Creative Nonfiction - SAND 30 - Free submissions for those who need them

If our €3 reading fee creates a financial barrier for you, you can submit your work for free here. It's important to us that our submissions remain accessible to everyone.

Our general, non-genre-specific guidelines are listed on the previous page.

Creative Nonfiction & Flash Nonfiction

• Send us risk-taking, subversive, experimental nonfiction with soul, that pushes the boundaries of form, narrative, and/or language. We want to read stories that need to be told from perspectives that aren’t always heard, and to be excited by the ways you’re interpreting the nonfiction genre. Perhaps you are incorporating epistolary, intertextual, or ekphrastic elements, or you are giving voice to inanimate objects; perhaps you have written a hybrid text, or a craft essay; or your story might be told more traditionally but the content itself is the twist. To ensure your submission is right for SAND, check out the resources linked in the general guidelines on our main page.
• We accept previously unpublished short stories, flash pieces, and translations. We do not read full novels, novel excerpts, full novellas, or plays. We will read stand-alone excerpts from novels, but only if they truly stand alone.
• We only accept work that is the creative effort of humans with lived experience. While we are open to work that has experimented with and incorporated technology in creative ways, we are not open to work that has been fully or mostly written by AI (artificial intelligence). All submitters will be required to confirm and fully disclose the role that AI and other non-standard technologies have played in the creation of their submitted work.
• Submit EITHER one short piece OR a single file with up to three flash pieces. We will automatically reject multiple submissions from the same author.
• Here are the word counts for each option: One short piece of nonfiction of no more than 3,000 words OR a single file containing up to three pieces of flash nonfiction (of up to 1,000 words each, not to exceed 3,000 words in total).
• Do not include your name or any other identifying information on the document you submit. Submittable records your name and other information, which will be hidden during our first round of reading. We will automatically reject any submissions that include identifying information on the submission document.
• Please include a third-person biography with the cover letter. This information will remain confidential during the first round of reading.
   

Translations

• We would like to publish more translations of nonfiction into English, and we encourage the submission of suitable pieces.
• The original work may be previously published, as long as it has not been published in English translation before.
• Permission must be granted for publication in SAND from both the author and the translator and, if necessary, the author’s publisher.

Note:

•  If your submission contains any images, please ensure that they are available in print resolution (300dpi) and, if they are not your own work, they are copyright free, or you have express written permission from the owner for them to be published in SAND.