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 reading for the Spring 2025 print issue. The theme of this issue is: HEAT. We invite you to interpret “Heat” expansively, to envision heat as a state within and beyond temperature, flavor, intensity, and touch, to consider heat literally, figuratively, or somewhere in between. As always, we seek work that complicates and confounds us, work that makes us see and feel seen; words that prickle our skin, that burn.
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 10/31 or until we reach capacity.
We look forward to reading your work!
Submission Guidelines:
- Previously accepted or published work is not eligible.
- Submit one story no more than 7,000 words (please include a word count and page numbers in your header), or up to three pieces of flash of no more than 1200 words each. Submissions over 7000 words will not be accepted.
- All files must be saved in Microsoft Word .doc or .docx (preferred) or as PDF.
- Please double-space your submission and use a 12-point, standard font (Times, Helvetica, Arial, etc.)
- 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 a story that has already been declined, unless substantial revisions have been made.
- 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! Please contact us directly if you have difficulty paying the fee.
- If you have any further questions, please direct them to witness.fiction@unlv.edu or 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 reading for the Spring 2025 print issue. The theme of this issue is: HEAT. We invite you to interpret “Heat” expansively, to envision heat as a state within and beyond temperature, flavor, intensity, and touch, to consider heat literally, figuratively, or somewhere in between. As always, we seek work that complicates and confounds us, work that makes us see and feel seen; words that prickle our skin, that burn.
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 10/31 or until we reach capacity.
We look forward to reading your work!
Submission Guidelines:
- Previously accepted or published work is not eligible.
- Submit one piece of nonfiction no more than 7,000 words (please include a word count and page numbers in your header), or up to three pieces of flash of no more than 1200 words each. Submissions over 7000 words will not be accepted.
- All files must be saved in Microsoft Word .doc or .docx (preferred) or as PDF.
- Please double-space your submission and use a 12-point, standard font (Times, Helvetica, Arial, etc.)
- Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but we ask that you notify us and withdraw the work immediately in the event that it is accepted elsewhere.
- 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! Please contact us directly if you have difficulty paying the fee.
- If you have any further questions, please direct them to witness.nonfiction@unlv.edu or 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 reading for the Spring 2025 print issue. The theme of this issue is: HEAT. We invite you to interpret “Heat” expansively, to envision heat as a state within and beyond temperature, flavor, intensity, and touch, to consider heat literally, figuratively, or somewhere in between. As always, we seek work that complicates and confounds us, work that makes us see and feel seen; words that prickle our skin, that burn.
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 10/31, or until we reach capacity.
We look forward to reading your work!
Submission Guidelines:
- Previously accepted or published work is not eligible.
- Please limit your submission to five poems, and wait to hear back from us before submitting again. Poems should be sent in a single document file, with the individual poems separated by page breaks.
- Please include a title or titles in the Title Box on the submission page.
- All files must be saved in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF format.
- Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but we ask that you notify us and withdraw the work immediately in the event that it is published elsewhere.
- We are committed to paying our authors and artists for accepted pieces. Your reading fees help us maintain our Submittable page and operating costs, which we greatly appreciate! Please contact us if you have any difficulty paying this fee.
- If you have any further questions, please direct them to witness.poetry@unlv.edu or witness@unlv.edu.