We accept online submissions only. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged; it would be unfair of us to expect you not to make the most of your work by sending out to other venues. Please tell us when you are accepted elsewhere so we can celebrate with you. The Dirty Napkin accepts only unpublished work and acquires first North American Serial rights. All authors will be required to record their work, but the Dirty Napkin will take care of all the technical details. The process is easy and will take place over a phone call. Please send manuscripts to the appropriate editor using this easy online form. Only three works will be considered at any time by a given author. All works must be submitted as separate Microsoft Word documents (DOC not DOCX). We do not offer any monetary compensation for accepted submissions. Thank you for your interest. We look forward to reading your work.
Oh, and one last thing: instead of listing your contact information and previous publications in the cover letter, tell us something intriguing about yourself. We've made some good friends this way.
Poetry Pleases
Please submit no more than three poems at a time. We accept any length and style—although if you can cripple us with your brilliance in a short amount of time it is all the better. Please include something juicy and revealing about yourself in your cover letter.
Fiction Pleases
As a teenager working at a sandwich chain, I was taught a particular method for bringing yesterday's lettuce to life for the morning's "fresh" salads. It was called shocking the lettuce. We filled a large metal sink with cold tap water and ice. When the water was painful to the touch, we dunked the unsuspecting lettuce. The tired old greens emerged from their ice bath crisp and chilled, their bright green cellulose stunned to the surface.
Good fiction should have a similar effect on readers. We get wilted and gritty with the literal demands of daily living. Dunk us in your narrative world. Slap our senses. Vivify.
This doesn't mean your fiction must be grotesque or fantastical. But it should capture us with the following elements:
- Story. Make us forget what room we're in, what time it is, suck us completely out of our particular world and into the urgency of what happens next to whom in the world of your narrative making. Never let a clever premise or a moral overtake the immediacy of the story. Story first.
- Language. Re-combine words, invent new phrases, tickle our imaginations with evocative word choice. Save us from the flattened, well-worn patterns of utilitarian speech and put the awe of words back into us.
- Imagination. Take full advantage of the medium. This is fiction—anything is possible. You should feel unconstrained with characters, their thoughts, their worlds. Create!
- Intellectual Curiosity. Help us re-evaluate what we thought we knew. By the time we return to our chairs, we should not see our lives the same way again.
Shock the lettuce, dear writer. Shock it good.
Letter Pleases
Please submit any correspondence with which you are comfortable. We believe strongly that letter writing is a lost art and deserves to be revived. A letter to a loved one, from a loved one, to sons, daughters, parents, friends, jailbirds, hope, America, the President, your fourth grade teacher, the cute barista at the coffee shop, your ex-husband, . . . are all acceptable. In your cover letter, give us the letter's back story. If you send a letter that's been written to you or wish to send full correspondence between yourself and another, we must have permission from all authors involved before publication. Please include both parties' contact information.