Fence magazine no. 45
submissions for
- poetry, fiction, climate & ecology, and other -
CLOSED on September 30, 2026
submissions for
- translation -
remain OPEN until November 1, 2026
__________________
Sign up for the Fence newsletter in order to receive updates about future submission periods!
++++++++++
You may view the most up-to-the-minute submission guidelines on the Submittable platform:
https://fence.submittable.com/submit
++++++++++
Fence is published in print approximately one to two times per year.
We ask for your support through a reading fee in order to ensure Fence will have the required funds on hand to pay our printer in Illinois and our distributor who prepares the magazine for shipment to bookstores, libraries, and your mailboxes.
Response time is between three and nine months following the closing of each submission window.
Every submission that we receive, including yours, no matter how many arrive, will be closely read by one of our senior editors. After that initial round of reading, a small number of submissions are advanced to the next round of decision making, so that the editors as a group can discuss them and then select which will appear in the print issue and/or on the Fence website.
++++++++++
Please note:
Repeat publication by a contributor within the same field (poetry, fiction, translation, other) may take place only after at least four issues or two years have elapsed. The editors do not make exceptions.
Contributors with work selected for print publication will be compensated at $50 and a two-issue subscription to Fence.
Work made with a reliance or dependency on "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) will not be published in Fence.
We thank you for respecting our editorial guidelines, and we look forward to considering your art!
++++++++++
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 8,000 words or three flash fictions of up to 1,000 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.
Translation: Cole Swensen is Translation Editor, focusing on poetry.
Text in originating language is preferred.
New translations of previously translated poems are welcome.
The above genre-specific page maximum and limits apply just the same for translation.
Other: Other is appropriate for work that is hybrid or otherwise not interested in saying what it is, that is not logically or comfortably situated with Poetry, Fiction, or Translation. Submit up to twelve pages of Other.
See PEOPLE for the list of Other Editors.
++++++++++
We hope that you will become, if you are not already, an active part of Fence not only through submitting your writing but also as an active, sustaining subscriber. We encourage you to read through issues of Fence. In turn, we will maintain an open and energetic space for the publication of new literary art, and we will continue to connect to an ever-expanding audience through innovative design, distribution, and publicity.
++++++++++
***OUR MISSION***
Fence maintains a venue, in print, aural, and digital forms, for writing that speaks across genre, sociocultural niche and ideological boundary as accessibly as it can, such that Fence publishes largely from its unsolicited submissions and is committed to the literature and art of queer writers and writers of color.
Fence encourages collective appreciation of variousness by inhering collectively outside of the constraints of opinion, trend, and market.
The name of the magazine comes from a John Ashbery poem, "Soonest Mended."
The Ottoline Prize in Poetry is CLOSED for submissions, and will re-open in spring 2027.
Sign up for the Fence newsletter in order to receive updates about future submission windows!
The Ottoline 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.
Please review the following:
First, second, third, fourth, and beyond books are welcome. Poets at any stage in their writing life, published or unpublished, are eligible to submit.
Poets living in any country are welcome to submit their manuscripts. There are no limitations on country of origin or immigration status.
Manuscripts should be at least 45 pages. There is no maximum page limit.
Multilingual poetry manuscripts are welcome, as well as self-translations into English.
Manuscripts may be submitted to other Fence Book submission calls simultaneously.
Poetry created through collaboration is welcome. Please provide the contact information of your collaborator(s) in the ‘cover letter’ field. Your collaborators need to also qualify based on the Ottoline guidelines.
Current and/or former students and teaching colleagues of Emily Wallis Hughes are ineligible to submit.
Current Fence volunteers, editors, board members, and editorial advisors are ineligible to submit, as well as family and partners of the above-mentioned Fence community.
Fence Books is an imprint of Fence Magazine, Inc., a small, fully independent literary publisher. The reading fees help cover the editorial labor involved in the serious, deep process of fully considering each manuscript we receive and may be allocated to various necessary operational expenses.
Fence Magazine, Inc., a 501(c)(3) independent not-for-profit based in New York, is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses [CLMP].
While Fence does not have an identity-hidden reading process for this prize, the editors care deeply about editorial integrity and reading objectively; all Fence editors and readers agree to the "Editorial Guidelines and Code of Conduct" approved by the Board of Directors.
Please write to fence.fencebooks@gmail.com with any questions.
*
California Silence by Stella Santamaría is the 2026 Ottoline Prize book, forthcoming Fall/Winter 2026.
Tiny Evolutions by Sharmila Cohen is the 2027 Ottoline Prize book, forthcoming Fall/Winter 2027.
*
new york ironweed by Amanda Deutch was the winner of the 2025 Ottoline Prize, and was published Spring 2026.
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 Fence Modern Poets Series Prize is CLOSED for submissions, and will re-open in spring 2027.
Submissions are only accepted via Submittable and editors cannot accept work outside of reading periods.
Sign up for the Fence newsletter in order to receive updates about future submission windows!
__________________________
GUIDELINES + ELIGIBILITY
***Submissions will be read in an identity-hidden process. Please remove your name and any identifying information from your manuscript. Manuscripts containing the author's name anywhere in the document will not be read, and will be disqualified.***
Open to full-length poetry manuscripts. Minimum 45 pages. No page limit.
Poets at any stage in their writing life, published or unpublished, are eligible to submit.
There are no citizenship limitations or requirements.
Poets of all identities and genders are encouraged to submit their manuscripts.
Collaborations and all kinds of poetry experiments are welcome, including those which incorporate visual art.
Poetry in self-translation is welcome.
Manuscripts may be submitted to other Fence Book submission calls simultaneously.
Current or former students (within 10 years) and teaching colleagues of Delicia Daniels or Emily Wallis Hughes are ineligible to submit.
Current Fence volunteers, editors, board members, and editorial advisors are ineligible to submit, as well as family and partners of the above-mentioned Fence community.
The future Fence Modern Poets Series Book Prize judges are as follows:
2029: Cole Swensen, Fence Translation Editor
2030: Patricia Killelea, Fence Poetry Editor
2031: Rebecca Wolff, Founder of Fence Books
2032: Max Winter, Fence Poetry Editor
2033: Soham Patel, Associate Editor of Fence
2034: Emily Wallis Hughes, Editorial Director & Fence Books Editor
Fence Books is an imprint of Fence Magazine, Inc., a small, fully independent literary publisher. The reading fees help cover the editorial labor involved in the serious, deep process of fully considering each manuscript we receive and may be allocated to various necessary operational expenses.
Fence Magazine, Inc., a 501(c)(3) independent not-for-profit based in New York, is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses [CLMP].
The editors care deeply about editorial integrity; all Fence editors and readers agree to the "Editorial Guidelines and Code of Conduct" approved by the Board of Directors.
Please write to fence.fencebooks@gmail.com with any questions.
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. Forthcoming Fall/Winter 2026.
PORN W/OUT SEX by Mark Faunlagui is the winner of the 2027 Fence Modern Poets Series Prize, selected by Emily Wallis Hughes. Forthcoming Fall/Winter 2027.
We will announce future submission windows 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.
