A defiant literary magazine.
Submissions.
Currently OPEN for submissions.
To submit during our open call for volumes 4 and 5, please use Duotrope! https://duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/rainy-weather-days-defiant-literary-mag-c5wxk
Theme for this submission period—Joy! For this period, we would like to see more works focusing on joy, particularly POC and/or queer joy. This is also an act of protest. If submitting a work on this theme, please be a part of the community you are representing. (Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to hire guest sensitivity editors. We will still be accepting other works of resistance.)
We are looking for works of protest that challenge our current status quo. This can be fictional prose of any genre, poetry, or nonfiction essays.
To be clear, the ideology of the work should oppose right-wing ideology, Nazism, Authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, white supremacy, etc. or uplift voices of dissent or marginalized voices.
Our current pay rates are as follows:
- Prose—$25/published piece
- Poetry—$10/published piece
Prose
Fiction
No gratuitous sex/violence.
Any genre (including horror).
1,500–15,000 words
One manuscript is one submission.
Please format manuscripts with 12–18pt font, preferably Times New Roman, New Courier, or Garamond. Otherwise, please use a standard manuscript format (Examples at shunn.net/format/story/.)
Please submit in .doc or .docx formats (Word) or in .odt format (LibreOffice.)
Essay
Same as with fiction, but if you need to cite any sources, we prefer submissions to use author-date citations with a bibliography at the end. Please see https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
We pay $25/accepted prose piece.
Poetry
Please limit poetry to a maximum of five poems in a single submission. We pay $10/accepted poem.
Please submit in .doc, .docx, .odt (LibreOffice), or .pdf formats.
Other Guidelines:
Please include a cover letter! If your work is particularly abstract or the intended meaning is somewhat obfuscated, please describe the overall meaning of the piece in your cover letter. Please also include a bio!
Only send one submission at a time until you hear back from us! If you are submitting any works to multiple publications, please let us know. If any are accepted before we get back with you, please withdraw your submission! (If you submitted during our last call, even if it is still pending, feel free to submit during this window as well. We will be trying to finish our existing queue by the end of February and starting on the new one by March.)
We will no longer be considering reprints.
We ask for exclusive rights to online and print forms of your story for three months following publication.
We will offer $25 for prose and $10 for poetry. Selected authors will receive digital editions of the magazine issue in which they appear.
We encourage works from people of all backgrounds.
We will not accept works prejudiced against race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.