A Public Space is an independent literary and arts print magazine. The next reading period is May 2024.
Guidelines for Submitting Work
For prose: please submit only one (1) story or essay at a time. Additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere we ask that you please withdraw it from our system. Novellas and novel excerpts are welcome. Translations are welcome and should be accompanied by a copy of the original. It is the translator’s responsibility to secure rights to the work.
For poetry: please submit up to five (5) poems in one document. Only one submission at a time is allowed; additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if a poem is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you withdraw your submission from the system or, if you've submitted multiple poems, that you add a note to your submission letting us know which poem(s) you are withdrawing. Translations are welcome, but it is the translator's responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted.
We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available here. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series, including:
Fiction
“Compromise” by Ada Zhang
“Karate Chop” by Dorthe Nors
"Dublin, We Were" by David Hayden
“Interiors” by Kathleen Collins
Nonfiction
“She’ll Make Herself Alive” by Antonio Romani
“The Green Man” by Amy Leach
“A Man on the Grass” by John Haskell
“Sitting: A Position Paper” by Denise Scott Brown
"Duet" by Atsuro Riley
Two Poems by Camille Rankine
"Yugoslavia: The Encyclopedia of the Dead" by Maja Lukic
Two Poems by Major Jackson
"The Poem of the Bow" by Al-Shammākh, translated from the Arabic by David Larsen
“You Who Are On Your Way Over There” by Alain Mabanckou, translated from the French by John Keene
“Li Ling” by Atsushi Nakajima, translated from the Japanese by Paul McCarthy
“Woman Sleeping” by Teolinda Gersão, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Please submit only one (1) story at a time. Additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere we ask that you please withdraw it from our system. Novellas and novel excerpts are welcome. Translations are welcome, but it is the translator's responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted.
We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available here. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series, including:
“A Lot of Good It Does Being in the Underworld” by Corinna Vallianatos
“Basic Training” by Mahreen Sohail
"Ekphrases: Bennett Sims on the Edge of Death" by Bennett Sims
“Li Ling” by Atsushi Nakajima, translated by Paul McCarthy
We aim to reply to submissions within four months. If it has been more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.
Please submit only one (1) essay at a time. Additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere we ask that you please withdraw it from our system. Excerpts are welcome. Memoir is welcome. Long-form cultural criticism is welcome. Translations are welcome, but it is the translator's responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted.
We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available here. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series, including:
“Meeting Points: Between and In Between Subject and Object” by Cleo Mikutta
“Pita in the Arms of God” by Elena Poniatowska, translated by Christina MacSweeney
“Worcester: A Free People’s Workshop” by Cheryl Savageau
“Almanac” by Robert Sullivan
We aim to reply to submissions within four months. If it has been more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.
Please submit up to five (5) poems in one document. Only one submission at a time is allowed; additional submissions will be returned unread. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but if a poem is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you withdraw your submission from the system or, if you've submitted multiple poems, that you add a note to your submission letting us know which poem(s) you are withdrawing. Translations are welcome, but it is the translator's responsibility to secure rights to the work before it is submitted. We will make every effort to respond to your submissions within four months, though at times it may be longer. If it has been more than four months and you have not yet received a response, we will be happy to reply to a query regarding the status of your submission.
We suggest reading recent issues of A Public Space to acquaint yourself with work the magazine has published. Subscriptions are available here. We have also made a selection of pieces from the magazine available as part of our Public Access series, including:
"Eternal Return" by Dan Chelotti
"True History: A Rendering" by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts
"On Death: Little Odes" by Hilda Hilst, translated by Julia Powers
"My Sister Likes Girls and Does Not Return for My Mother’s Fiftieth" by Tawanda Mulalu