The Wrath-Bearing Tree

About

Wrath-Bearing Tree was established by a small group of combat veterans in 2013 and has published all kinds of prose and poetry related to the topic of military service, violence, trauma, and resulting mental and emotional health challenges. We tend to agree with Kafka that good art should “affect us like a disaster, grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves.” But we also believe that Kafka’s own work shows that the best, most difficult art manages to see something on the other side of disaster. We have no idea what that something is. Edmund Burke called it the sublime, “a complex pleasure,” which came out of imminent terror and pain and produced “the strongest emotions which the mind is capable of feeling.” William Blake said that “if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.” It’s hard to say who is right. It’s possible they are both wrong. Help us out. Send us your best fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. You don’t have to be a veteran, or write about war. Just hit us over the head with something.

Voluntary Fees: This project accepts voluntary fees for “Tip Jar” submissions.

Limited Demographic: Submissions are restricted to those who have experienced military, economic, and social violence, or their consequences.

Country of Publication & Year Established

United States

Established in 2013

Publication Medium & Frequency

Electronic Publication Electronic Publication: Unknown publication frequency

AI Policy

Unknown AI policy

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Statistics Synopsis

Slower: The Wrath-Bearing Tree's overall average response time is slower than most magazines.

Learn more about our statistics

Collapse section Fiction Open

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience, including: Military personnel.

Genres:

General

Lengths:

Flash Fiction: No specific word count limits known (our definition: up to 1000 words).
Short Story: No specific word count limits known (our definition: 1000 to 7500 words).

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Literary, Mainstream.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Society/Culture: General, Current events, Social issues, War/Military issues, See guidelines.

Payment:

No monetary payment No monetary payment.

Submissions:

Method: Submittable submission manager.
Reprints: Unknown.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Media: Text.

Collapse section Nonfiction Open

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience, including: Military personnel.

Lengths:

Review: No specific word count limits known.
Essay: No specific word count limits known.
Narrative Nonfiction: No specific word count limits known.

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Literary, Mainstream, Personal.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Film/Television: General, Film, Television, Theory/Analysis/Criticism, See guidelines.
Literature/Books: Theory/Analysis/Criticism.
Society/Culture: General, Current events, Social issues, War/Military issues, See guidelines.

Payment:

No monetary payment No monetary payment.

Submissions:

Method: Submittable submission manager.
Reprints: Unknown.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Media: Text.

Collapse section Poetry Open

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience, including: Military personnel.

Genres:

General

Lengths:

Poem: No line limits known.

Poetry Forms:

Open to all/most Forms.

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Literary, Mainstream.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Society/Culture: General, Current events, Social issues, War/Military issues, See guidelines.

Payment:

No monetary payment No monetary payment.

Submissions:

Method: Submittable submission manager.
Reprints: Unknown.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.
Media: Text.

Expand section Visual Art Closed

Always check guidelines for details and restrictions. If you aren't familiar with these terms, see our glossary.

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The Wrath-Bearing Tree Submission Statistics

The statistics in this section are compiled from submission reports sent to us through our submission tracker. They are not provided by the publication's editors/staff or by Duotrope's admins. Information in this section is updated a few times per day. Learn more about the statistics.

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Include outliers

Accuracy

We have received 6 reports from 5 different members within the past 12 months, not including pending responses (see below). The more responses reported, the more accurate the information.

Days Reported

3 min | 203.7 mean avg | 100.0 median | 508 max days (233.4 std dev)

Pending

2 responses are pending (59 min | 96.5 mean avg | 96.5 median | 134 max days waiting | 972.8 std dev) from 2 different members

Other Information

The editors will try to make a decision within 180 days. (33.3 % of the responses reported to us for this listing have taken longer than 180 days.)
Most recent response reported was received on 17 Apr 2026.
Responses have been received for submissions sent as recently as 29 Mar 2026.
Date compiled: 17 Sep 2026 22:44 UTC (less than a minute ago).

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Before Submitting

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Try to read at least one previous publication to get a better idea of what the editor would like to see.
Unless the publisher's guidelines state otherwise, always use industry standard manuscript formatting.
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Dates

Last Updated: 13 Aug 2026

We check their guidelines for changes every four weeks, and we audit the listing twice a year.