Issue 4: Submission Guidelines

Issue 4: Transit

Submissions for Issue #4 Open February 23rd!

HELD Magazine Issue #4 is looking for Creative Writing and Visual Art that explores transit. 

Transit is transition, movement. It’s being en route on the GO bus, resting your head on a window. It’s change, as abrupt as broken bones or as subtle as hair growth. It’s liminal space. Transit can be a collective experience, forming communities through shared passage, migration, and conveyance. When something or someone is in transit, transformation has not concluded. Transition rejects termination and closure, it embraces ambiguity. How do you experience in-betweenness? When you look at the world, where can you see movement, change, or liminality? How do bonds form through mutual transit?

We are looking for poetry, fiction, flash, nonfiction, and graphic art submissions that are between 1-5 pages depending on the genre; submissions must be a single story, essay, poem, excerpt, or work of art that can stand alone. We accept many forms of experimental work as well including comics, mixed media, scripts or more. Surprise us!

Who can submit: Open to all. We prioritize contributors who identify as Black, Indigenous, Racialized and Marginalized. People who identify as 2SLGBTQ+, Deaf and disabled people, as well as those living with mental illness are encouraged to submit. We will ensure that at least 70% of contributors identify with these communities.

Please email us at heldmagazine[@]gmail[.]com for any accessibility needs during the application process.

To Submit: 

Step 1: Review submission guidelines and format/title your document accordingly. Please title your submission document LastName_FirstName_Type of Submission. For example: Smith_Susan_Fiction

Step 2: Fill out this cover page submission form, which includes your submission document upload. 

General Details:

Please submit writing and art that is polished and ready for publication. Please only submit works that are written primarily in English. 

We don’t accept multiple submissions, please only submit to a single category. 

We allow simultaneous submissions, but please immediately withdraw work that has been accepted elsewhere. Let us know by email. 

We do not accept work that has been previously published. Only original, unpublished submissions will be read. 

We pay contributors $50CAD each. 

If your submission is several pieces, we may choose one or more of the pieces to publish. 

At this time, we only publish online.'

We will close submissions on March 16th or when we receive 40 submissions in each genre. 

AI Policy: HELD Magazine will not publish works written, designed, augmented, or edited with artificial intelligence tools or chatbots. 

Once you’ve filled out this cover page submission form and submitted it we will receive your submission directly. It is not necessary to email us a copy.

To help our team centre the contributions of Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQ+, Deaf and disabled creators, and those living with mental illness, we encourage you to self identify in your cover page (only if you feel comfortable). HELD will not make your identity public; if accepted, we will ask for a “contributor bio” that will be published in the journal and you can identify yourself there if you so choose. If maintaining your anonymity is necessary for you to publish, please let us know in your cover page. For such submissions that are accepted we can publish them as “anonymous.” 

If you have any questions about the submission process please get in touch.

heldmagazine[@]gmail[.]com