Fruitslice Submission Guidelines

About Us

Fruitslice exclusively showcases work created by members of the LGBTQIA+ community. This commitment to providing a dedicated space where Queer voices are centered is fundamental to our mission. While we maintain this policy, we respect that identity is personal and nuanced; we trust contributors to determine whether they align with our community focus.

Publication Schedule & Submissions

Publication Dates: Fruitslice publishes quarterly on the solstices (March, June, September, and December).
Submission Fee: There is no fee to submit your work.
Payment: At this time, we are unable to offer payment for published work. For more information about our long-term goals around compensation, please check our FAQ.

What We're Looking For

Theme: All work must engage with our current theme. Themes change for each issue and are open to interpretation. Please double-check the theme before submitting.
- New this cycle: We are only accepting visual pieces and poetry for this cycle.
Mediums: We accept all printable mediums. If you're unsure whether your piece fits, feel free to submit.
No AI Submissions: We do not accept any AI-generated or AI-assisted work. For more information about this policy, please visit our FAQ section.

Submission Rules

Multiple Submissions:
- Authors may submit up to three pieces per genre, but each piece must be submitted separately. For example: If you’re submitting three standalone poems (not part of a series), you should fill out three individual submission forms—one for each poem.
- Multiple pieces in one form will be considered as a series.
Cover Letters are encouraged but not necessary. We appreciate hearing how your work connects to our theme.
Proofreading: Please thoroughly proofread your work. Submissions with numerous errors risk rejection as we have limited editing resources.

Format Requirements

For All Submissions

File Naming: LastNameFirstName_PieceTitle

Visual and Hybrid Works

Resolution: Minimum 300 DPI for print quality
Artist Statements: Optional, around 500 words -- Format: .doc or .docx only (NO PDFs); 12pt font, double-spaced for prose
Include a note about how your piece relates to the theme in the Submission Form or in a cover letter

For Page Layouts/Spreads Only

This information is only for visual pieces that are meant to take up a whole page or spread. If your piece does not fall into these categories, you can ignore the instructions below.

Dimensions:
- Single Page: 5.50" x 8.50" (Trim Size)
- Spread: 11.00" x 8.50" (Trim Size)
Bleed Area: Extend all edges by 0.13" beyond trim size
- Total with bleed (single page): 5.76" x 8.76"
- Total with bleed (spread): 11.26" x 8.76"
Quiet Area (Safe Zone):
- Top: 0.25"
- Right: 0.25"
- Bottom: 0.25"
- Left: 0.50"
Gutter: Add at least 0.7" to inner margin for binding

Editorial Process

Notification: We confirm receipt immediately.
Review Process: Our team reviews submissions on a rolling basis.
Response Timeline: First round of responses are typically sent within two days of the submission deadline.
Final Decisions: Communicated no later than six weeks before publication.

Additional Information

Compliance: Submissions that disregard these guidelines may be automatically rejected.
Questions? Please check our FAQ section first. If you need more help, email us at submissions@thefruitslice.com.

Thank you for considering Fruitslice as a platform for your work!

Issue 11 Open Poetry Call

Ends on

Submit

Fruitslice Submission Guidelines

About Us

Publication Schedule & Submissions

Publication Dates: Fruitslice publishes quarterly on the solstices (March, June, September, and December).
Submission Fee: There is no fee to submit your work.
Payment: At this time, we are unable to offer payment for published work. For more information about our long-term goals around compensation, please check our FAQ.

What We're Looking For

NEW THIS CYCLE: We are only accepting visual pieces and poetry for this cycle.

FOR POETRY: C. Riley Snorton’s Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, in part, traces the historical and archival conceptions and intersections of Blackness and Transness. While Black on Both Sides as a whole is a brilliant work of scholarship, I have found myself recently returning most often to two phrases that Snorton identifies as strategies of subversion and resistance: “counter-power” and “counter-mythology.” How do we locate, establish, and articulate these counter-powers and counter-mythologies within the locus of language? How can we situate and convey counter-powers and counter-mythologies via the vehicle of poetry?

For Issue 11, I am most interested in work that, to borrow again from Snorton, explores “the ways norm and normativity function as capillaries of power that can be obstructed” via our own idiosyncratic ideas of counter-power and counter-mythology. While language can and has, historically, served as a tool of oppression and repression, how might we use poetry to fashion language as a tool of expression and expansion? How can poetry act as a form of counter-power and counter-mythology to interrogate and negate the narratives imposed upon us by both the world and ourselves?

I’d be particularly intrigued by poems that offer an exploration of possible counter-powers and counter-mythologies through the exploration of origin and etymologies. Where do we begin and end? Is our condition transmutable? With respect to language and etymologies, how is meaning transposed and transitive? How is meaning transmitted, and how is it transformed and transported across different mediums, cultures, and ideologies? Is meaning transported across time itself? Is it transfixed or mobile? Where is meaning transgressed and where is it complied with?

Above all, I am looking for poems that approach our theme, Trans*, with an eye to details that surprise, stun, and invent. Works that astonish, startle, and discomfit are particularly welcome.

Theme: All work must engage with our current theme. Themes change for each issue and are open to interpretation. Please double-check the theme before submitting.
Mediums: We accept all printable mediums. If you're unsure whether your piece fits, feel free to submit.
No AI Submissions: We do not accept any AI-generated or AI-assisted work. For more information about this policy, please visit our FAQ section.

Submission Rules

Multiple Submissions:
- Authors may submit up to three pieces per genre, but each piece must be submitted separately. For example: If you’re submitting three standalone poems (not part of a series), you should fill out three individual submission forms—one for each poem.
- Multiple pieces in one form will be considered as a series.
Cover Letters are encouraged but not necessary. We appreciate hearing how your work connects to our theme.
Proofreading: Please thoroughly proofread your work. Submissions with numerous errors risk rejection as we have limited editing resources.

Format Requirements

For All Submissions

File Naming: LastNameFirstName_PieceTitle

Written Work

Format: .doc or .docx only (NO PDFs)
- If you are submitting poetry or other written work in which the exact form or shape of the words is integral to the piece, and you’re worried that a .doc or .docx file will ruin the formatting, you are welcome to include a PDF as a visual reference. However, you must still submit a .doc or .docx file alongside it.
12pt font, double-spaced for prose
Include a note about how your piece relates to the theme in the Submission Form or in a cover letter

Editorial Process

Notification: We confirm receipt immediately.
Review Process: Our team reviews submissions on a rolling basis.
Response Timeline: First round of responses are typically sent within two days of the submission deadline.
Final Decisions: Communicated no later than six weeks before publication.

Additional Information

Compliance: Submissions that disregard these guidelines may be automatically rejected.
Questions? Please check our FAQ section first. If you need more help, email us at submissions@thefruitslice.com.

Thank you for considering Fruitslice as a platform for your work!