WE ARE CLOSED TO MOST SUBMISSIONS UNTIL 1/20, SO WE CAN ADDRESS THE CURRENT QUEUE. 

The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Founded in 2009 and independent from the start, The Rumpus is a home for excellent, incisive writing that stands the test of time. We welcome work from both emerging and established writers. 

  • All work must be previously unpublished. This includes personal blogs and social media. 
  • I wish this didn't have to be said, but it has to be said. We don't accept or even consider work that was written with assistance from or by AI. 
  • We are an all volunteer publication and hope to respond to your submission within three (3) months. Please do not query before three months have elapsed. 
  • Please only send one submission to a given section at a time; when we've responded with a decision, you are welcome to submit to that section again.
  • We accept simultaneous submissions. Please promptly withdraw your submission if your work is accepted at another publication
  • Please note if you are an annual Rumpus member you should've received a link to a "magic" portal via a Member welcome email that ensures a 6 week initial response time. Please use that link to submit to any of the open calls below OR to submit to specific genres (poetry, fiction, essays) outside of our usual open reading periods. 
  • We accept submissions of fiction, poetry, essays, comics, criticism, and interviews. Accepted work will be published on The Rumpus website and/or in The Rumpus newsletter. More specific guidelines for a given genre can be found at the relevant submission link. 
  • We pay $100 for prose submissions and comics, and $50 for poetry. When we can increase these payments, we will.
SUBMIT to Comics

The comics section at The Rumpus welcomes a wide range of artistic and narrative styles of varying lengths. Currently, we are only considering standalone, complete comics submissions. This means we are not currently accepting pitches for comics (although we hope to in the future!), scripts with incomplete artwork, or chapters/sections of larger works. While we’re interested in what short-form comics can accomplish artistically, we do not typically accept single-panel “New Yorker-style” cartoons or cartoon strips you’d find in the newspaper. The best way to get a sense of what we love is to look through what we've previously published: therumpus.net/sections/comics. 

While we’ll accept submissions in whatever legible file you can upload to Submittable, we’ll expect the final file to be 72dpi and 1,000 pixels wide.

We can only consider work that is previously unpublished—this includes personal blogs, websites, and social media. Please only submit once to any given category of the magazine. When you've received a decision, you are welcome to submit again.

We receive a tremendous amount of Comics submissions, and we appreciate your patience in waiting to hear from us. If you haven't received a decision within eight months of submitting, please feel welcome to query regarding submission status.

We do allow simultaneous submissions; please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere by withdrawing your submission through Submittable.