Nonfiction
There are currently eight ways to submit your life writing to Mslexia, including how you’re writing despite a personal challenge, what you’re blogging about, and Mslexia Moths anecdotes for performance.
Salon Showcase (Salon Subscribers only)
A new quarterly feature on the Mslexia blog exclusively for Salon members. Please send a nonfiction piece (can be memoir, biography, travel-writing, journalism) up to 1,000 words inspired by an alphabet prompt. Theme: B.
Deadline: 6 January 2025
Elevenses Newsletter
Mouthpiece
If you have some hard-won wisdom to impart, something transformative to share, or something annoying you need to get off your chest, turn it into a 300-400 word rant or rave for consideration for our new Mouthpiece slot in our montly Elevenses newsletter.
Deadline: rolling
Mslexia Issue 105
Timepiece
Send us 300 words of nonfiction about something which happened in a particular year.
Year for Issue 105: 1997
Mslexia Moths
A memoir slot, named after the famous Moth memoir performance events in the US and available to sample on the Moth Radio Hour on BBC Radio 4 Extra. These are true anecdotes written in prose, in first person, and suitable for reading on the page or in performance. Your text must be between 700 and 800 words (the length of an 8-minute performance).
Blogability
What do you blog about and why? Please send a 150-word description of your personal blog plus a 200-word excerpt that illustrates your voice and subject matter – and a link to the blog, of course.
My Portfolio Career
Most writers’ lives are a mosaic of paid and unpaid work, including day jobs, caring duties, teaching, performance and journalism, as well as creative writing. If you would like a chance to explain how your writing fits in to your life, let us know. Pitch us by simply listing your main creative genre plus two or three other aspects of your working life, e.g. ‘Writing poetry, working in a café, freelance website design, caring for elderly father’. We will get in touch if we want to commission an article.
#amwriting
We want to hear from writers who manage to continue with their creative work despite a particular challenge, e.g. new baby, long-term illness, English as a second language, depression, no Wi-Fi connection, family ridicule... Pitch us by stating your main creative genre, plus a key ongoing challenge you grapple with in order to continue writing – no more than 200 words in all. We will get in touch if we want to commission a full article.
Perfect Pitch (Subscriber only)
Do you have a novel or memoir ready for submission? Are you wrestling with how to describe it to an agent or editor? Submit your draft pitch letter for possible inclusion in Mslexia, along with detailed feedback from experienced literary agent Catherine Cho.
Your letter should be no more than 300 words in length, and should include the following information:
- two-sentence overview of the book (including its genre and one or more comparative title/s)
- brief summary of the plot/contents
- two sentences about you
You must be a print, or digital, subscribe to Mslexia in order to submit.
Deadline for inclusion in Issue 105 of Mslexia: 6 January 2025
Unsure about eligibility, formatting, or what happens to your work after you submit? Visit our Submissions Policy page.
How to Submit
Submitting online
To submit, complete the form below this section and upload your submission document.
Submitting by post
Alternatively, send your entry by post to:
Mslexia
PO Box 656
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE99 1PZ
Please include your address, phone number and email on a separate cover sheet, along with the title of the work you are submitting. All submissions are judged anonymously, so please ensure your name does not appear on the submitted work itself.