We’d love to have you aboard!
Cutty Sark was created out of a desire to see forms of writing different than what typically gets published. While we recognize the importance of personal emotion, we think technique and execution are just as important in a showcase of one’s creative writing abilities. We welcome new and inventive forms of storytelling. Give us your speculative essays using the central symbol of a rose to convey the hypocrisy of romance, your poems from the perspective of Gavrilo Princip, your dystopian, Kafkaesque fiction imagining what life will be like once AI takes over, your experimental prose that invents new words. We want to see a connection between subject, shape, and language. Form equals function, after all!
Please send your work to the correct email based on genre (more information below) as a single .docx or .doc file. (Make sure we have access to view it if sent as a .doc) No PDF or image files. In the subject line please provide your first and last name, as well as genre, separated by a dash. If you are submitting to multiple genres, please send them to the respective emails. You may submit to as many or as few genres as you like. Please title your file with your last name and the titles of up to two of your pieces. Do not put any kind of personal information anywhere on the document itself.
Please submit your work alongside a cover letter and a short third person bio (up to 70 words). Confused on how to write a cover letter? Here’s a helpful blog post from The Dawn Review.
We have no limitations on subject matter, however we will not accept any pieces that contain hate speech. Works of explicit nature are less likely to be accepted, as we reserve the right to reject them regardless of quality if we feel they are too gratuitous for publication.
We accept work from both emerging and established writers. International submissions are also accepted, but any non-English work must include a translation.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us as soon as possible if your pieces have been accepted elsewhere. We can be found at cuttysarkeditor@gmail.com.
Cutty Sark requests the right to publish your work. Upon publication, all rights return to the author, and all copyright stays with the author from the minute you submit until this magazine’s last dying breath. If your work is published elsewhere after appearing in Cutty Sark, we kindly request you acknowledge us as the piece’s original home. At this point in time we do accept previously published work, as long as your previous publisher gives the OK.
POETRY
Feel free to submit only one poem if your heart so desires. However, we do recommend that you submit 3-4 poems at a time. It really doesn’t hurt! Please be mindful of word and line count as well. Typically, we prefer that you keep it under 1,000 words, or 120 lines. All poetry should be submitted to cuttysarkpoetry@gmail.com
FICTION
We typically prefer only 1-2 fiction pieces at a time. Our preference is 100-7,500 words. No fanfiction will be accepted, though we will have a good time reading it. All fiction should be submitted to cuttysarkfiction@gmail.com
NONFICTION
We accept 1-2 nonfiction pieces at a time. Word count should be 100-7,500 words. Please be mindful of permissions and respectful use of personal information. If your piece contains personal information about others, we trust that you have gained permission to publicize it. If the piece contains particularly concerning or incriminating information, we reserve the right to reject it. All nonfiction should be submitted to cuttysarknonfiction@gmail.com
Cutty Sark Magazine 