We publish literary writing of the highest quality. We look for poetry and short fiction that startles and entertains us. Reviews, essays, memoir pieces and features should be erudite, lucid and incisive. We are obviously interested in writing that has a London focus, but not exclusively so, since London is a world city with international concerns.
Please refer to The London Magazine before you submit work, so that you can see the type of material we publish.
Submissions will not be read if they stray over the word limits, or if they are not presented according to our submission guidelines.
All submissions sent to The London Magazine must never have been published, self-published, published on any website, blog or online forum, broadcast nor winning or placed (as in 2nd, 3rd, runner up etc) in any competition.
Due to the volume of submissions, it may take some time before you receive a response. We do read and reply to every submission. Please allow up to 12 weeks.
We will be open for free submissions during the following periods:
1 – 30 September
1 – 30 November
1 – 31 January
1 – 31 March
1 – 31 May
1 – 31 July
We charge a fee of £3.00 for submissions outside of those windows but if you are a low-income writer and would like to apply for free entry, please read our guidelines for low-income entry. During periods in which our prizes are live, we will be closed for any other submissions in that genre.
Short fiction should address mature and sophisticated themes. Moreover, it should have an elegance of style, structure and characterisation.
We do not normally publish science fiction, fantasy writing or erotica.
We will consider short stories of up to 4,000 words in length.
Non-fiction pieces should be between 800 and 2,000 words. Single inverted commas should be used for all quotes/speech. Titles of works including books, plays, film and paintings should be in italics.
Poetry should display a commitment to the ultra specificities of language, and show a refined sense of simile and metaphor. The structure should be tight and exact. Poems should be no longer than 40 lines and no more than 6 poems should be submitted at once.
N.B. If Submitting multiple poems, these should be collated into one document. Multiple document submissions will not be read.