Submission Guidelines

Mission Statement: The Veranda was founded in May 2020 in response to the lack of satisfactory representation of South Asians, especially those of marginalized genders, in publishing and media. We bring people and resources together to foster a community of writers and enable access to like-minded individuals so we can share the stories only we can tell.

TL;DR: We’re a fun literary magazine for South Asians who are not cis men. Our submission guidelines boil down to:

• don’t be a jerk

• keep it under 1500 words

• email your submission to verandawriters@gmail.com. Submissions are open on a rolling basis.

Deadline

Submissions are open on a rolling basis.

Copyright

Your work always belongs to you first. That said, please do not publish a piece we have accepted elsewhere before it appears in Masalazine. Once it is published, all rights revert back to the author. We kindly ask that if it is published elsewhere in the future, you credit Masalazine as its initial publication.

Content

Even as we speak (type?), the content possibilities are expanding! Please feel free to submit any work of visual art or writing, including multimodal works such as slam poems or song lyrics. There is no genre limit for the magazine, but keep in mind that understanding the genre is subject to the limits of the editors.

Marginalized Genders

Our mission is to uplift the voices of South Asians of marginalized genders (women, trans, non-binary, etc.), which means we don’t want to accept work from creators who identify as cisgender men or who don’t have South Asian heritage. We recognize that our special interests mean that our publication could inadvertently out our contributors, so we want to be mindful that all potential contributors fully understand our mission statement.

Submission Fees

There are none!

BUT… we also want to make sure that people who want in-depth feedback, especially emerging writers, can get that feedback. It’s also important to us that our editors get compensated for any additional labor.

If you would like feedback on your submission (regardless of acceptance), please include a fee in the amount of your choice. If you think we’re rockstars, consider giving us a million dollars. If you think we’re great but don’t have a million dollars, whatever you can spare is wonderful. You can send your fee to our Ko-Fi Campaign.

We’re an emerging publication run by a team of volunteers. We feel really bad about this since we’re talking about compensated labor, but at this time, we’re not able to pay writers. Maybe in the near future when we take the publishing industry by storm, we’ll have that mad power and mysterious financial backers. 

How to Submit

Submissions should be:

• 1500 words or less

• Previously unpublished

• Adherent to Mission Statement

Email submissions to verandawriters@gmail.com with a subject line of Magazine Submission: [Specify your genre here. Select either Fiction, Poetry, or Nonfiction]. Please only submit your work via email and with the proper subject line to help us stay organized.

Include the following in the body of the email:

• Full name OR pen name OR indicate if anonymous

• Pronouns (encouraged, but optional)

• A one-sentence bio

• Content warnings if necessary

• Any formatting requests

• Any relevant additional information such as:

  • Goals for the piece

  • Relevant background

  • Preferred feedback

  • Summary, if an excerpt

  • Specific formatting requests

The submission should be attached as a Google Document link OR as a Word Document. No PDFs, please. If you choose to send a Google Doc, please make sure your “Share” settings permit us to view AND comment.

Email Template

To: verandawriters@gmail.com

From: Full name

Subject: Magazine Submission: [Genre]

Bio/Pronouns/Context Paragraph

______________________

Google Document Link/Word attachment

P.S. We have no official font preferences so long as you choose something legible, but we are partial to Verdana here at The Veranda.