If you want to know what we’re looking for, try reading Reckoning 2, Reckoning 1, the interviews, the Reckoning twitter, LCRW 33, or any of these.
The short version: creative writing about environmental justice. Fiction preferably at least a tiny bit speculative, nonfiction preferably more creative than journalistic, poetry tending towards the narrative and preferably with some thematic heft, art your guess is as good as ours. But the heart of what we want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth.
We are actively seeking work from Indigenous writers and artists, writers and artists of color, queer and transgender writers and artists, and anyone who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world. And we’re actively seeking new ways to reach all of the above. Seriously, if you know of a way we can do that, please share.
We don’t publish work we perceive to be prejudiced in any form, including sexism, racism, ableism, ageism. We’ll point it out—respectfully—when we see it, though we’re as prone to mistakes and misunderstanding as anyone else.
We’re no longer accepting submissions by email; queries are ok. Simultaneous submissions are ok. Multiple short poetry submissions is ok; with longer submissions, please send just one at a time. Feel free to submit again after you hear back. Query for reprints. Length: 0 – 45,000 words, inclusive. Response time has ranged from one to three months. Payment is six cents a word for prose, twenty dollars a page for poetry, art minimum twenty-five dollars per piece. Arbitrary cutoff point for the fourth issue will be the autumn equinox, 2019.
Submit your work here via Moksha!
(All of the above shall be subject hopefully not to too much change but certainly to clarification, evolution and adaptation.)
Is there a minimum amount of time you would prefer people to wait between being rejected and submitting a new piece? Some places have no minimum, as long as you wait until one piece is rejected before sending another but others seem ask writers to wait a month or so.
Please go ahead and send something new as soon as you hear back. Thanks for asking!
Is there any specific deadline that we have to meet in order to present our story?
November 1st is the deadline for the first issue, but anything submitted after that will be considered for the second issue.
Will you consider material previously published on-line?
Thanks very much.
LB Benton
Please query first.
Do you require a cover letter and/or personal bio?
No! (I’ll ask for a bio if I buy something.) Thank you for asking.
Thanks!
Good afternoon, do you review subs as they come along or will you wait till the deadline to chose? Thanks!
I’ve been reading as I go. If you like, see The Submission Grinder for some hard data:
http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market/Index/5078
Interesting stuff. Thanks.
Is there payment for contributors and what rights are you purchasing? Thank you!
Payment details are listed above. I buy first North American serial rights in all formats and nonexclusive audio rights.
Hello there,
May I know if you consider entries from authors/writers outside North America?
How do you pay? Via Paypal?
Thanks
Yes, we welcome and encourage submissions from authors outside the North America! So far we’ve seen submissions from the Caribbean, Spain, Australia, Germany, the UK, Canada, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some. A few semi-autonomous Native reservations in the US, do those count? Seriously, I wish English were not such a determining factor. I would love to publish some biligual work. I wish I had the capacity to appreciate artistic brilliance in languages other than English.
We pay by PayPal or by check. And I don’t mind mailing checks internationally if needed.
Thanks! I just submitted my poems yesterday. Hope you like them 🙂
Hello,
Is RECKONING a print or an online journal?
If print, what is the distribution? If online, is it free?
Thanks
Reckoning will be an online journal, with aspirations to a print version currently but hopefully not permanently beyond our financial means. I’d rather pay authors than pay for ink and paper, even if it’s vegetable ink and recycled paper. The complete journal will be for sale online in ebook form, and all the content will also be released for free on the website gradually on a weekly basis, starting on the Winter solstice.
Hi there,
I just wanted to check if 45,000 words was a typo… Seems a lot for a magazine but I do have a 39,000 word novella! Did you mean 4,500?
It’s not a typo. I am just trying hard not to be closed-minded. Practically, it’s a long shot that I’d be able to publish anything that length, because it would take up an entire issue. But I want to keep that possibility open.
Hi! I saw no multiple submissions, but simultaneous submissions are fine, which is great. For poetry…send one in at a time too?
Thank you for your time.
Go ahead and send a few poems at once if you like. Thanks for asking.
How long should we wait before inquiring about a submitted piece?
How about three months?
Right now we’re responding to submissions from mid-February, holding onto a very few from earlier than that for further consideration.
I saw a previous comment here saying you should query for reprints, but what email do we query to?
Excellent question–ha, I took the email address off here when we switched to Moksha and should not have. It is restored.
re: “I am actively seeking work from…anyone who has suffered the consequences, intended or otherwise, of dominant society’s systemic disconnect with and mistreatment of the natural world.”
This is a long story that I’m making terribly simple and short to answer your question. I am one of such people. I lost my mind and was forcibly held against my will in a mental hospital. Why? Because the things we’ve done to the Earth and to ourselves has poisoned our wellspring of life. It took me many years to recover, today I am completely stable and sane without any medications. How? I started to live differently, outside of the patterns of society where the natural order of the Earth could heal my body.
I happen to be a writer, if you’d be interested in my works.. you have my email.