moocat.net: Personal Essays Gold Star Program Gold Star Free

Theme for the Winter 2026 Issue: “My 'Being There' Moment”

For the Winter 2026 issue, we are looking for true stories about a time when you were mistaken for someone even more extraordinary than yourself.

"Being There" is a classic 1979 satire starring Peter Sellers and written by novelist Jerzy Kosinksi. It is a rare gem of a story in which a simple gardener is mistaken for an extremely wise and insightful person, who is welcomed into the highest echelons of financial and political power, entirely by mistake. But we know that such mistakes exist outside of the movies.. at least a little.

We are looking for just such accounts, of true stories (pseudonyms for persons involved allowed).

Moocat.net is interested in personal essays on many themes, with the goal of taking the reader on a pleasant and unusual little mind-ride. Uninterested in polemics, erotica, argumentative essays, or anything vituperative, mean-spirited, or rapturously religious. The moocat is a gentle cat.

Original works only. Only works sent in via the online submission form will be considered.

Essays can be from 900 to 2100 words long.

I’m interested in personal essays on many themes, with the goal of taking the reader on a pleasant and unusual little mind-ride.

Limit bios to 50 words max. You may include your photo to appear in the bio. Bio photos will be presented as 80 x 100 px images in greyscale, but it’s best to submit a high-res photo, in case it needs to be cropped.

Use your bio to tell readers about you as a writer or creator and to record where your work has appeared. A short list of prior publications and any forthcoming ones is welcome, as is a link to your own website or portfolio.

Do not include links to or handles for social media platforms, pronoun tags, nor links for purchasing your books or other merchandise through Amazon or other commercial storefronts. If your book is available, include the title and its publisher; readers can take it from there.

People age, but our bios shouldn’t. If you wish to update your bio at any time to show more recent publications, please contact us, and we’ll do our best to oblige.

All submissions are processed on Duotrope, using the Duosuma submission management system. Your work will be reviewed only by moocat.net editors.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but exclusive submissions are preferred (and acted on first). If your submission is accepted elsewhere, please notify us of the piece’s withdrawal within 48 hours.

To protect the time invested in iterative editing, if your work is accepted conditionally, the work remains exclusive to moocat.net during the processing phase until either a final grant of rights is signed or the piece is formally withdrawn.

You retain full copyright in your work.

Electronic rights. By accepting a formal offer of publication, you grant moocat.net First Worldwide Serial Electronic Rights and a perpetual, non-exclusive license to maintain the work in its digital archive. Moocat.net holds exclusive electronic rights for 90 days following publication, after which all rights revert to you and you may republish the work elsewhere, provided moocat.net is credited as the original publisher.

Print rights. You also grant moocat.net a non-exclusive license to reprint the work in print and PDF anthologies of moocat.net content, including for-sale editions, for as long as the anthology remains in print. This license does not affect your right to publish the work elsewhere in any form.