We’re here for the work that doesn’t quite fit. The bruised fruit. The whispered line. The things that wake us at 3 a.m. with no clear reason.

After/Thought Literary is seeking work from the edge—the forgotten, the restless, the misfit art that lives in margins and lingers in aftershocks. We want writing that unsettles, opens old wounds, asks unanswerable questions, or refuses to ask anything at all. If your piece makes us feel something real, raw, or unnameable—we want it.

We’re drawn to work that lingers—writing with a pulse in the sentence, an afterimage in the mind, and a point of view bold enough to risk sincerity. Give us poems that turn a feeling into weather, flash that bends reality just slightly, and fiction that makes the ordinary uncanny without losing its humanity. We love clear voices with sharp edges: lyric essays with narrative momentum, speculative pieces where the strangeness serves the emotional truth, and stories that don’t explain themselves to death—just open a door and trust the reader to step through. Surprise us with tenderness in an unexpected place, humor that doesn’t dodge pain, and endings that feel inevitable only in hindsight.

Open and change our minds.

What we’re looking for:

• Poetry: Any form. Any length (though under 3 pages per poem is ideal). Send up to 3 poems per submission.
• Fiction: Flash, short stories, experimental, hybrid—just keep it under 3,500 words.
• Nonfiction: Memoir, personal essay, lyric essay, things-that-defy-classification. Up to 3,500 words.
• Hybrid & Genre-Bending: We love the strange. Send your shapeshifters, your genre fugitives. If you’re unsure where it fits, send it anyway.

Submission Guidelines:

• Simultaneous submissions are welcome—just let us know right away if your piece is accepted elsewhere.
• No previously published work, please.
• For prose: please attach a formatted, double spaced, 12pt font PDF or Word document.
• For poetry: please attach a PDF or Word document.
• Write a short cover letter in the body of the email.
• Submissions are free. We believe in access and equality.
• We read blind. Please remove identifying info from your manuscript.
• We’re currently open for submissions and intend to remain open.
• Response time: 2–3 weeks, though we may get back to you sooner. If you have not received a response within 25 calendar days, feel free to follow up.

Every Submission Matters

We read every single piece. Every poem, every sentence. This isn’t a numbers game to us. You’re not a line in a spreadsheet. If you send your work, it will be seen, it will be considered, and—no matter the outcome—you’ll hear back from us.

We know what it’s like to send work into a void. This journal was born from that silence.

We don’t do voids here.

Artificial Intelligence

We recognize that writers may use tools—including AI—for research or light editing. However, we only consider work in which the language and creative decisions are the author’s own. Submissions that are wholly or substantially generated by AI are not eligible for publication.

Rights & Such

We will require first worldwide electronic and/or print publication rights, exclusive for 30 days beginning on the date the work is first published by the After/Thought Literary. Rights revert to the author after such period.

Archival Rights, allowing the work to remain on the After/Thought Literary’s website and/or digital archive indefinitely unless the author requests removal in writing.

Non-exclusive anthology rights, permitting After/Thought Literary the right to include the work in a future print or digital anthology.

If your piece gets published elsewhere in the future, we would appreciate that you credit After/Thought Literary as the original publisher.

We are unable to offer compensation at this time.

Author Bios:

If your work is accepted, we’ll ask you for a short author bio to run alongside your piece. Don’t worry about sending it with your submission—just keep writing like it’s the only thing keeping you alive. We’ll reach out for the bio after the “yes.”

To submit, email us at: AfterThoughtLiterary@gmail.com

A note from the editors:

We’re not interested in perfection. We’re interested in truth—messy, aching, exquisite truth. We want the raw nerve, the thing you hesitated to write, the page that shook something loose in you.

We’re new here. But we’ve been dreaming this for a long time.

Come get lost with us.

—After/Thought Literary