The Fence magazine window is currently CLOSED.
Fence is published in print approximately one to two times per year.
Please view the most up-to-the-minute submission guidelines:
https://fence.submittable.com/submit
To be notified of the next submission window, be sure to sign up for our email newsletter, above right.
In order for Fence have adequate funds in hand to pay the printers we work with, and the distributors who prepare and ship the issue, we ask for your support through a six-dollar submission fee.
Response time is between three and nine months.
Every submission, including yours, no matter how many we receive, will be closely read by one of our senior editors. After that initial round of reading, a small number are advanced so that the editors as a group can discuss them and select which will appear in the print issue and/or here on the Fence website.
Please note: Repeat publication by a contributor may take place only after at least four issues or two years have elapsed.
Poetry: Please submit up to three poems and no more than ten pages of poetry per submission. You may submit as many times as you would like.
See PEOPLE for the list of Poetry Editors.
Fiction: Please limit your submission to one story of no more than 8000 words or three flash fictions of up to 1000 words each. Submissions containing more than one story or three flash fictions will not be read. Individuals are limited to one submission per submission period.
See PEOPLE for the list of Fiction Editors.
Other: This category allows submitters to self-define by choosing not to define their genre. Is appropriate for work that is hybrid or otherwise not interested in saying what it is. Submit up to twenty pages of Other.
See PEOPLE for the list of Other Editors.
Translations: Cole Swensen has joined us as Translations Editor for Fence #42.
The 2027 Ottoline Prize is OPEN for submissions.
The Ottoline Book Prize is open to full-length poetry manuscripts by any person who identifies as a woman and/or female, including trans women as well as people of variable gender who were Assigned Female at Birth. People who identify as men are not eligible for this prize.
new york ironweed by Amanda Deutch was selected by Emily Wallis Hughes and Jason Zuzga for the 2025 Ottoline Prize.
California Silence by Stella Santamaría was selected by Emily Wallis Hughes and Jason Zuzga for the 2026 Ottoline Prize.
The winner of the 2024 Ottoline Prize was Jennifer Nelson. Her book of poems, On the Way to the Paintings of Forest Robberies, was published in January 2025.
The 2027 Fence Modern Poets Series Prize, founded in 2001, is OPEN to full-length poetry manuscripts.
Click here to read all guidelines, how to's, and submit.
The Strange Wondrous Works of Eleanor Eleanor by Kathryn Cowles, selected by Emily Wallis Hughes, is the winner of the 2025 Fence Modern Poets Series Prize.
Mud Songs Elsehere Book I by Patricio Ferrari, selected by Patricia Killelea, is the winner of the 2026 Fence Modern Poets Prize.
We will announce the next window for submission via our newsletter; please sign up to receive it above right.
The Fence Modern Prose Series is on hiatus while Fence Magazine, Inc., now once again an independent not-for-profit without institutional support, seeks funding.
Please reach out to us if you would like to help sponsor the Fence Modern Poets Series as an annual donor.
