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Submissions Policy

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We treat your work with respect 

Mslexia is staffed mainly by writers and we treat your work with the same respect we would wish for our own writing. Submissions are assessed by authors, agents and tutors at the top of their professions.

Mslexia was set up to support women writers and to showcase their work. We welcome submissions in English or English dialect. The majority of our submission categories are open to anyone who self-identifies as a woman, regardless of background or location. However, some of our more popular slots are reserved for subscribers only.

The submission process

If you are submitting online, you will receive an immediate acknowledgement that your submission has been received. If submitting by post, please enclose an SAE or include an email address if you would like to receive an acknowledgment.

If you have submitted work for one of our themed Showcase call-outs, you will be informed by email of the outcome of your submission around three weeks prior to publication of the selected pieces. If your submission has not been selected for publication, this email will contain an account of the range of work received along with general feedback on the judging process by the curator in question. 

If you have submitted to one of our other submission slots, we will contact you again only if we want to publish your work. We may keep shortlisted pieces of writing on file for many months, so feel free to resubmit elsewhere if you do not hear from us.  

We regret we are unable to provide specific feedback on your submitted work, but personal feedback is available on certain types of writing at our online surgeries at the Mslexia Salon.

Mslexia Salon

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The judging process 

Submissions are assessed anonymously, to minimise unconscious bias, by professionals whose writing is published at a high level, who teach creative writing at a university, and/or who work as literary agents and editors. We never delegate this task to inexperienced staff members or volunteers.

All paper manuscripts are shredded when the judging process is complete and digital submissions deleted to uphold our commitment to your privacy. 

Unpublished writers 

We know that the difference between a published and an unpublished woman writer is often more about her courage to submit than it is about the quality of her work. This is why we have introduced a special ‘unpublished writer’ category for the themed writing in the Showcase section of the magazine (and for our annual Poetry, Short Story and Flash Fiction competitions). 

Simultaneous submissions

We understand how frustrating it can be to have your best writing tied up in a long submission process, so we are happy for you to submit your work elsewhere simultaneously. However, if the work is accepted for publication in Mslexia, we will expect you to withdraw it from consideration elsewhere. Similarly, if it is accepted for publication elsewhere, please withdraw it from consideration by Mslexia.

Republishing work after it appears in Mslexia 

If your work is published in Mslexia, we are happy for you to reprint it on your own website or social media, or submit it for possible publication elsewhere, provided this occurs after the original date of publication in Mslexia, and provided Mslexia is credited as follows: ‘This piece was originally published in Mslexia, the magazine for women who write, mslexia.co.uk’. 

Monitoring diversity

Everyone published in Mslexia is sent a diversity monitoring form to help us assess whether we are reaching the broadest possible population of women writers, and responding appropriately to your interests and challenges. When considering those interests and challenges, we include issues of income, class, race, age, gender identification, sexuality, caring responsibilities, location, disability, mental and physical health and any other issue that that affects your skill, time and confidence to write and submit your work, and your reception when you do.