Fourth Genre: Nonfiction 2026 Fee: usd $4.00

Published twice annually by Michigan State University Press, Fourth Genre is a literary journal devoted to publishing notable, innovative work in creative nonfiction. Given the genre’s flexibility and expansiveness, we welcome a variety of works ranging from personal essays and memoirs to literary journalism and personal criticism. We showcase works that are lyrical, self-interrogative, meditative, and reflective, as well as expository, analytical, exploratory, or whimsical. Our journal fosters a writer-to-reader conversation, one that explores the markers and boundaries of literary/creative nonfiction. We do not publish scholarly work or academic criticism, though we are happy to accept queries for book reviews, interviews, or craft papers via email at [email protected].

• Where Duosuma prompts you to create a cover letter, please include your name, mailing address, phone number, email address, title of piece, and approximate word count.
• General submissions are accepted September 1 - November 30 only. Reading fee is $4. Authors selected for publication are paid with two (2) complimentary copies of the journal and a $50 honorarium.
• Please do not include your name or contact information anywhere on the manuscript you upload—not even in the file name.
• We rarely publish anything over 6,000 words, but if it is longer, and really good, send it along.
• Please submit only one piece at a time.
• We request that contributors to Fourth Genre wait at least one year after their work appears in the journal to submit again.
• Former students of editors, Patrick Madden and Joey Franklin, must wait 5 years to submit after graduating. Additionally, current Fourth Genre staff are ineligible to submit.
• Simultaneous submissions are OK, but if your work is accepted elsewhere, please immediately withdraw it through Duosuma.