back issues of Firewords are currently £3.50. That said, if your financial situation makes this difficult, please send in your work regardless. Drop a quick note in your cover letter so the editor checking the requirements knows not to automatically reject the submission.
What rights do you take?
We require First Serial Rights and the right to republish in the print edition. All work in Structo is published under the protection of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 UK: England & Wales licence. Nothing in this licence impairs or restricts your individual moral rights as author.
What's your turnaround time?
We aim to get back to everyone within eight weeks of the deadline. Feel free to get in touch if this doesn’t happen.
Do you accept simultaneous submissions?
Yes. Please let us know as soon as a piece is accepted elsewhere.