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 2026 Ottoline Prize will open for entries in fall 2025.
The Ottoline Prize awards publication and $5,000 to a book-length work of poetry by anyone who identifies as a woman. The winner of the prize also receives a two-week residency at Eliot House, in Gloucester, MA. The submission fee is $31, and all entrants receive a complimentary subscription or renewal to Fence.
The winner of the 2024 Ottoline Prize is Jennifer Nelson. Her book of poems, On the Way to the Paintings of Forest Robberies, will be published in January 2025.
The 2025 Ottoline Series selection will be announced in early 2025. The submissions window for that award is closed.
The Fence Modern Poets Series awards book publication and a $1,000 cash prize to a poet of any gender or gender identity at any stage of their publishing life.
The author of the selected book of poems also receives a two-week residency at Eliot House, in Gloucester, MA.
The submission window for the 2025 award is open through January 5, 2025.
https://fence.submittable.com/submit
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.
