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.
Our mission at Witness 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. We are currently accepting cover art for our upcoming online and print issues. We encourage you to check out our past issues online or purchase a copy to become familiar with the magazine. Submissions will be open until 9/15/25.
Descriptions of our upcoming issues are as follows:
Winter 2025 - online, no theme.
Spring 2025 - print, theme of Twin/Double
Artists are encouraged to send up to six original images (high-resolution) for our editors to consider for publication. You are welcome to look to our past themed cover art for inspiration, or engage us with something new and evocative; we are most interested in how your work interprets and communicates an experience. We accept all mediums: photography, painting, drawing/illustration, sculpture, graphic design, etc. Please include the title(s) of your work, a short bio, a link to your portfolio or website, and any social media handles you use for showcasing your work.
*Please note: While we request non-exclusive rights to the winning selections, we do ask that any of the work you submit from your back catalog or current body of work not appear on a similar publication (such as another magazine cover) prior to, or following, our 2025-2026 publication date.
Submission Guidelines:
- Previously accepted or published work is not eligible.
- Submit up to 6 artworks as JPG files.
- All files must be at least 300 dpi.
- Artwork for our themed Spring issue should address the theme, but are welcome to interpret the theme broadly.
- Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but we ask that you notify us and withdraw the work immediately in the event that it is accepted elsewhere.
- Please do not submit an artwork that has already been declined.
- We are committed to paying our authors and artists for accepted pieces. Your donations and reading fees help us maintain our Submittable page and operating costs, which we greatly appreciate!
- If you have any further questions, please direct them to witness@unlv.edu.
Thank you for your interest! We look forward to seeing your work.