Send us your stories & essays!

"The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold..." | Open Submission Call #1

Welcome, friends!

Within two weeks of announcing Strange Pilgrims here on Substack, 12,869 of you are here. That’s the size of a very successful indie concert. We didn’t expect this, but we’re grateful beyond measure.

So, before anything: thank you for being here, at the very beginning. We hope to be around for a long time to come, and have you by our side in the years (decades) ahead.

As you may have gathered from wandering around our (for now sparse) Substack, we’re attempting something rare: a self-sustaining, reader-supported, ad-free, independent magazine that doesn’t charge submission fees, and also pays its writers.

Now, without further ado…

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◉ Publication

Beginning January 8, we’ll publish every Thursday, alternating between flash and long-form writing:

Short Stories (up to 5000 words)

Essays / Narrative Nonfiction (up to 5000 words)

Flash Fiction (under 1000 words)

Flash CNF (under 1000 words)

Each piece will be published alongside a short interview with the author.

◉ Payment

$200 for long-form

$50 for flash

Paid promptly post-publication via Paypal.

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• Deadline: November 30

• Eligibility: Open to anyone writing in English, anywhere in the world

• Restriction: No previously published work (but self-published on your blog/Substack/etc. is fine!)

• Evaluation: All submissions are read by us, Shannan Mann & Karan Kapoor, the editors of Strange Pilgrims (& ONLY POEMS)

• Response time: Within 4 months

• Optional: $10 Fast Response (response within 4 weeks)

More details on what we’re looking for alongside a list of our favorite writers can be found on our About page.

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General submissions are — and always will be — free.

To run a magazine that doesn’t charge fees and pays writers, we rely on our readers. If you’d like to help sustain Strange Pilgrims, you can:

1. Become a paid subscriber

2. Leave a tip when submitting

3. Request paid editorial feedback (via the submission form)

To the 59 of you who’ve leapt into paid subscriptions — thank you so much! We don’t take that lightly. It means this strange little idea is already standing on its legs. Here are just some of the signposts we see ahead of us:

• At 250 paid subscribers, we can cover operating costs — paying writers, commissioning art, design, and keeping the lights on (in our heads and on the site).

• At 500, we can release beautiful quarterly digital issues.

• At 1000, we can dream of going to print.

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Okay, that’s enough, we think. Get to work and send in your stories & essays & whatever else soon!

With love & gratitude,

PS: Today is Leonard Cohen’s birthday, beneath whose shadow we live & breathe. Here’s a song for you ❤️