PFN – Open Minds Quarterly Seeks Submissions. Theme: “Cycles”

Open Minds Quarterly is a literary journal that features explorations of life in a mad world. We welcome writing and art from people with lived experience of what is variously called mental health challenges, mental illness, madness, and neurodivergence. We strive to promote these voices and perspectives by publishing work based on first-hand lived experience.

The theme for Summer 2022 will be: CYCLES. We encourage you to think of this theme broadly and incorporate into your work. Pieces that follow the theme will have a much higher chance of being selected for this issue than pieces that don’t follow the theme. Nonfiction, reviews, open letters, and research should relate specifically to experiences of madness or mental health challenges. Poetry and fiction submissions do not need to focus on madness/mental health, but we may prioritize pieces that we feel fit our mandate and this issue’s theme.

You may submit one (1) of the following:

• NONFICTION—First-hand accounts, personal essays, and memoir. 1 piece, 3000 word limit.
• FICTION—Creative explorations of life through a mad lens. 1 piece, 3000 word limit.
• RESEARCH—Studies on mental health that pass a formal ethics review. 1 piece, 3000 word limit.
• LETTERS—Opinion pieces and letters for our editor or readers. 1 piece, 3000 word limit.

OR four (4) pieces of the following:

• POETRY—From poets well-versed in mental health challenges. 4 piece limit.
• EXPERIMENTAL—Thinking and writing outside of the other boxes. 4 piece limit.

We accept simultaneous submissions. Please notify us as soon as possible if your work is accepted elsewhere. We do not publish work that has been selected for publication elsewhere. We do not accept previously published pieces. We do not publish excerpts from longer works.

You must be 18 or older to make a submission.

Please note, it may take up to 60 days after the submission period has closed to review your submission.