Submissions

General Overview

Unlike many magazines, Creative Nonfiction draws heavily from unsolicited submissions. Our editors believe that providing a platform for emerging writers and helping them find readers is an essential role of literary magazines, and it’s been our privilege to work with many fine writers early in their careers. A typical issue of CNF contains at least one essay by a previously unpublished writer.

We’re open to all types of creative nonfiction, from immersion reportage to lyric essay to memoir and personal essays. Our editors tend to gravitate toward submissions structured around narratives, but we’re always happy to be surprised by work that breaks outside this general mold. Above all, we’re interested in writing that blends style with substance and reaches beyond the personal to tell us something new about the world. 

Creative Nonfiction accepts submissions online through Submittable. Please read specific calls for submissions carefully. 

When you submit online, you will receive a confirmation email from Submittable. We try to respond to all submissions as quickly as possible, but because the submissions are more often than not at the upper end of the word limit and because we really do read everything carefully, the process often takes a long time. Unfortunately, this is especially true for work we like. If you have not heard from us since the initial confirmation email, please assume your manuscript is still under consideration. 


A Note About Fact-checking

Essays accepted for publication in Creative Nonfiction undergo a fairly rigorous fact-checking process. To the extent your essay draws on research and/or reportage (and ideally, it should, to some degree), CNF editors will ask you to send documentation of your sources and to help with the fact-checking process. We do not require that citations be submitted with essays, but you may find it helpful to keep a file of your essay that includes footnotes and/or a bibliography.


A Note About Reading Fees

Here at Creative Nonfiction, we are always reading, searching for excellent new work to showcase in our various publications. At any given time, we usually have several submission portals open (see above calls for submissions), many of which require writers to pay a reading fee to submit their work.


Still have questions? View additional FAQs here, or contact us.