Unbound Ink Literary Magazine: Issue 2 Gold Star Program Gold Star Free

Mission Statement:

At Unbound Ink, we believe in the transformative power of the written word and its lasting impact. We are committed to reading each submission anonymously, apart from any identifying information, including publishing history—or the lack of it. By approaching each piece in this way, we aim to share a rich spectrum of voices in an inclusive space. We’re seeking work that will challenge, move, and surprise us. Work that won’t let us go.

We accept submissions of previously unpublished work twice a year — starting in February, and again in July—in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual art. Submission periods will remain open until we reach our cap for that period.

Response times vary according to the volume of submissions, but we will try to respond within three months. Thank you in advance for your patience.

We read each submission anonymously. Please see our Mission Statement.

Important: Do not include your name or contact information anywhere in your submission. Please do include the genre of the work you're submitting at the top of the page. If we accept your work, we will request your name and bio so that we can include this information when your piece is published on our site.

• Please send only unpublished work. If your poem, story, or essay has been published in a journal, in a blog, or on social media, it is not eligible for publication.
• Simultaneous submissions are welcome. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us as soon as possible.
• We obtain first rights to online publication only, and authors retain copyrights of their work. We ask that you wait three months before publishing the piece elsewhere, online or in print.
• Submissions are open internationally, and inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the poem, story, or essay is primarily written in English.
• Currently, we only accept translations by the original author.
• AI-generated work will be automatically declined.
• While we don’t charge a submission fee, we are (at this time) unable to pay our authors.
• Upon submission, you will be added to our mailing list. You may unsubscribe at any time.

We consider previously unpublished:

Fiction

• Submit one short story, up to 5,000 words.
• Submit one or two flash fiction pieces, up to 1,000 words each, in a single document.

Poetry

• Submit three to five poems, up to ten pages in a single document.

Nonfiction

• Submit one creative nonfiction piece or personal essay, up to 3,500 words.

Visual art
We accept visual art for our online covers only. Please watch our website for submission periods. Visual art specs generally require a high-resolution digital format (like JPEG or TIFF) at 300 DPI or higher.