Most events are installed on their deadline date, unless there is a long submission window or unless it's a rolling submission.
P=Poetry, N=Nonfiction, F=Fiction
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PFN – Jelly Squid Magazine Seeking Compressed Works
July 18, 2025 @ 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Introducing our fourth issue, MINI SQUID!
This turn towards “mini” work is hugely intentional for us. It’s been a difficult year so far; we find ourselves living in a time that feels, overall, unlivable. As a publication, our response is to simplify. What does art become without the luxuries of extensive prose, flowery language, elaborate constructions of plot? When we strip our work down to its core, what will we find?
Short work is powerful and succinct. It finds ways to not only overcome its limitations but become empowered by them, use them as tools. This is the sort of energy we’re seeking out these days. Short work, simplified work, compressed work; these tiny pieces of art feel like sparks of something powerful.
MINI SQUID GUIDELINES
MINI SQUID will be a mini-issue showcasing mini-work and published IN PRINT. Starting June 6th, we’ll be accepting submissions of tiny, mini, compressed work – short poems, microfiction etcetera. Here’s everything you need to know:
POETRY
6 lines maximum per poem (and one word minimum – these works can be as short as you like). Send us no more than three poems total. Please try to avoid excessive use of spacing; we’d like to see poems that approach a small amount of space as an opportunity rather than a limitation.
FICTION & NONFICTION
500 words maximum per piece. Send us no more than three pieces. Guidelines are the same for both fiction and nonfiction, but please identify the genre of your work in your submission email.
OTHER/HYBRID
Three pieces maximum. We’ll leave it to you to read the guidelines from our other genres and apply them to your work.
We know this is a lot of new information to take in, so please don’t hesitate to email (jellysquidmag@gmail.com) or message us on our socials with any questions!
Please continue reading below for our general guidelines – this will tell you more about what we do and don’t accept, how to format your work, and more.
GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Jelly Squid was created out of a desire to seek out and uplift voices that feel innovative and new. We accept prose, poetry, and visual art, as well as work that falls into several of those categories (we love hybrid work!). Though we are based in the PNW and aim to use our platform to uplift underrepresented voices from our local community, we accept English-language submissions from anywhere in the world.
Please send all submissions by email to jellysquidmag@gmail.com. If your submission includes multiple pieces, please submit all of them in one document. PDFs are preferred. Please only send us one submission in one category per reading period. We also ask that you send us a short third-person bio along with your submission. Do not include your name anywhere in the document you are submitting.
Jelly Squid accepts work from writers of all backgrounds, but we are especially interested in publishing work from writers who have been published six times or less (or not at all). This is not a requirement, but if this is you, please let us know! We want to give your work the time and attention it deserves. We love to see work from young writers, but please do not submit if you are under 18. Also do not submit work created using AI. Also – this should go without saying, but we want to be clear – we at Jelly Squid do not stand for transphobia, racism, homophobia, misogyny, zionism, ableism, anti-semitism, xenophobia, or any bigotry of any sort. Black lives matter, trans lives matter, free Palestine – if you disagree, don’t submit. If you send us work that expresses bigoted views, we will automatically reject it and will not consider any future work you might send our way.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but make sure to let us know. If you have to withdraw a piece (or pieces), please let us know immediately via email. We do not accept previously published work (work that has been posted on personal websites or social media is ok). If you’ve had your work published by us before, please wait to submit again until a full issue cycle has passed since the issue you were published in (for example, if you had your work published in Issue 1, you can submit to us again for Issue 3).
We do not currently offer payment upon publication as we are small and independently run, but we hope this can change at some point in the future. Submissions are always free. All rights revert to authors upon publication.