About the Magazine
Witness seeks original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and photography that is innovative in its approach, broad-ranging in its concerns, and unapologetic in its perspective. The magazine blends the features of a literary and an issue-oriented magazine to highlight the role of the modern writer as witness to their times.
Our mission is to amplify extraordinary voices, feature writers from every part of the globe, and highlight pieces that speak to the present moment in an enduring and distinctive way. The magazine seeks to open up conversations surrounding oppression and transcendence, prejudice and compassion, fear and raw honesty. The editorial team is also proud to feature the work of emerging voices alongside that of established writers.
Reading Periods
Witness is published twice a year: a Spring print issue, and a Fall/Winter online issue. Please note: submission windows are subject to change based on submission capacity. Additionally, your submission may be considered for future issues--regardless of the submission window--depending on the volume and quality of work submitted in a single reading period.
General Guidelines:
- We do not accept previously published work. This includes material that has appeared online in any form or format, including personal blogs.
- We do not accept more than one submission per genre, though you may submit up to five poems and three flash pieces as a single submission. We work to respond to all poetry submissions within four months; response times for fiction and nonfiction may be six months or longer, depending on the volume of submissions.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please withdraw your work promptly if it is accepted elsewhere. If submitting multiple poems or flash, if any of your pieces has been accepted by another publication, please notify us directly by sending a message through Submittable.
- If Witness publishes your piece, we ask that you wait two years following your publication date before submitting to us again. We love our contributors, but seek to platform as wide an array of authors as we can.
- Graduates and current UNLV MFA/PhD candidates or other students affiliated with the university are asked to wait two years post-graduation before submitting work for consideration at Witness.
We pay our contributors $150 for prose and $75 for poetry, whether in the print or online issue. We suggest a reading fee of $3 for a general submission. If you have any questions or requests, please email witness@unlv.edu.
We are currently reading for our 2026 Witness Literary Awards. Contest entries are unthemed, so send us your best! We welcome work that declares and/or demands a new perspective to the everyday condition, and stories that contextualize the American experience, highlight issues of global concern, grapple with the relationship between the personal and the political (however defined), and/or keenly observe interior/exterior landscapes. We encourage you to take a look at some of our previous issues before submitting your work to this contest.
One winner in each genre will receive $500 and publication in our Spring 2025 Issue (print). Runners-up will receive $200 and publication in our Spring 2025 Issue (print). All contest entries will be considered for publication.
Our judge for the Award in Fiction is Isle McElroy.
Isle McElroy is the author of The Atmospherians and People Collide. Their work appears in The Cut, The New York TImes, Vulture, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. They are currently a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute.
Special Message from the judge: "I’m drawn to work that surprises and pivots, characters who obsess themselves into pits, stories that broach serious themes through frivolous antics--and all forms of desire. Lead with moral complexity over easy ethical triumphs. Something strange never hurts."
Guidelines:
- Submit one, unpublished, self-contained story up to 7,000 words in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF format. Microsoft Word is preferred
- Work should be double-spaced, set in standard 12-point typeface, and include word count on the top/first page
- Please do not include any identifying information on the manuscript itself: all identifying/contact information should appear in your cover letter only. File name also must not include your name/info, only the story title
- Do not resubmit a previously declined submission unless substantial revisions have been made
- Entry fee is $8. We welcome multiple entries from the same writer, but each story should have a separate entry
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask for immediate withdrawal upon acceptance elsewhere
- Writers associated with the judge, Black Mountain Institute, or UNLV are not eligible to enter
Thank you for adhering to our guidelines. Please contact us at witness@unlv.edu with any questions you may have. We look forward to reading your work!
We are currently reading for our 2026 Witness Literary Awards. Contest entries are unthemed, so send us your best! We welcome work that declares and/or demands a new perspective to the everyday condition, and stories that contextualize the American experience, highlight issues of global concern, grapple with the relationship between the personal and the political (however defined), and/or keenly observe interior/exterior landscapes. We encourage you to take a look at some of our previous issues before submitting your work to this contest.
