Intricacy: A Literary Review: Issue 2, Mending Fee: usd $4.00

Issue 2: Mending

Lately, we've been thinking a lot about how writing (when we read it and when we write it) allows us to grapple with loss, damage, and despair. This historical moment—and maybe all moments—seems to call upon us to dwell on what we have already lost and what we could still lose. But it also compels us to consider what there is to be found and created anew through the process of returning to and mending what feels broken, old, and forgotten. Of course, mending doesn’t ever return something to how it was—instead, it leaves scars, traces of a new approach or material, and, importantly, a will to repair. To mend requires, then, a simultaneous remembering and reimagining.

For our second issue, we are interested in writing that intricately navigates mending in all its forms, whether literal or figurative, internal or external, personal or communal. And in an age in which we are beginning to reckon with our urgent need to become a culture of repair instead of one of consumption, this theme of mending offers fruitful and far-reaching avenues for writers. (And, we wonder: does intricacy play a role in mending?)

For Issue 2, we are accepting flash and short fiction and nonfiction. Poetry submissions will be accepted only through our poetry contest. The winning poem and four runner-up poems will be published as part of our second issue.

• short fiction (1,000-5,000 words)
• flash fiction (up to 1,000 words)
• creative nonfiction (up to 5,000 words)

Please double space your prose. We spend a lot of our time reading and appreciate submitters using an easily readable font, such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Aptos, Arial, or Garamond.

Simultaneous submissions are fine. Please withdraw your submission on Duosuma if your work is accepted elsewhere. If this happens, congrats! We’re happy you found the right home for your piece.

We ask that you only enter one submission during each submission cycle.

Our submission window will be open November 1-30, 2026, OR until our submission cap is reached.