Submissions
Thank you for considering Passengers Journal as a home for your work. Find technical submission requirements on our Submittable page, explore our listing on Chill Subs, or read below for recommendations and advice from the Passengers editorial team.
Advice & FAQ
The Review Process
All work must be approved by a majority of our readers in order to be accepted. The two most important qualities we look for in any artistic creation are surprise and risk. However, a piece containing those assets can still be let down by grammatical errors, typographical errors, and the like. In abundance, such mistakes demonstrate a lack of care, or even professionalism, and can ultimately lead to a promising work being rejected.
Dare I Submit?
Passengers Journal does not discriminate in any fashion and encourages submissions from writers who are fledgling, marginalized, or are writing about subject matter that is too controversial for more traditional publications. We abide by all CLMP diversity guidelines with enthusiasm, and strongly encourage artists whose works have been suppressed or dismissed because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, disability, veteran status, or other identifying criteria to submit. Please note, for accessibility purposes, we also publish audio recordings by professional voice actors of each poetry and prose piece.
Cover Letters
We find no fault with the industry-standard third-person biography. Yet, we do encourage you to be your most genuine self. Mentioning your current reading, a current project, or even why you create provides additional insight into your work that is often appreciated.
Submission Fees
Poetry, prose, and visual arts submissions are $4. Submission fees are utilized to pay our operating costs. All editors and staff donate their time and effort.
All fees are subject to change in order to meet both the submitters’ and journal’s needs.
Editorial Feedback
We offer three options for editorial feedback on poetry and prose submissions: written feedback, line edits, and virtual consultations. Written feedback includes a one-page review on up to 5 pages of prose or 5 poems, which expresses the thought process behind our decision, areas of potential improvement, and what we appreciated most about the work. Line edits include detailed notes for up to 5 pages of prose or 5 poems, with suggestions on technical issues, language, sentence structure, and/or form. The virtual consultation includes a one-hour Zoom meeting with a staff member to review, edit, and discuss up to 5 pages of prose or 5 poems. You may choose any combination of these options.
Selecting any of the feedback or expedited options does not improve an individual's chances of acceptance. Selecting the expedited option only ensures a decision is made on your piece within 30 days; your feedback, if requested, may take additional time.
Poetry
“Poetry is about survival first of all. Survival of the individual self, survival of the emotional life.” - Gregory Orr
Submission Guidelines
On average Passengers Journal receives between forty and sixty poetry submissions per day. In order for a poet’s work to stand out, it must not only be surprising, evocative, and powerful, but technically sound. Grammatical errors, clichés, and syntax issues are problems that will immediately lead to a rejection, especially if they are within the first several lines of a poem.
Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English—other languages are acceptable only if the majority of the poem is in English or there is a translation attached.
We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is picked up elsewhere so we can take it out of the pile and say congratulations!
All submissions must be no more than 10 pages and no more than 5 poems.
Do not send inspirational poetry or philosophical musings.
We like the strange and unusual (topics too taboo for other publications, hard topics, etc.). However, we of course consider pieces on overall craftsmanship.
We encourage risk-taking only if it’s done well. This applies to style, format, and the use of peculiar language or setup. Sending an erasure poem for the sake of sending an “off-beat” format only interests us when the white space actually helps the poem.
Surprise us! Scare us! Make us weep! Send us work that will speak on and off the page. We aren’t easily defeated by hard topics such as horror, gore, and crime, as long as the poem is not entirely promoting violence.
Prose
“I can only speak for myself. But what I write and how I write is done in order to save my own life.” - Barbara Christian
Submission Guidelines
Your first 250 words are an audition. With them, the reader should be lured into the story you’re telling and the promise of your distinct voice, and we should have the sense that you, and only you, can tell us the story we are about to read. Grab us, and don’t let us go.
A good story is three-fold. It has drama — tension — though not necessarily a plot (see: Ursula Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas). It also has a sense of language, a general sensibility for poetic devices, no matter how economic the style. And last, a well-told story is ultimately a narrative endeavor and should have a solid sense of prosaic craft: dialogue, character development, “I” vs. “Me”, scene, and so on.
We accept flash fiction and hybrid pieces that would, by definition, blur some of these lines. Excerpts of longer works are also welcome, though they should read in such a way that it is compelling as a standalone and leaves us wanting more. Excerpts and standard prose pieces should not be longer than 7,500 words.
Keep in mind that there are many reasons a piece may not be accepted that have nothing to do with the quality of your work. We may have had a similar piece run in the previous issue or have one queued up for the next. It may be a very fine contribution, but not right for this publication. It may be out of sync with the moment. We receive many, many submissions and are only able to accept a rare few.
If we do not accept your work but ask that you submit to us again in the future, we mean it.
Visual Arts
Submission Guidelines
We accept paintings, drawings, prints, photography, street/graffiti art, sculpture, ceramics, glass, calligraphy, murals, textiles, and mixed media. We especially encourage submissions that use non-traditional mediums in new and exciting ways. Overall, we encourage artists to submit work, no matter what medium it may be, that encourages viewers to think in deep and meaningful ways about the world that surrounds them.
Passengers Journal does not retain any rights to the artist’s work, and all rights remain with the artist throughout the publication process.
