South 85 Journal
There are presently no open calls for submissions.
ISSUE: CITY | COUNTRY
- Cars careening, horns blaring, the blur of conversations caught snippet by tantalizing snippet on the sidewalk? Crickets, cicadas, butterflies, birds, a cheerful creek? Silver skyscrapers or silvery moon? Walking fast, walking slow, sitting at the bus stop, sitting on the front porch? Dirty or dirt? Space measured in square feet or acres or sky or stories?
- The wealth of every nation’s most excellent cuisine on a menu or a ripe tomato you grew yourself?
- Where are you most alive? Where were you born to be? Where is your heart? Where is your family? But where are you right now?
- Surrounded by nature, terrified of nature, finding nature in unexpected places, nurturing nature? Is a cockroach nature? Is a mosquito?
- Where is the rain gentle? The snow pretty? The storms shattering? Which season is the show-off? Where are the celebrations you remember? Who are the people you understand, who you understand all too well, who you’ll never possibly understand? Who are your people?
- What happened that one time that you’ll never, ever forget? Where is that place and time you can’t go back to? Where will you stay forever? Where is home?
- With each of our themes, the possibilities are endless, and we want this theme to feel open to countless interpretation, introspection, and examination. As always, we’re eager to read what you come up with.
• Fiction submissions should be between 800 and 4000ish words. Please include word count. Flash fiction should be under 750ish words, submitted to the flash category. One story per submission.
• Nonfiction submissions should be between 800 and 4000ish words. Please include word count. Flash nonfiction should be under 750ish words, submitted to the flash category. One piece per submission.
• Poetry submissions should contain no more than 3 poems, up to 6 total pages, one poem per page.
• Please send only one submission per category (Poetry, Fiction, Flash, and Non-Fiction) during each reading period. You are welcome to submit to multiple categories. We suggest including the title of your work in your file name.
• Submission fee = $3
• We will publish novel excerpts, provided they can stand on their own. We do not publish genre fiction or children’s stories. We encourage you to read archives of South 85 Journal and acquaint yourself with the material we publish before submitting your work. We encourage the use of a content warning if necessary, in consideration of our manuscript readers.• Type should be no smaller than 12-pt. font. Please use a standard font such as Times New Roman or Arial, and refrain from script or “flowery” lettering.
• We do not solict work; each published piece comes to us through Submittable.
• Converse MFA students, grads, and faculty are not permitted to submit work to South 85 Journal.• Writers whose work has been published in the journal are asked to wait one issue before submitting to the journal again (i.e. your poem appeared in Spring/Summer 2025, so you’re cleared to submit again for the Spring/Summer 2026 issue and any after).• We accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please promptly withdraw your piece via Submittable or email to withdraw individual poems: south85journal AT gmail DOT com.
Please include a professional bio of 50ish words written in the third person with your cover letter.
We are NOT interested in reading work composed or edited or reviewed with the use of AI. Please–help us keep our journal human!
South 85 Journal does not publish work which has been previously published, either in print or online. Our reply time is typically eight weeks or so.