The purpose of “Whidbey Writes” is to encourage writers with a Whidbey connection to submit short fiction and poetry for publication in the online and print versions of Whidbey Life Magazine and to give our readers and opportunity to enjoy these creative writings. (See previous selected writings here.)
Since January 2015, Whidbey Writes has published 12 selections of short fiction and poetry online; we also published the most popular selection in the Fall/Winter, 2015 print issue. The competition, originally created as a collaboration between Whidbey Life Magazine and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, will now continue as part of the creative writing section of Whidbey Life Magazine.
Readers are encouraged to submit short fiction and poetry, at any time, for consideration for publication in the online and print versions of Whidbey Life Magazine using the submission form below.
Whidbey Life Magazine will monitor how many views and comments each published submission receives online. The poem or short story with the most views and comments in the previous six months will be published in a bi-annual print edition of Whidbey Life Magazine. The author of this piece will receive five free copies of the printed magazine (a $25 value).
Whidbey Writes Submission Guidelines
Whidbey Writes encourages writers with a Whidbey connection to submit short fiction and poetry for publication in the online version of Whidbey Life Magazine. Twice a year, the magazine’s editors will select a submission based on its popularity online to publish in their May or October print edition.
Editorial review An editorial board will review all submissions quarterly and will select three submissions for publication—one per month each quarter—in Whidbey Life Magazine online .
Submission criteria Submissions that meet the following criteria are more likely to be selected for publication in Whidbey Life Magazine:
• Evocative, moving work that inspires readers to willingly leave their world behind to enter yours
• Accessible writing that doesn’t call attention to itself (i.e. doesn’t create a barrier between the reader and your story/poem)
• Work that has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere (including online)
• Poems with 40 lines or fewer (You may submit up to three poems per quarter.)
• Fiction with 1,500 or fewer words. (You may submit one piece of fiction per quarter.)
• A Whidbey connection
• Family-friendly
Deadlines
You may submit your work at any time. Editors review submissions quarterly and their goal is to select three pieces for publication during the following quarter. Deadlines for consideration are on equinoxes and solstices. To have your work considered for the upcoming quarter, please submit it by 5 p.m. on: March 20 (vernal equinox) June 21 (summer solstice) September 23 (autumnal equinox) and December 21 (winter solstice).
How to prepare your work for submission
Format your work of short fiction or poetry as follows:
• Use double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman, leaving a one-inch margin all around.
• On the first page of your submission, include your name, email address, and primary telephone number.
• Make sure your work is titled.
• Save your document as a Rich Text File (.rtf), text file (.txt) or Portable Document File (.pdf) using a filename that contains your name as well as the type of submission you’re making. For example: Poem by Jane Doe.pdf.
• If you have a photo or illustration of yourself or of the subject about which you wrote, you can upload it in a universal file format (.jpg, .jpeg, or .png). Make sure your name is included in the filename. For example: Portrait of Jane Doe.jpg. (This step is optional but strongly encouraged.) Photos and illustrations must be copyright-free and credited.
Privacy
Submitters may not contact editors about their submissions unless invited to do so.
Print publication
Whidbey Life Magazine publishes a print edition in May and October of each year. The Whidbey Writes submissions that have accumulated the most views/comments online will be selected for publication in print. Writers whose work is selected for print will receive five free printed copies of Whidbey Life Magazine (valued at $25).
Legal matters
If your work is published online, Whidbey Life Magazine reserves all rights to it, including translation into other languages, until a month after that year’s print edition has been published. At that time, the copyright reverts to authors and artists. For example, if you submit a work by Dec. 21 and it’s published online in January, February or March, Whidbey Life Magazine holds the copyright to it until after the annual printed edition comes out in May.
Posts remain live online in the “Whidbey Writes” section of Whidbey Life Magazine. Neither the online nor the printed version of Whidbey Life Magazine may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Whidbey Life Magazine. Send requests to reproduce material to mailto:info@whidbeylifemagazine.org or Whidbey Life Magazine, P.O. Box 1426, Langley, WA 98260.
Opinions expressed by the contributors of Whidbey Life Magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the publication’s editors.
About Whidbey Life Magazine
Whidbey Life Magazine is published weekly online and twice annually in print. It is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Find out more about WLM on our About Us page.
For more information
Please contact info@WhidbeyLifeMagazine.org.
How to submit your work
Fill out and submit the form below.