PFN – Jelly Bucket Call for Submissions: The Voices of Incarceration

Jelly Bucket 15’s special section will focus on the voices of those impacted by incarceration. We’re looking for creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry from writers who have been incarcerated, worked with incarcerated people, or who have been affected by loved ones who have been incarcerated. Submit by January 20, 2025. No fee to submit!

Fiction and Nonfiction

Please limit word count to 5,000. Only one short story may be submitted at a time. For short fiction or nonfiction (less than 1,000 words), up to three pieces may be submitted. Please double-space all entries. We accept .doc, .docx, and .rtf files.

Poetry

Please send us no more than (5) five poems. Each poem should begin on a new page but be submitted in a single document. Format poems on the page as you would have them printed. We accept .doc, .docx, and .rtf files.

Jelly Bucket is committed to publishing writers from, and writing about, marginalized and under-represented communities.

This year we are accepting paper submissions. Send paper submissions to: 

Professor Robert Dean Johnson / Department of English / Eastern Kentucky University / 521 Lancaster Ave / Richmond, KY 40475.

By submitting via mail, the piece must not be simultaneously submitted. Additionally, by submitting via mail the author is agreeing that if we choose to publish, they are agreeing to let us publish the piece “as-is” or with reasonable copy edits (not content or style) and granting us standard, First North American Serial Rights. Because the deadline for printing will be tight, we need them to agree to these things upfront because there will be no time to correspond with an author via email as we normally would.

Please convey our genre guidelines if you are passing along this information. 

If published, for compensation, they will receive a copy of the issue. Please let us know which address they would want it sent to.