Submissions

Overview

Thank you for your interest in contributing to The Bombay Literary Magazine. We publish three times a year: April, August and December. Our most recent issue is Issue 60 (April 2025).

☞ We are currently open for submissions for Issue 61 (August 2025). Our reading period is from May 1 – May 31, 2025. Please submit your work via the form and not through email. Please note we are now closed for poetry & fiction submissions.

☞ We are looking for currently unpublished work. Personal blogs, social media posts, college magazines, newspapers, graffiti, milk carton copy, etc. all count as prior publications.

☞ We currently accept submissions in graphic fiction, essays, translated fiction or translated poetry. Send us just one one submission (please see “Details” for category-specific requirements).

☞ We offer an honorarium of INR 5,000 (five-thousand Indian rupees, approximately $60 USD) per published contribution.

Details

☞ We have a cap of 400 submissions in each category. Once we are maxed out, we can no longer accept submissions in that category. For this reason, we are now CLOSED for POETRY & FICTION submissions.

☞ Fiction Submission: [CLOSED] The short story should be between 2,000 and 5,000 words in length. This video may be useful:

 

☞ Poetry Submission: [CLOSED] Please submit one document with five poems. Submissions not meeting these requirements won’t be evaluated. We are publishing a poet, not just poems, so we like to get a sense of how they approach the art.

☞ Translations: We welcome translated poetry (3-5 poems) and translated short fiction in English. Each is considered a separate category. Please include a full citation for the original source. If you like, you may also include a translator’s note (here’s a good example of one). If accepted for publication, we will need to verify you have the translation rights the text (see FAQs).

☞ Self-Translations: We treat self-translated works as original works in English. In other words, please submit self-translations as original poetry or original fiction contributions.

☞ Graphic Fiction: We are looking for adult-oriented graphic fiction. Radical is good. Experimental is normal raised right. Edgy, retro-edgy, antidisestablishmentarian, missionary: itsallgood, maacha. The length of the piece is up to you. We’ve published 40+ pagers as well as 3-6 pagers.

☞ Essays: We’re looking for nonfiction, between 2K-5K words, with a focus on writing and literature. The “essay” has always been an assay, as Brian Dillon pointed out; we welcome noble failures. We aren’t looking for book reviews at this time.

☞ Visual Narratives: Currently, these are sourced on an invitation-only basis.

☞ Options: You may send your work to other outlets (i.e. simultaneous submissions are okay). However, please inform us (help@bombaylitmag.com) if your work has been selected elsewhere. We remember such acts of courtesy. Please note that if more than 2 of your poems are accepted elsewhere, we will not have enough material to consider your submission, and it will therefore be marked withdrawn.

☞ Honorarium: The amount of Rs. 5,000 is for the contribution. If there are multiple authors involved, they may share the amount as desired. If the contribution is a translation, then the honorarium of Rs. 5,000 is transferred to the translator(s), not the original author.

FAQs

1. Why is there a cap on the number of submissions?

   ☞ We get a lot of submissions. The evaluation process consists of at least four rounds of evaluation and our editors have to respond within six weeks. A cap on the number of submissions ensures our sanity and your equity.

2. How do I submit something that’s a mixture of categories? For example, a prose-poem or creative non-fiction?

   ☞ Agreed. Sometimes creative work just does not fit into neat little tiffin boxes. If so, simply select a genre that feels closest. We’ll sort it out post-acceptance. But one caveat: if we get a submission that we’d classify as fiction, say, but the cap for fiction had been reached before you’d submitted, then the submission won’t be evaluated. Likewise for other categories.

3. Do you accept interviews and reviews?

   ☞ Currently, no.

4. Do you accept submissions in languages other than English?

   ☞ Alas, we do not. TBLM is an English-language based literary magazine. However, we welcome English-language translations from other languages.

5. You’ve published me before. When should I next send you my work?

   ☞ Hello, friend! We recommend you wait for one issue before sending us something in the same genre. And do let us know you’re a TBLM alum in your cover letter.

6. What IP rights do you ask for?

   ☞ We only ask for the minimum set of digital rights that will let us legally display your work online, exclusively for a period of one year, but non-exclusively thereafter. You retain all other rights. Translation rights follow the same pattern, but it can get complicated, since in most legal jurisdictions it is the original author and not the translator who is ultimately assigning the rights. If the work isn’t in the public domain and there aren’t any other extenuating circumstances, we need some document –letter, photo of letter, contract copy– indicating you, the translator, has the legal right to translate the original work.

7. I am a writer under eighteen years of age. Can I send you my work?

   ☞ Afraid not. If you are not an adult, then parents need to get involved, and we generally do our best to avoid parental supervision. But relax, grasshopper. We’ll be around. Send us something once the nation-state can ship you off to wars.

8. For various reasons, I don’t wish to reveal my current legal name. Can I submit under a pseudonym?

   ☞ Sure, the work can be submitted & published under a pseudonym. But the publication contract requires your current legal name.

9. Help! I am not sure my submission went through. I’m afraid I may have submitted twice. I may have picked the wrong category. I attached the wrong manuscript. And misspelled my name. Or was it my email address? Help!

   ☞ No worries, querant. For these and other existential queries, just ping us at help@bombaylitmag.com. We usually respond within a day.