Submissions

Current Cycle

Stay Tuned. We will announce our next Submission Period soon.

When open, submissions are only accepted electronically through our submission manager at Submittable.

Please read our guidelines below. Some have changed recently to clarify requirements.

Submission Guidelines

VoiceCatcher publishes new writing that has not previously appeared elsewhere, including online sites. If you’ve published a piece on your own website, blog or self-publishing site, please remove it before submitting it to us.

We accept simultaneous submissions, but ask you to notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. And we will applaud you for that acceptance!

We only accept submissions from women who consider themselves greater Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington writers and artists. This is typically defined by residence in the greater-Portland area (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill counties in Oregon, and Clark and Skamania counties in Washington). You may consider yourself “local” for many reasons. We empower you to decide if you fall into this category.

We love the fact that many of our authors are so proud to have their work published in our journal, they can’t wait to submit again.  However,  if your work was published in our most recent issue, we ask that you defer submitting for this cycle, and wait to submit again for the next one.  Our selection process is blind, and this will help us in continuing to support fresh and emerging voices in each issue.

If your work is accepted, you agree to grant us First North American Serial Rights and Electronic Archival Rights. Upon publication, all rights revert back to you. You agree that if your work subsequently appears elsewhere (in print or online), you will give credit to VoiceCatcher. If we ever wish to include your work in an ebook or print version of the "best" of VoiceCatcher, we will contact you for permission to reprint. Please let us know if you ever change your contact information..

If your work is accepted, we will ask you to submit a headshot to be used for promotion of the journal and event marketing.

We take pride in offering respectful suggestions for revisions for submissions we think deserve that “extra push” toward publication. We may contact you to suggest possible changes that you can always decline.

New to submitting your written work for publication? See “Writers’ Craft: Tips for Submitting to VoiceCatcher’s Publications” for helpful hints and advice.

We use the current Associated Press Stylebook as the VoiceCatcher style guide; if you’re not familiar with it, please review its rules for usage. You’ll find the major rules in our “Tips” article.

We encourage you to thoroughly edit and proofread your work before submitting it. This will impress us and save us time. It may also make the difference between an enthusiastic, “Congratulations! We proudly accept your work” or “This piece needs careful editing and proofing before we can publish it.”

What to send us:

We only accept electronic submissions via Submittable.
In the body of the Submittable form, include:

• A short bio – 100 words or fewer – written in the third person. You may include a link to your website, but be sure it works!
• Send your written piece(s) as an attachment in a single Word document. Use the title(s) of your work to identify the document.
• Since submissions are read blind, do not put any identifying information in your document.
• Only submit work one time AND in one genre per reading cycle. Multiple submissions and/or submissions in more than one genre will not be considered.

Poetry

• In one Word document, submit up to three poems. Each poem should not exceed 50 lines.
• Single space your poems except for stanza breaks.
• Insert page breaks between poems.
• Use Times Roman 12pt type.
• If lines of your poem are to be indented, please use the SPACE BAR (NOT the TAB Key) to indent those lines of your poem. This will help us present the correct visual format of your piece.
• If your poem has a “justified right margin,” we will do our best to preserve the line breaks, but there may be some variance due to typeface (font) styling on the actual website.
• In all cases, you will have an opportunity to review the final formatted work before publication.

Prose (Fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, memoir)

• Submit one piece of prose per submission period in a Word Document.
• Limit your piece to no more than 3000 words.
• Double space your work and indent paragraphs by half an inch.
• Use Times Roman 12pt type.

Visual Art

• Take a look at the images in our previous editions. We prefer vibrant work with sharp and artistic imagery and lean toward fine art rather than journalism.
• Please have electronic images cropped and colors adjusted to best represent your artwork. If it is accepted for publication, our editors may scale your artwork to best fit the journal.
• Send up to five pieces that have not already appeared in other print or online publications.
• Please do not send images that are too small. Minimum size requirements: 800 px in width.
• Submit as JPG, PNG or TIF files using the title of your artwork as the file name. Example: Racehorse at Rest.jpg.
• Send in RGB color format.
• Please let us know the size of the original piece and media for each piece submitted. Example: Shadows (11” x 14,” digital photograph) or Light Beside Her (16” x 20,” acrylic on canvas). 
• If your art is selected for publication, we will ask you for a short artist statement to accompany each piece and an artist bio written in third person.