Submissions
Have you ever eaten cold waffle fries in your underwear at like, 2am? No? Well, you should.
Eating leftovers you’ve convinced yourself you’ll heat up later and eat but then just eat them by the light of the fridge – though it’s unclear why you’re in your underwear – it’s a wonderfully strange experience and that’s kind of what we’re aiming for. A wonderfully strange experience but in words and art.
Got a piece that doesn’t quite fit elsewhere? We want to read it. Experimenting with format or style? Love it; send it our way. We want your abandoned words, your collection of phrases tucked away in your Notes app, that strangely-written but oddly elegant poem that doesn’t play well with others. We’re looking for hybrids, lyrics, prose, poetry; whatever you’ve got, we’ll read (within reason).
Flash February
(Online Submission Call)
flash [/flaSH/]
adjective
brief; sudden.
Februrary
feb(y)əˌwerē
The second month of the year.
Do you know how to pronounce February? That’s okay, neither do we.
Thankfully, we’re not asking for you to pronounce February, we’re just asking you to send us 750 words about something. Anything. Literally anything at all.
(Though please do read our guidelines)
The plan is:
We’ll publish 1-2 fiction pieces and 1-2 CNF pieces every Friday throughout the month of February, because we’re big fans of alliteration. We say 1-2 because it kinda depends on how many submissions we get, etc.
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: we’re not quite sure what we’re doing but at least five people are here for it so no one can stop us now. We’ve already made a website.
SEND US YOUR WORDS!
Word count limit for fiction and creative non-fiction is 750 words.
See details below
What We're Looking For
Poetry
We love all types of poetry except forced rhyming and meter. Send up to three poems, all on the same document. Please make it clear when a new poem begins. No real length requirements but keep it reasonable. Anything more than five pages is too much.
Creative Non-Fiction
We’re looking for almost every type of CNF except academic pieces or critiques. We love lyric essays, memoir, personal essays, etc. Please limit length to 1,500 words.
Fiction
We’re interested in micro, flash fiction and short stories. Being a small, print edition magazine means we can not publish your book. Please limit length to 2,000 words.
Visual Art
We love photography most of all – especially photography that includes people (consenting or in a public place). We also love digital art, painting, calligraphy, mixed media, and graphic design. Absolutely no AI for visual art pieces. No exceptions.
If you’re not sure which genre your work falls into, submit it as what feels right to you. Pieces that blur the lines between genres are pretty cool and we’re not hung up on labels anyway.
Translations
Translations are fine. Interweaving English and another language is also fine.
Formatting
Our submission manager, Duosoma, will guide you through this, but we accept doc, docx, pdf, jpg, tif and png files.
We’re not picky about font but for the love of God do not use Comic Sans (even if graphic design is your passion). Reasonable font size please and preferably 1.5 or double spaced.
Oh, by the way
We’re looking for stand alone pieces. Please only submit one piece per submission period and do not submit another piece until you’ve heard back about the first one.
Third person bio. 50 words max. We find the most intimidating part of submitting to be cover letters so we’re not asking for a whole lot. A simple “oh hey!” Or even “whaddup” will suffice. Maybe just tell us a fun fact about you (like what your favorite color or shape or dinosaur is!). Just acknowledge that we exist because our therapists said it’s good for us.
Deets
Alright, folks, here are the details that we really really really need you to read.
Artificial Intelligence
If you include AI as part of your piece and there’s a genuine purpose that it serves, please disclose this with your submission. Other than genuine, necessary, brief use….absolutely no AI.
Absolutely no hate
We do not tolerate bigotry of any sort: racism, homophobia, sexism, antisemitism, transphobia, ableism, etc. If you’re wondering if your piece may fall on this list, please do not submit. We do not tolerate hate speech or discrimination. This is not negotiable. Work that violates this will be disregarded and submitters may be banned.
NSFW
We’re really not into reading super NSFW pieces. Swearing is fine, but we’re not interested in smut or gratuitous violence, especially sexual violence.
Content Warnings
We’re people and because we’re people, we’ve lived through some shit. While CW/TW are not required, they are greatly appreciated when it comes to sensitive topics. If you’re unsure if your piece needs one, add it.
Unpublished pieces only, please
We’re reasonable, though, so if it’s appeared on social media or a blog, we’ll consider it but please disclose this when you submit.
Simultaneous submissions
YES. Definitely. We’re writers, we get it. Send your work out into the universe but please notify us immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere.
Editing
Look, we’re not looking for perfection but please send us work that you want out in the world. While a couple of spelling or grammatical mistakes are understandable, work that will require significant editing will not be published.
Compensation
Published authors and artists will receive a print edition of the issue they are published in. We’re hoping to be able to compensate contributors but unfortunately are unable to right now. 🙁
Resubmitting
If your piece is not accepted, please wait one month before submitting again. Unless specifically requested, do not submit a piece that has already been turned down but edited. We understand that rejections suck and we try to include feedback or a personal response rather than those form rejections that can sometimes extra suck (and trigger imposter syndrome and rejection sensitivity dysphoria? No? Just us? Weird, but ok)
If your work is accepted, please wait three months before submitting again.
Rights
You retain all rights but we ask that you credit Waffle Fried as the first publisher when submitting or posting elsewhere.
Issue #1 CLOSED
longing [ˈlôNGiNG]
noun
a yearning desire
Waffle Fried is currently accepting unpublished creative non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and visual art that explores the theme of longing – whether it be for something or someone once had or never found, the tale of the one who got away, or even an overwhelming craving (for waffle fries, perhaps?). However you interpret the theme is what we’d like to see, so long as it obviously fits.
Published authors and artists will receive a print copy of Issue #1, which may or may not be available for purchase.
Submissions can only be sent via Duosuma. Any submission sent by email will be deleted without being read.
Word count limit for fiction and creative non-fiction is 2,000 words.
Up to 3 pieces of poetry.
See details below