The Wild Umbrella

We at The Wild Umbrella are literary, but not elitist. We avoid clichés like "calling all writers," "submit your best work," or "read our amazing stories." If we like it, we will put it online. If we really, really like it, you’ll be included in our end-of-year anthology. So just submit. You may as well.

Genre notes:

• Cover art submissions: Submit up to two files per submission window. Please make it configurable to A5 size please – we do not want to do your lousy editing work for you.
• Fiction submissions: Submit only ONE story per submission window (note the all-caps, bold, underlined word). The word limit for stories is 4,000 words. Consider us generous.
• Non-fiction submissions: Submit only ONE essay per submission window. The word limit for essays is 4,000 words. Go cry to the fiction writers if you feel hard done by.
• Poetry submissions: Send us up to 5 poems. Submit your poems together in a single file, with each poem beginning on a new page. See how we didn’t use bold, underlined caps there? We’re maybe beginning to trust you a little.

Simultaneous submissions & document notes:

• Submitted work must be previously unpublished. And no – your own self-publishing, personal social media or blog do not count. Readers of our editors’ showcase will know that we at The Wild Umbrella love a bit of narcissistic self-promotion.
• Do not under any circumstances submit something created – or assisted by – AI.
• On that note, our editors are human too – so please preface any sensitive content with a brief content warning.
• If you are popular enough to be accepted elsewhere, that is fine – let us know by emailing [email protected] so we can withdraw those pieces for consideration. In this case, we will allow you to submit another piece of your apparently acceptable writing for consideration.
• Submissions should be sent in a legible font – Times New Roman, for example – and no smaller than 12pt. If we get melodramatic autofiction in Bauhaus 95 you can consider yourself blacklisted.
• Acceptable formats: .doc, .docx, and legible PDFs. Unacceptable formats: the naïve, caffeine-induced delusion that you should break the rules of literary devices before a basic understanding of them.

In keeping with out generosity, we do not ask for a fee to submit to The Wild Umbrella. However, we will greedily accept any tips, and donations of €20 or more for poetry/prose will receive an expedited response within 10 business days. Despite what you think, we do not use your money to buy loose-leaf tobacco – all donations and tips go directly to compensating our contributors and maintaining the journal. So just pay the €0 fee, hit submit, and immediately experience the crushing, retroactive certainty that you used a semicolon incorrectly.

Submit