One winner in each genre will receive $500 and publication in our Spring 2025 Issue (print). Runners-up will receive $200 and publication in our Spring 2025 Issue (print). All contest entries will be considered for publication.
Our judge for the Award in Nonfiction is Mary-Kim Arnold.
Mary-Kim Arnold is a writer, artist, and educator. She is the author of The Fish & The Dove: Poems (Noemi Press) and Litany for the Long Moment (Essay Press). A transnational, transracial Korean-born adoptee, her text and textile work explore themes of hybridity, dislocation, racial and cultural identity, and gender. Mary-Kim has taught creative and critical writing at Brown University, Wheaton College, Rhode Island School of Design, and in the Newport MFA at Salve Regina College. Prior to returning to teaching, Mary-Kim spent more than a decade working in and with arts and cultural nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, focused on making programs and funding more accessible. Mary-Kim holds a B.A. in English and an MFA in fiction writing from Brown University, and an MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She serves as Senior Editor for Collaborative & Cross-Disciplinary Texts at Tupelo Quarterly.
Special Message from the judge:
"Open to all forms of nonfiction, with a particular interest in:
-- Personal essays that have deep awareness of their context, time, position in relation to their subject matter
-- Works that favors inquiry over certainty
-- Experiments in form
-- Considerations in / alongside other art forms or practices"
Guidelines:
- Submit one, unpublished, self-contained piece of nonfiction (up to 7,000 words) in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF format. Microsoft Word is preferred
- Work should be double-spaced, set in standard 12-point typeface, and include word count on the top/first page
- Please do not include any identifying information on the manuscript itself: all identifying/contact information should appear in your cover letter only. Filename also must not include your name/info
- Entry fee is $8. We welcome multiple entries from the same writer, but each piece of nonfiction should have a separate entry
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask for immediate withdrawal upon acceptance elsewhere
- Writers associated with the contest judge, Black Mountain Institute, or UNLV are not eligible to enter
Thank you for adhering to our guidelines. Please contact us at witness@unlv.edu with any questions you may have. We look forward to reading your work!
We are currently reading for our 2025 Witness Literary Awards. Contest entries are unthemed, so send us your best! We welcome work that declares and/or demands a new perspective to the everyday condition, and stories that contextualize the American experience, highlight issues of global concern, grapple with the relationship between the personal and the political (however defined), and/or keenly observe interior/exterior landscapes. We encourage you to take a look at some of our previous issues before submitting your work to this contest.
One winner in each genre will receive $500 and publication in our Spring 2025 Issue (print). Runners-up will receive $200 and publication in our Spring 2025 Issue (print). All contest entries will be considered for publication.
Our judge for the Award in Poetry is Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez.
Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez is a Chilean poet and novelist working at the intersections of text, textile, performance, archive, and translation. They are the author of La Pava (Ediciones Inubicalistas) and A/An (End of the Line Press). Their work has been supported by fellowships and residencies from The Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, Lambda Literary, The Center for Book Arts, TAKT Residency in Berlin, The Frost Place, Studios at MASS MoCA, MacDowell, and CantoMundo.
Special Message from the judge:
"I’m most excited by daring work that forges its own path and fully commits to its aesthetic. If I had to pick one word for what I most enjoy in poetry, it would be surprise."
Guidelines:
- Submit 1-3 poems in a single Microsoft Word document (.doc, .docx) or PDF file. Microsoft Word is preferred
- Please do not include any identifying information on the manuscript itself: all identifying/contact information should appear in your cover letter only. Filename also must not include your name/info
- Entry fee is $8. We welcome multiple entries from the same writer, but each submission should have a separate entry
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask for immediate withdrawal upon acceptance elsewhere
- Writers associated with the judge, Black Mountain Institute, or UNLV are not eligible to enter
Thank you for adhering to our guidelines. Please contact us at witness@unlv.edu with any questions you may have. We look forward to reading your work!