PBQ has long held a dream to be able to pay our writers. Despite winning grants and establishing an enduring affiliation with Drexel University, we have not been able to make that happen.
We’re now looking to you to make that dream come true. We will be charging a flat $3 fee for submission of any genre. (We ask that you still keep poetry submissions to three pieces per submission.) We know many magazines have gone this route, and we held out, but our desire to pay authors has won out.
We will be paying all authors $20 per accepted piece, no matter the genre, (i.e. if we publish two poems, you will receive $40.). We hope that payment can grow as our income does, and we know it’s not a significant amount—but, please understand that the idea of paying our authors drives us. The nominal payment still has meaning for us, as we hope it will for you.
We believe that you’ll “get it.” It’s still easier to submit online than print, address two envelopes, have stamps, and trek to a mailbox. So please see the $3 fee that way---it’s about the cost of a paper submission but more streamlined.
Thanks for understanding.
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Our democratic editorial policy takes time, so forgive us if we take a bit to get back to you, and rest assured that your work gets the undivided attention of several members of our editorial board. Please also know that we never take a reading hiatus and we sincerely appreciate your submissions.
Guidelines for Submission
Painted Bride Quarterly accepts up to 3 poems, fiction up to 5000 words, and essays and reviews up to 3000 words, in any genre or school (occasional exceptions are made.)
All artwork: photographs, paintings, etchings, lithographs and line drawings are now accepted in black & white and color for publication on our website, and in black & white only for our print annual. We appreciate photoshop files (psd.), or jpgs; size 1024x768.
If at any time you wish to check on the status of your submission please make a formal edit request through submittable. This is the only way we can assure that we will see your message through the deluge of influx.
Maximum of 1,000 words. Up to three pieces may be pasted to a single document. Total submission must be no more than 1,000 words.
Please submit using this form if you cannot pay the fee PBQ typically requests ($3/submission). Know that if you submit through this form your work will be considered equally to work that has been submitted otherwise. We want to hear from those who are not always able to publish their work because of financial or economic barriers. We hope that creating a way to submit to PBQ without paying a fee will make the literary community a bit more accessible, and we know that is will make reading PBQ a more enriching experience for us all.
Submittable is a great tool to keep literary journals organized, and we need that kind of support. Although you may reach out with questions or concerns via email, it would be best to upload all submissions through Submittable using one of the provided forms.
If you choose to cover the costs of another submitter, you may make an additional donation when you submit within one of the categories above.
Submission guidelines:
For Flash Fiction: Maximum of 1,000 words. Up to three pieces may be pasted to a single document. Total submission must be no more than 1,000 words.
For Prose: Maximum of one submission in this category. Essays and reviews should be no more than 3,000 words. All other creative nonfiction should be no more than 5,000 words.
For Fiction: Maximum of one submission (up to 5,000 words) in this category.
For Poetry: Maximum of three submissions in this category.