Through Submittable, we accept a variety of hybrid work that resists categories, from Nonfiction to Fiction, from Poetry to Translation. 

 

We are interested in writing that presses boundaries by using more than one medium to tell a story; work that looks and feels different on the page. Additionally, we look for submissions that engage the issue's theme and the notion of being on the brink. 

 

A herdsman invites three beautiful sisters to dinner. He gauges their character from the way they slice the cheese on the cutting board. After close consideration, he selects his future bride. In folktales, invitations can be celebratory -- or barbed. To be invited (to a dinner, a wedding, a party) is not always an innocent affair. 

 

From the Latin invitationem (nominative invitatio) "an invitation, incitement, challenge," invitation suggests excitement as well as effort, difficulty as well as delight. For our 13th issue, On the Brink of Invitation, we're interested in pieces where plans are thwarted, changed, or outright ignored, where a reader's expectations are inverted in the very first scene. When does being welcomed in feel both dangerous and desirable? When does an invitation feel like both a beginning and an end? 

 

If an invitation can be an incitement then it instigates movement. We can't help but think of former Brink contributor Jessie Kraemer's drawing that includes the text "I open and open and open and open." Where are potentialities that ripple outwards without end? We want to engage with the openings you evoke as well as the brink of their enclosures. 

 

 

Please submit only unpublished pieces and notify us if your simultaneous submission is accepted elsewhere.

 

 

Open submissions to Brink Literary Journal are free.

 

Payment for each contributor is one copy of the issue in which their work appears as well as:

 

 

$25  ||  Poem (per poem)

$50  ||  Work (less than 1500 words)

$50  ||  Art (1-3 Images)

$100  ||  Art (4+ Images)

$100  ||  Work (more than 1501 words)

​​

​

Submission Caps

​

We will cap poetry submissions at 300.

We will cap nonfiction submissions at 100.

We will cap fiction submissions at 100.