Submission Guidelines

  • Who Can Submit? Pena is open to anyone who writes—whether you are a published writer, a complete novice or just experimenting with the form. Although we are based in India, we invite writers from any part of the world to submit. If we like it, we will publish it. Nevertheless, we encourage you to read our issues just to get acquainted with what we might like. 

  • What to Submit? You can submit in any of the categories we publish: poetry, short fiction, personal essay or book review. However, please submit to only ONE category per issue. If your piece doesn’t fit into one of these, don’t worry, send it to us anyway! We don’t want to limit or box literary creativity. 

  • Reading Period: We only read in our designated reading period: March 1st-31st, June 1st-30th, September 1st-30th, December 1st-31st. Any submissions outside of this period will be automatically rejected. 

  • Simultaneous Submissions: We accept only previously unpublished work. This means that any writing published in other magazines, newspapers or books will not be accepted. However, we don’t count personal blogs or social media as published work. Feel free to share these with us (do mention if it is up anywhere though!) We also encourage simultaneous submissions, meaning you can submit to other magazines while you submit to us. However, if your work gets accepted elsewhere before we respond, do let us know immediately so that there are no copyright issues. 

  • Rights: The rights to your work will ALWAYS remain yours. You can do what you please with it. If you do happen to have it published elsewhere after you publish with us, it would be nice if you could credit us as the first publisher. :) 

  • How to Submit? Send us an email at writewithpena@gmail.com. Read all guidelines carefully and stick to them so it makes our lives easier. That way, we can focus on the writing. 

  • How Long Does a Response Take? We respond to all submissions within 10 days AFTER the reading period is up. 

  • Poetry Submissions: Send us UP TO THREE unpublished poems per submission with the total page count not over 6 pages. Send it in Google Docs with Commentor/ Editor access. Please mention POETRY SUBMISSION - YOUR NAME in the email subject. Font preferred is Arial, size 12, with a clear title in bold for each poem. 

  • Short Story Submissions: Send us ONE short story per issue of up to 3,000 words. (A little over the word limit is okay, but if it runs to 5K or 10K words, rest assured we will not publish it.) Send it in Google Docs with Commentor/ Editor access. Please mention SHORT STORY SUBMISSION - YOUR NAME in the email subject. Font preferred is Arial, size 12, with a clear title in bold for each poem. 

  • Personal Essay Submissions: Send us ONE personal essay per issue of up to 1,800 words. (A little over the word limit is okay, but if it runs too long, rest assured we will not publish it.) Send it in Google Docs with Commentor/ Editor access. Please mention PERSONAL ESSAY SUBMISSION - YOUR NAME in the email subject. Font preferred is Arial, size 12, with a clear title in bold for each poem. 

  • Book Review Submissions: Send us ONE book review per issue of up to 1200 words. Send it in Google Docs with Commentor/ Editor access. Please mention BOOK REVIEW SUBMISSION - YOUR NAME in the email subject. Font preferred is Arial, size 12, with a clear title in bold for each poem. 

  • Other Random Things: If you wish to send us a co-written piece, we’re happy to consider and credit all creators. If you wish to submit anonymously or under a pen name, we’ll gladly oblige. If you have any other questions you have unanswered, shoot us an email at writewithpena@gmail.com and we will respond as soon as we can. 

  • Compensation: We pay an honorary amount of INR 1,000 per published piece. 

We look forward to reading your work!