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We can only consider work that is previously unpublished—this includes personal blogs, websites, and social media.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.

We welcome essay submissions up to 5,000 words in length. In addition to personal voice-driven essays we are interested in non-traditional forms of nonfiction. Essays should explore issues and ideas with depth and breadth, illuminating a larger cultural context or human struggle. Regardless of topic, we are looking for well-crafted sentences, a distinct narrative voice, compelling scenes, and thoughtful reflection. Surprise us! Intrigue us! Delight us! We want work we cannot put down or soon forget after reading. 

Please submit work that is evergreen because, given our publication schedule, we cannot respond, explicitly, to the news cycle. That said, we are very interested in work that engages with the current sociopolitical climate. 

Essays must be previously unpublished. This includes personal blogs and social media. Please submit only one essay for consideration at a time; we ask that you wait until a decision has been made on that essay to submit again.

A cover letter is also welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself,  where your work has appeared if you're previously published, or anything else you think might be important for us to know. You do not need to explain your work as we trust it will speak for itself. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but do withdraw your submission if your essay is picked up elsewhere and congratulations on that placement.

Thank you for taking the time to proofread your submission. If you have not heard a decision from us after 3 months, feel free to check in. Please submit your work as a Microsoft Word file.

This section is for poetry book reviews. We repeat, this is for reviews of published or forthcoming books of poetry. Do not submit poems, manuscripts, or anything other than a review of a poetry collection. If you want to submit individual poems, please do so in the poetry category.

We’re focused on reviews of full-length poetry collections and chapbooks by both emerging and established poets. We accept drafts of completed reviews only; please do not submit pitches.

We’re eager for reviews that embrace the traditional form as well as those that challenge or experiment convention, that welcome the “I” and a reader’s personal relationship to a text, and that engage with the form beyond our own imaginations. Please disclose any relationship you have to the author of the book you’re reviewing, if one exists, so we may determine any conflict of interest.

Your review should be accessible to a general audience. We're more interested in the reader's experience of the poems, subject matter, arc, and the poet's use of craft than we are in scholarly criticism or theory. We love reviews that address how the collection interacts with poetic tradition, the current landscape of poetry, and that speaks to what the collection brings to our shared discourse as readers and writers. We are very interested in more expansive reviews of multiple texts or a poet's body of work. While poetry is timeless, we are primarily interested in reviews of poetry collections that have been published in the present year or are forthcoming. 

Formatting details:
 

• Reviews should be between 1200–2500 words for full-length collections, 1000-1500 words for chapbooks.
• Please provide the following information at the top of your review: title of book being reviewed, author of book, name of press and publication date, reviewer's name and email address
• Reviews should be single-spaced and paginated.
• Poem excerpts of more than three lines should be formatted exactly as they appear on the page, and set off in the text of the review. Please include at least 1–2 excerpts of more than three lines. Shorter excerpts should be quoted within the text of the review using quotation marks and virgules ( / ), with one space ahead and behind the virgule to indicate line breaks. Poems cannot be reprinted/quoted in their entirety. When excerpting poems, spaces at the front of the line and within lines should be done using the space bar rather than the tab key.
• There is no need to cite page numbers within the review, but please check excerpts and quotes carefully to ensure they are free of errors and formatted correctly.
• In your cover letter, please include: your contact information and a brief bio we would use should your review be accepted

All work must be previously unpublished—this includes personal blogs, websites, and social media. We do allow simultaneous submissions; please withdraw your review from Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere. Please wait at least three months from date of submission before querying about submission status.

Publishers seeking to submit finished books for review consideration should not use this Submittable account.

If you are interested in submitting a review of a poetry collection, please only do so in our Poetry Book Reviews category on Submittable. Do not submit poetry reviews here.

We're interested in thoughtful, engaging cultural criticism between 1200-5000 words. Please submit a finished draft rather than a pitch.

For book criticism, please provide the following information at the top of your review: Title of book, author's name, name of press, and publication date. 

For theatre criticism, please include the name of the show, the theater where it is playing, and the dates of the show's run. If it's open ended, please list the start date - present. 

For music criticism, please include the name of the album, the musician(s), the label, and release date.

For art criticism, please include the name of the artist(s), the gallery/museum where the work is being exhibited, and the dates of the exhibition. 

We welcome all kinds of cultural criticism. We believe criticism is meant to be critical, but we aren't interested in a tear down without substance.  We aren't interested in uncritical fan service, book reports, or summaries. We want thoughtful engagement with interesting cultural artifacts. We want your writing to reflect your distinct point of view. We want to understand the context into which the cultural artifact(s) being reviewed has been created, the ideas with which it engages, and what the cultural artifact reveals about our culture.

Please note that we do not accept work where a conflict of interest exists.

All work must be previously unpublished—this includes personal blogs, websites, and social media.

The Rumpus Original Fiction series features original short fiction of a wide variety.

Please submit a short story of up to 5,000 words as a Microsoft Word file, accompanied by a brief cover letter and third-person bio. If you are sending flash fiction (1000 words or fewer), you’re welcome to submit up to three pieces for consideration as one submission.

Please only send one submission at a time, and if you have a submission pending, please wait to submit again until you've received our decision on the pending submission. Work must be previously unpublished; this includes personal blogs/websites and social media.

At The Rumpus, we are interested in stories that have layers, with elements of surprise and unexpected stakes and points of tension running beneath. Rumpus stories have an edge and feature unique, indelible voices. They tackle emotional depth while not being at all sentimental. We love it when a story's language, plot, and characters feel palpable and dynamic on the page, and a strong sense of place goes a long way. Show us something new, bold, brash, alive.

We encourage simultaneous submissions but if your submission is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it through Submittable, promptly. Also, congratulations on the acceptance!

We look forward to reading your work!

Please submit 4-8 poems (up to 12 pages) in one Word .doc accompanied by a brief cover letter and third-person bio. Please only send 1 submission at a time and if you have a submission pending, please wait to submit again until you've received our decision on the pending submission. 

Work must be previously unpublished; this includes personal blogs/websites and social media.

While we embrace and consider poems with diverse page presentations, there may be situations where we are unable to accommodate poems with special formatting as seen on the page.

We encourage simultaneous submissions but request that this be noted in your cover letter. If poems in your submission are accepted elsewhere, please notify us through Submittable.

We look forward to reading your work!

We are looking for thoughtful interviews (the kind that go beyond say, process) with the most interesting writers, artists, thinkers, musicians, and excellent humans around. Submit pitches and interviews here.