Submit to AGNI

We look for writing that catches experience before the crusts of habit form—poetry and prose that resist ideas about what a certain kind of writing “should do.” We seek out writers who tell their truths in their own words and convince us as we read that we’ve found something no one else could have written.

When to submit

Our online Submission Manager is open from September 1st through May 31st, with a monthlong break from 11:59 p.m. Hawaiian Time on December 15th through January 15th. We welcome manuscripts by mail between September 1st and May 31st. (Submissions mailed in June, July, or August will be returned unread, provided sufficient return postage is included.)

Things to know when submitting

• Nearly everything we publish is unsolicited.
• We encourage submissions from writers of all identities, living anywhere, published and unpublished.
• We will not consider writing that has already been published in English, whether in a book, magazine, newspaper, or on an app, a website, a social media feed, or a publicly accessible online community.
• We consider only work written in English or translated into English.
• We have no word limits, though space is at a premium and length sometimes affects our decisions.
• We do not publish genre romance, horror, mystery, or science fiction; however, we are open to writing that borrows elements from any of these.
• We will consider excerpts if they read as if they were meant to stand alone.
• We are interested in personal essays, think-pieces, memoir, prose poems, formal poems, blank verse, free verse, short stories, and short shorts; we do not publish academic essays or purely journalistic writing.
• Though we rely on student interns for many things, they are not involved in considering submissions. All manuscripts are read by masthead editors.
• Our blog features posts by writers who have appeared previously in AGNI or AGNI Online.
• You can familiarize yourself with the magazine by ordering a recent print issue or by perusing the writing that appears here. This site includes selected pieces from our decades of print issues and everything we’ve published at AGNI Online since its inauguration in 2002.
• Sending through our online portal costs $3 per submission. (Submission Manager will briefly redirect you to Boston University’s secure payment page.) Submitting by regular mail is free. Submission fees help us remunerate the editors who spend time with your work. If paying the fee or sending by regular mail poses a difficulty, please get in touch with us through the Contact page.

Some requests

• Please send only one story, one essay, or up to five poems, and please submit only once during our September-to-May reading period.
• Please use page numbers and, if you are submitting prose, double-space your document.
• Please do not submit revisions of work we’ve already considered.
• If you submit on paper and want us to reply by mail, please enclose a stamped, addressed envelope (SAE). If the envelope is large enough and you include sufficient postage, we will return the manuscript; otherwise, it will be recycled. If you’d like to be notified by email only, please include your email address and skip the SAE.
• Do not email your work; we do not read or consider emailed submissions.
• Feel free to submit the same work to other magazines simultaneously. If your entire submission is accepted elsewhere, please log in to your online account and withdraw using the link there—or, if you’ve submitted by mail, or if only a portion of your submission has been taken elsewhere, please contact us with a quick withdrawal note.
• Do not mail your work to us in the months of June, July, or August. The online portal is closed during those months also, and closes for a month-long break at 11:59 p.m. Hawaiian Time on December 15th through January 15th.
• Do not send us your only copy; we cannot accept responsibility for your manuscript.
• Please do not contact us about your submission until four months have passed. We work hard to respond within two, but we’re not always able. If you submit online, you can log in to your account anytime to check status. “Received” means we have the submission and are considering your work.

WHERE to send:

If you’d rather not submit through our online portal, please address your envelope to the Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Nonfiction Editor and mail to:

AGNI Magazine
Boston University
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215

Regular post is fine. There is no advantage to sending a more expensive way.

Purchasing rights

All submissions are considered for both print and online publication.

We buy first worldwide serial rights and pay $30 per printed (or printed-out) page for accepted prose, and $50 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $300. We also give a year’s subscription to AGNI. In the case of print publication, each contributor receives two copies of the issue their work appears in, and we send up to four additional copies to friends or family.

Blog publication, which is limited to writers who have previously appeared in AGNI or AGNI Online, is unpaid.