Paperbag is an electronic literary journal now reading submissions for its 15th issue. They publish previously unpublished poetry, visual art, music/sound, and hybrid work.

Their website is sleek, well designed, and poetry focused. It’s easy to engage with the work they present. On the main issue page, you can get a feel for that they publish. Under most writers’ names are a few lines worth of words. These don’t link to multiple poems by the author, but to one poem by the author, and the lines are the title, or words/phrases from the poem.  The same is true for most of the artwork and videos shared.

Do not submit without reading some of the work they’ve published. It’s very easy to get a feel for what they are interested in, and what they are not, by reading a piece or three.

All submissions must be made through Submittable, and they ask that you send between six and twelve pages of poetry and visual art. For sound they want no more than three files. One can submit up to six videos at a time. Prose writers have to query first.

To learn more or to potentially submit, please go here.

Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2022 Guide to Manuscript Publishers.

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