Submission Guidelines

UPDATE NOVEMBER 1, 2009

SUBMISSION PERIOD NOW OPEN

SUBMISSION PERIOD DATES
The submission period opens November 1, 2009 and will close at midnight February 15, 2010. Snail mail submissions must be postmarked no later than February 15, 2010 in order to be considered.

HOW TO SUBMIT

• Read the Submission Guidelines below. 
• Submit online with our Submission Manager, or
• Submit by snail mail to Memoir (and) Submissions, PO Box 1398, Sausalito, CA 94966-1398. To be advised of the status of your snail mail submission, include a SASE, or your email address.

Questions? Email submissions [at] memoirjournal.com or call (415) 339-3142.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: THE BASICS

What to submit
Memoir (and) publishes memoirs in many forms. We strive with each issue to include a selection of prose, poetry, graphic memoirs (visit www.guttergeek.com for reviews of graphic narratives), narrative photography and more. No submission is too unusual or traditional to be considered for publication.

Contests
In each of our two yearly reading periods, we select the most outstanding submissions and award four prizes:

Memoir (and) Prize in Prose or Poetry

• Grand Prize: $500
• Second Prize: $250
• Third Prize: $100

Memoir (and) Prize for Graphic Memoir

• Grand Prize: $100

There is no fee to enter. All works submitted are eligible to win. See Contests for more details.

Where to submit

We strongly prefer to receive submissions via our online Submission Manager. Snail mail submissions may be addressed to: Memoir (and), PO Box 1398, Sausalito, CA 94966-1398.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: ALL CATEGORIES

1. Only one submission per person per reading period.
2. Please submit either:
   
   • Prose (one submission, maximum 10,000 words) OR
   • Poetry (maximum of five poems of any length, all in one document) OR
   • Graphic memoir (one submission that will fit on no more than twenty 7” x 10” pages) OR
   • Narrative photography (up to five images)
3. We do not accept submissions previously published in print or on the web. (Note: a personal blog is not considered “publication.”)
4. We DO accept simultaneous submissions.
5. We prefer prose and poetry submissions in Microsoft Word format. If you use a different word processing program, please save your file as an RTF or text-only document before you send it.
6. Upon publication, we purchase one-time six-month rights, and pay with copies of the journal in which your piece would appear, as well as a one-year subscription. We do not give monetary compensation unless you win a prize.

Formatting for blind reading

Memoir (and) engages in “blind reading” of submissions. Blind reading is the process wherein an author’s name and publishing history are not attached to the submission so editors are “blind” to these details when reading, thus creating a level playing field for all submitters. Any submission with contact information on the work itself will be ineligible for publication.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: PROSE AND POETRY

1. When submitting online, do not include your name anywhere on the document itself. Your contact information is registered in the database and will remain tied to your submission.
2. When submitting via snail mail, you must include a cover sheet with your name, address, email, phone number and the title of the piece.
3. Whatever method you use to submit, so that we may do blind reading, please include only the title of your piece and the page number on each page of your manuscript.
4. All prose pages should double-spaced; poetry may be single-spaced.
5. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope ONLY if you do not provide an email address.
6. Manuscripts will not be returned. (Sorry!)
7. If you submit by snail mail and would like confirmation that we have received your work, please include a self-addressed stamped postcard and we’ll put it in the mail once we receive your submission.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: IMAGES

1. Please submit one graphic memoir, or up to five photographic images.
2. Our online Submission Manager only accepts files up to 500 K in size. Please upload a lower-quality non-source file for us to view, or email larger files to submissions (at) memoirjournal (dot) com. If you have a file or group of files over 10 MB in size, please email us to set up a way to transfer files.
3. For multiple page submissions, please submit one file per page and include the page number in each file name.

Please be advised that when going to print, we will need your files in the following formats:

1. Resolution:
   
   • Photograph and grayscale images: 300-600 ppi at 6” wide 
   • Black and white and/or line art: 600-2400 ppi at 6” wide (higher resolution preferred)
2. TIFF, EPS or highest resolution JPEG (for scanned images) files only.
3. When exporting files from their native software application, please make sure that the compression feature is deactivated.

ASSISTANCE

Questions? Read our FAQ.

Lost your password? Trouble submitting online? See Help.

Still not sure? Contact us.