*We are currently reading for our Spring 2024 issue, 21.2. Our fiction and poetry submission portals are temporarily closed while our editorial team works to process our queue over winter break. Submissions will reopen January 1.*
Redivider is operated by the MFA and MA students of the Writing, Literature & Publishing Department at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. We currently publish online twice per year, as well as a yearly Blurred Genre summer mini issue.
Redivider seeks previously unpublished works from emerging or established authors and artists. We are excited to publish underrepresented voices as well as “offbeat” texts, art, and hybrid works that may not be welcomed at other journals. Please see each division’s guidelines below, and on our website for more specific preferences. We do not publish work from current Emerson College students, faculty, or staff.
We will not consider submissions that endorse prejudice, racism, xenophobia, classism, sexism, ableism, fat-shaming, homophobia, or gratuitous violence. We reserve the right to reject such submissions outright and reject further submissions from the author. We also reserve the right to remove content from our journal if an author is known to be harassing or abusive.
Please submit your work through our Submittable page only. Redivider will not accept work through email or USPS. Please wait for a response before submitting again. We welcome simultaneous submissions.
Authors will receive a contract upon acceptance. Redivider requests first serial rights, and all rights revert back to the author upon publication. Authors retain copyright to their work published in Redivider. If the work is later republished, we request that you note its initial publication in Redivider. We also request the right, with author permission, to use your work for promotional purposes.
Redivider is currently a paying market. We pay contributors on a sliding scale from $25 to $40, based on word count, per piece published.
Submission Guidelines
Fiction
Word count: 1,200–6,000 words
Please submit one short fiction piece at a time. Stories shorter than 1,200 words should be submitted under Flash Fiction. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface. Redivider will happily consider genre fiction with strong enough prose, though hard science fiction, high fantasy, etc. will probably fit better at another journal.
Things we already see a lot of:
• Excessive body writing (hands, eyes, eyebrows, throats, mouths, breaths, chills in the spine, etc.)
• Stories about terminal illness
• Privileged family fiction
• Descriptions of the sun and its rays and the color of the sky on the opening page
Things we wish we saw more:
• Satisfying endings
• Characters with complex motives
• Dark humor
• Consistent voice throughout the piece
• Elements of sci-fi and mysticism
• Psychological thrillers
• Real science and real history utilized for theme and setting, (i.e. background research)
• Cli-fi
Flash fiction
Word count: 1,200 words or less (per piece)
Please submit no more than three flash fiction pieces per submission. Each piece may be 1,200 words or less. These pieces will be evaluated by the Redivider Fiction Team and published in a dedicated section apart from other full-length short fiction. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface.
Redivider prefers flash fiction that tells a whole story or describes a scene or situation. Works that function more as meditations on a subject, or which contain little movement or direction may best be considered prose poetry, and should be submitted under Poetry.
Please see the Fiction guidelines for more guidance on content.
Poetry
Length guidelines: 5 poems max, preferably 10–60 lines per poem
Please submit no more than five poems per submission, up to ten pages, as a single document. We prefer poems around 10–60 lines in length, to best accommodate our online format. We can publish poetry featuring complex enjambment and indentation, but please be reasonable with longer poems, as each work must be carefully typeset, line-by-line, to show up as the artist intended on a web page.
We are looking for new and under-published voices. Submit what you’re worried to send elsewhere. We want poems that circumvent the familiar, that break through abstraction to examine a moment or concept from the side, rather than straight on. We want poems that shift understanding, that reveal core, unexpected truths.
Memoir & Personal essay
Word count: 6,000 words or less
Please submit a single piece of nonfiction personal essay or memoir to this category. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface. Journalistic works, criticism and commentary, and texts containing substantial background research should be submitted under Nonfiction.
cultural commentary & critique
Word count: 8,000 words or less
Please submit a single piece of cultural commentary/critique. We accept both casual and academic-style manuscripts for this genre. These may be essays regarding US or non-US culture. Essays in translation are also welcome. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface.
Graphic Narrative & illustrated poetry
Page count: 15 pages or less
Graphic narrative and illustrated poetry includes comics and other drawn media with a “literary” focus—that is, targeted toward adult readers where drawn panels or illustrations enhance, reveal, or challenge the accompanying text. Works may be digital art or hand-drawn, and both humorous and serious works will be considered. Redivider will publish one-page illustrated poems, multi-page graphic narratives, as well as serials, provided they reflect on a single subject or follow a single protagonist. Any submission more than a single page should include a title page containing the author’s and artist’s names.
Cover art
Image count: 6 images or fewer
Please submit here to be considered for Redivider’s digital cover art for our fall 2023 issue. Art submissions can be uploaded as six separate attachments in one submission or, preferably, in a single .ZIP file—please do not send multiple submissions. Please save original images for each piece as a separate .TIF file no larger than 6 x 9 inches and at a resolution of 600dpi for line art and 300 dpi for all others. If your piece is chosen for the cover, you may be contacted for a larger file. Digital submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be considered. Please email us with questions or for alternate submission methods.
Send us your work!
Please submit via our Submittable page.