Thanks for asking. Swink’s online edition publishes new work on a rolling basis; every month or so we publish new pieces in each department described below.

Dead Letter Office
Letters that won’t be sent, that say what you wish you’d said but didn’t, what you want to say but can’t, what needs to be said but never will be—except here. At an author’s request, submissions can be published anonymously.

Wit’s End
Parody and satire, riffs and follies, comic flights of fancy from lowbrow to high concept. (pace Dorothy Parker, who gave the name Wit's End to the home of Alexander Wolcott, inconveniently located at the most easterly point of 52nd Street).

You Are Here
Stories about where you live and where you’ve been: the feud between your neighbors, the ugliest tree in your favorite park, the oldest drunk in Hong Kong, the newest grave in Lebanon, the tamale lady in Tulum, the canasta club in Dubai, the letter you found on the sidewalk, the conversation you overheard waiting for the subway, the details of daily life that make you look closer.

Fiction
Stories of all stripes. Excerpts of forthcoming novels and story collections welcome.

Essay
Memoir, personal essays, and literary nonfiction. Excerpts of forthcoming books and essay collections welcome.

Poetry
Featuring up to five poems by each contributor.

How To Submit to Swink’s Online Edition

Please read these fanatically detailed submission guidelines carefully; submissions that don’t meet these requirements will not be considered or responded to.

Submissions are accepted, reviewed, and published on a more-or-less rolling basis. Work accepted for publication in Swink’s online edition will be featured in the online edition’s main pages for two to four weeks or so, then moved to the online edition archive where they will remain indefinitely, unless their authors prefer otherwise.

No, we don’t pay. We really wish we could. Maybe someday we will. But at the moment all we can offer you is the thrill and glory of being published by a semi-obscure online literary journal.

At the risk of stating the very obvious, we hope that before submitting to a department, you’ll pretty please have a look at the pieces we’ve already published in that department to get an idea about what we’re looking for.

The nitty-gritty:

• All pieces should be original and previously unpublished in any format. We acquire first North American serial rights and one-time non-exclusive anthology rights.

• Conventional wisdom suggests that fiction and nonfiction submissions be no more than 3,000 words because people supposedly have short attention spans for online stuff—but what the heck, you’re still reading this (at least we hope you are) so let’s just fly in the face of conventional wisdom and say we’ll consider longer pieces. Very short pieces are welcome, too.

• Poetry submissions should contain a maximum of five shortish poems or three longish ones.

• Submissions (one story, essay, or department feature; 1-5 poems) should be sent in a single file attached to your email—MS Word is preferable; RTF is acceptable; when all else fails, copy and paste into the body of the email—with the contributor’s name, email address, and phone number at the top of the piece and a brief bio at the end.

• Please indicate clearly in the subject line of your email the department to which you’re submitting work (e.g. Fiction, Dead Letter Office, Essay, etcetera).

• Please do not submit more than one piece at a time. We used to accept multiple submissions, it’s true—but it got way too complicated. Sorry.

• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided you let us know that’s what you’re doing—be sure to put the word “simultaneous” in the subject line of your email—and agree to alert us immediately if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

• With all due respect, please don’t send cover letters. All we want to read is your brilliant submission.

• We’ll do our very best to respond to all submissions within 90 days—but we aren’t making promises about that.

Nota Bene: Please, please, please don’t email to nudge us about your submissions; we know it’s a drag to wait, but rest assured we will be in touch with you eventually, one way or the other.

Send questions or submissions—for the online edition only—to swinkonline[at]gmail.com. This address does not accept submissions for Swink’s print edition.