*Update from 16 July, 2026: We have reached our poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction submissions caps, so these genres are now closed. Art submissions remain open!*

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The general submissions window for SAND 30 runs from July 1 - July 20, 2026

Founded in 2009, SAND looks for submissions that push the boundaries of form, message, and voice in fresh and unpredictable ways. Take risks, experiment, and subvert expectations. Send us the sensitive and the rough, the enigmatic and the joyful, the unruly and the disorienting.

SAND’s international team in Berlin has long sought out and amplified fresh and underrepresented voices. We encourage submissions from a range of perspectives, especially from writers and artists who are: LGBTQIA+, women, nonbinary, Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color, Muslim, Jewish, disabled, neurodivergent, working class, migrants and those who have been forced to migrate, undocumented or stateless, and/or otherwise marginalized in mainstream European publishing.

We welcome submissions from both emerging and established creatives, and we’ve worked hard to make SAND a paying market for the writers and artists we publish. We currently pay semi-professional rates which vary based on our financial situation.

We have a free submission option available for those who need it, and revenue from our €3 poetry/prose submission fee goes directly to paying the writers and artists we publish. Our all-volunteer staff work long hours out of passion for our project, and SAND is currently funded solely through these small fees, donations, and issue sales.

The best way to get to know if your work is a fit for us is to read issues of SAND, read select pieces from the archives at SAND ONLINE, or explore our Instagram channel.

General Guidelines for All Genres

• We accept previously unpublished poems, fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, and visual art.
• Submit fiction, flash, creative nonfiction and poetry as early as possible. There is a submissions cap on these genres to manage our all-volunteer editorial team’s workload, so these genres may close early.
• We only accept work that is the creative effort of humans. SAND has long been dedicated to publishing work by diverse, international creatives whose voices need to be heard. The lived experience of being human is critical to that mission. Therefore, we are not open to work that has been fully or mostly written or generated by AI (artificial intelligence). We are open to prose and poetry that has experimented with and incorporated technology in creative ways, and we are open to digital and conceptual art that uses AI, as long as the role of AI is clearly explained in the artist statement or the text itself, as applicable. All submitters will be required to fully disclose any role that AI and other non-standard technologies have played in the creation of their submitted work.
• Stand-alone excerpts are acceptable (e.g. work forthcoming in a book) as long as the excerpt appears in SAND before the book’s publication date. We ask for worldwide First Serial Rights. (Rights revert to you after publication.)
• Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please inform us as soon as possible if the work has been accepted elsewhere.
• You may only submit once per genre, though you may submit in multiple genres, e.g. once in poetry and once in visual art.
• Please allow six months for a response before sending an inquiry.
• We pay contributors semi-professional rates which vary depending on our current funding situation (typically €20-€40).
• We ask past contributors to wait at least two issues before submitting again in order to ensure space for new voices.
• Genre-specific guidelines can be found on Submittable during our submissions period.