The Rumen (Gold Star Program) Gold Star

We at The Rumen publish strange, high concept stories with expert framing. We want tales that project themselves beyond the confines of their word limits, with extra believable or unbelievable characters, and balanced prose that demonstrates equal mastery of action and imagery. Our favorite stories leave us with as many questions as answers, so don’t be afraid to weave in your best literary ambiguity. That being said, the purely aesthetic can be a hard sell, so consider closely before sending us your experimental dystopian cyber-thrillers.

• We accept both short fiction and flash fiction up to 5,000 words. If your story is a little over the limit, that’s okay, just make note in your submission

• Erotica, saccharine romance, stories of YA likeness
• Fanfiction
• Generic High Fantasy and Star Wars-adjacent Sci-Fi
• Children’s or middle grade-style fiction (we make an exception for original folktales)
• Transgressive stories for transgression’s sake.

EXPEDITED & PERSONALIZED RESPONSE: Get a response within one week as well as a personalized response letter with general feedback on your submission. Please note that an expedited response will have no bearing on whether or not the submission is accepted. If you have a specific question (or two) that you would like addressed as we read through your submission, please include it in the comment of your submission or email us at [email protected] with your name and the title of your submission. Thank you so much for supporting our publication!

We at The Rumen publish strange, high concept stories with expert framing. We want tales that project themselves beyond the confines of their word limits, with extra believable or unbelievable characters, and balanced prose that demonstrates equal mastery of action and imagery. Our favorite stories leave us with as many questions as answers, so don’t be afraid to weave in your best literary ambiguity. That being said, the purely aesthetic can be a hard sell, so consider closely before sending us your experimental dystopian cyber-thrillers.

• We accept both short fiction and flash fiction up to 5,000 words. If your story is a little over the limit, that’s okay, just make note in your submission

• Erotica, saccharine romance, stories of YA likeness
• Fanfiction
• Generic High Fantasy and Star Wars-adjacent Sci-Fi
• Children’s or middle grade-style fiction (we make an exception for original folktales)
• Transgressive stories for transgression’s sake.

We especially love works dealing with the arts, history, philosophy, sciences, and anything that combines these fields. Thoughtful analyses of film, literature, music, or the like are also welcome. Memoir or personal essays can teach us a lot about ourselves, and we ask that submissions in these genres have a strong central theme or moral. Works of a semi-academic or political nature will require citations, preferably in MLA format.

• We accept personal essay, memoir, think pieces, critical analyses, and similar articles up to 5,000 words. If your story is a little over the limit, that’s okay, just make note in your submission. Any submissions requiring citations should be formatted according to the MLA Style Manual.

• Memoir or family histories absent of narrative or overarching theme
• Book, film, or other media reviews are a hard sell though we can be swayed by interesting critical studies
• Self-help, motivational, evangelical works, how-to guides

We aren’t opposed to political diatribes but it should be noted that works advocating for capitalist, exploitative, imperialistic, and alt-right ideologies are not our cup of cud

EXPEDITED & PERSONALIZED RESPONSE: Get a response within one week as well as a personalized response letter with general feedback on your submission. Please note that an expedited response will have no bearing on whether or not the submission is accepted. If you have a specific question (or two) that you would like addressed as we read through your submission, please include it in the comment of your submission or email us at [email protected] with your name and the title of your submission. Thank you so much for supporting our publication!

We especially love works dealing with the arts, history, philosophy, sciences, and anything that combines these fields. Thoughtful analyses of film, literature, music, or the like are also welcome. Memoir or personal essays can teach us a lot about ourselves, and we ask that submissions in these genres have a strong central theme or moral. Works of a semi-academic or political nature will require citations, preferably in MLA format.

• We accept personal essay, memoir, think pieces, critical analyses, and similar articles up to 5,000 words. If your story is a little over the limit, that’s okay, just make note in your submission. Any submissions requiring citations should be formatted according to the MLA Style Manual.

• Memoir or family histories absent of narrative or overarching theme
• Book, film, or other media reviews are a hard sell though we can be swayed by interesting critical studies
• Self-help, motivational, evangelical works, how-to guides

We aren’t opposed to political diatribes but it should be noted that works advocating for capitalist, exploitative, imperialistic, and alt-right ideologies are not our cup of cud

For poetry we are interested in works that emphasize craft. We want poems with interesting forms, strong sonics, and striking images flawlessly rendered. Traditional forms are welcome but we lean more toward works that take risks and challenge notions of traditional poetics. We especially appreciate conceptual poems that do a few things really well rather than many things with mediocrity.

• You may submit up to 5 poems at a time. If you have already submitted to The Rumen we ask that you wait three months before submitting to us again.
• Each poem should not exceed two pages or 1000 words.

• Long-form confessional poetry
• Generic pastoral/nature poetry
• Anything reliant on cliches, vague poetic nothings, hyperminimalist sentences broken into lines (aka Instagram poetry

We love a good rhyme, but you should be confident in your use of meter/prosody. An off rhyme is far worse than no rhyme at all.

EXPEDITED & PERSONALIZED RESPONSE: Get a response within one week as well as a personalized response letter with general feedback on your submission. Please note that an expedited response will have no bearing on whether or not the submission is accepted. If you have a specific question (or two) that you would like addressed as we read through your submission, please include it in the comment of your submission or email us at [email protected] with your name and the title of your submission. Thank you so much for supporting our publication!

For poetry we are interested in works that emphasize craft. We want poems with interesting forms, strong sonics, and striking images flawlessly rendered. Traditional forms are welcome but we lean more toward works that take risks and challenge notions of traditional poetics. We especially appreciate conceptual poems that do a few things really well rather than many things with mediocrity.

• You may submit up to 5 poems at a time. If you have already submitted to The Rumen we ask that you wait three months before submitting to us again.
• Each poem should not exceed two pages or 1000 words.

• Long-form confessional poetry
• Generic pastoral/nature poetry
• Anything reliant on cliches, vague poetic nothings, hyperminimalist sentences broken into lines (aka Instagram poetry

We love a good rhyme, but you should be confident in your use of meter/prosody. An off rhyme is far worse than no rhyme at all.