We’re open now for art, interviews, translations, and reviews, as well as pieces on Ukraine. We’re also receiving submissions of excerpts from forthcoming books released by independent presses. Do not sent whole manuscripts.
Our mission:
We love work that is personal and political and shows that you can write beautifully and incisively about important subjects.
We also call for theme submissions from time to time. In the second half of 2019 we published pieces on the theme of race/riot/rebellion/revolution in order to commemorate the 1919 Chicago race riot, the 1919 Red Summer, and the 400th anniversary of the introduction of slavery in what became the US. In 2021 we asked for submissions on displacement.
Though we no longer have specific submission portals on those themes, we always welcome work that deals with the general subjects of race/riot/rebellion/revolution and displacement.
As writers, we know how hard it is to wait for a response, so we accept simultaneous submissions. We are committed to small presses and express that in our Forthcoming series and in our reviews (though occasionally we will run a review of a book published by a large press). We promote our authors’ work on social media, including their publications and awards after they publish with ACM. We submit work to Best American and Pushcart.
What we publish:
Ukraine
As an online journal that publishes twice a week, we are able to get pieces out quickly. We’re seeking nonfiction about the invasion of Ukraine, such as Sergey Gerasimov’s devastating report from Kharkiv. We seek the concrete, the personal, not the theoretical or polemical. You can send drafts, queries, or finished work. We are also seeking photos. We’re open indefinitely for this section.
Translations
We welcome translations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama (including excerpts from novels or from full-length plays). Whenever possible, we also publish the piece in the original language. We need written permission of the writer whose work has been translated.
Reviews and review-essays
With the new year, ACM is reassessing our call for books to review. We continue to review books published by small and university presses, because the Big Five or so have a relatively easier time getting their books noticed. What is changing is our focus on the political. We welcome reviews of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that use a political/analytical lens to view self, others, and society. We welcome books that resist and books that question the status quo. And we’re especially interested in reviews of nonfiction trade books that address incarceration and liberation. As for style of review, we’re open to personal essay and experimental reviews, as well as traditional. If you would like to review a specific book, please let us know of your relationship, if any, to the author. Please note that we don’t publish reviews by friends of the author or blurbers or blurbees of same. For all queries, please go to our Submittable link. We’re open indefinitely for this section.
Interviews
We are open indefinitely to queries about interviews with writers, activists, artists, and public intellectuals. As a rule, we require interviews to be conducted in person, by phone, by Zoom or the like.
Art
We publish art with each work of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, and welcome all sorts of media. We also publish portfolios of an artist’s work (including photographers). Please query with a link to your web site or attachments. We’re open indefinitely for art.
Nonfiction
We seek memoir, reported essays, braided essays, collages, vignettes, extremely literary journalism, oral history, meditations, combinations of the previous. Short, long, medium. Political in the largest sense. We’re closed for nonfiction at the moment.
Fiction
We publish short-short to long, no restrictions on style or content, though we prefer work that is 7500 words or fewer. We’re not reading fiction now.
Poetry
We publish all kinds. We’re not reading poetry now.
Forthcoming
We publish excerpts of forthcoming books from indie presses. Send us a chapter or a few poems. We’re reading for this section indefinitely.
Audio/Visual
We publish audio/visual pieces of any length. We’re open indefinitely for A/V.
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