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 Only previously unpublished work will be considered.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 Only previously unpublished work will be considered.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
The Writing Fellowships at A Public Space support early-career writers who embrace risk in their work and their own singular vision. Established in 2014, the fellowships have supported over thirty writers, including Mahreen Sohail, Deborah Jackson Taffa, Arinze Ifeakandu, Jai Chakrabarti, Kate Doyle, Bruna Dantas Lobato, Gothataone Moeng, and LaToya Watkins.
Writers who have not yet published or contracted to publish a book are invited to apply to the 2024 Writing Fellowships. Submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are welcome.
Three fellowships will be awarded. During the four-month fellowship, fellows will receive:
- editorial support from A Public Space editors to prepare a piece for publication in the magazine;
- a $1,000 honorarium;
- a one-year subscription to A Public Space;
- a guest pass to attend Master Classes;
- the opportunity to participate in a public reading and conversation with A Public Space editors and contributors.
Eligibility: Only writers who have not yet published or been contracted to write a book-length work with a U.S. publisher are eligible. Writers who have self-published, published an academic text, published a book with a publisher outside the U.S., or translated another writer’s work are eligible to apply. Writers who have published a chapbook or published (or contracted to publish) a book-length work in any of the fellowship genres (fiction, nonfiction, or poetry) in the U.S. are ineligible to apply. International applicants are encouraged to apply, but we are only able to consider submissions in English. Only one application per person is allowed. Please do not submit a piece you have previously submitted to A Public Space, either through the Fellowship category, the General Submissions category, or an Open Call. A Public Space reserves the right to invite submissions.
Timeline: Submittable will be open for Writing Fellowship submissions from March 1, 2024–March 31, 2024. Submissions for the Fellowships close at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on March 31, 2024. Successful applicants will be informed no later than May 27, 2024. The fellowship period will be June 1, 2024 through September 30, 2024.
Procedure: Please submit the following:
- A résumé
- A cover letter containing a one-paragraph biographical statement; one paragraph that is a favorite of yours from a book you've read, be it recently or long ago; and a brief statement telling us why this particular passage is meaningful to you.
- One previously unpublished piece (for prose, a limit of 6,000 words; for poetry, up to 15 pages). If selected, the submitted manuscript is the piece that will be published in the magazine.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please note that if any part of the submitted work is accepted elsewhere, you will be required to withdraw your entire application; replacement submissions will not be accepted once the deadline has passed.
Only PDF or Word files (.doc and .docx) are accepted. The cover letter and manuscript should be submitted as separate files. Incomplete applications will not be considered and will be returned unread.