Contact And Submissions

For every issue we provide our writers and artists with a one-word theme to direct their creativity. The word is supposed to represent a mood we see in the public, and/or the types of stories we want to explore. For this issue the theme is DEFIANCE.

Please take this theme very loosely. It might be helpful to know upfront that we won't include the theme in the zine itself. This is just for our artists. We're more likely to stretch the theme's definition to fit things we like than decline work we like because it doesn’t clearly match the theme. We are looking for quality pieces, not a one-to-one adherence to a vague idea.

Why does defiance feel especially relevant to this moment? Where do you see defiance in your life? What is a defiant act? What does it take to be defiant? How can art be defiant? Who should be defiant and to what end?

We hope, more than anything, that the theme helps you make decisions. Maybe you have a pile of stories or photos; knowing our theme is DEFIANCE might help you choose which pieces to send. Please reach out if you have questions to thegroundisuneven@gmail.com.

• Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry submissions are open to all writers. 

• We emphasize marginalized or traditionally underrepresented voices and look especially for artists who are in the BIPOC, LGTBQ+ or disabled community.

• Submissions that promote hate speech, discrimination, racism, or violence will not be accepted.

• We accept standalone pieces, not excerpts from longer works.

• Please submit work mostly written in English.

• We pay $40 for short fiction or nonfiction, $25 per flash piece accepted, and $20 per poem. Please provide your Venmo or PayPal usernames so we can pay you if you're work is accepted.

• Please submit a short third person cover letter (no longer than 150 words) detailing your publication history. We're interested in how your life experience influences your art. Please don't use this opportunity to explain or set up your work. Let it speak for itself. 

• For flash fiction or creative flash non-fiction we're looking for a 400-1,000 word count. You can submit up to three pieces at one time.  

• For short fiction or creative short nonfiction we're looking for 1,000-5,000 word count. You can submit one short fiction piece at a time.

• For poetry please submit no more than six poems in one document.

• You can submit into any or all of the options you choose.

• We are open to any genres.

• We don't accept reprints.

• We allow for simultaneous submissions. If your piece is accepted elsewhere, please send us an email telling us you withdraw the work at thegroundisuneven@gmail.com. We'll be the first to congratulate you!

• For prose please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. Email us if you need accommodations.

• For poetry please use Times New Roman 12 but feel free to use spacing however you see fit.

• Please send your work as Word docs.

• Unless we have a separate arrangement, we ask for exclusive rights to the piece. 

• Art submissions are open to all artists.

• We emphasize marginalized or traditionally underrepresented voices and look especially for artists who are in the BIPOC, LGTBQ+ or disabled community.

• Submissions that promote hate speech, discrimination, racism, or violence will not be accepted.

• We pay $40 for every piece of art we accept. You can submit up to five files, each file containing one image. We will pay for each image we accept.

• Please send us your illustrations, paintings, photographs, collages, photos of sculptures, etc. For us visual art is a pretty wide canvas. So long as it would look cool as a still image on a page we're interested. 

• Please submit a short third person cover letter (no longer than 150 words) detailing your career. We're interested in how your life experience influences your art. Please don't use this opportunity to explain or set up your work. Let it speak for itself. 

• We allow for simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please send us an email telling us you withdraw the work at thegroundisuneven@gmail.com. We'll be the first to congratulate you!

• Unless we have a separate arrangement, we ask for exclusive rights to the piece.