CRAFT 2025 Dialogue Challenge

May 22 – June 1, 2025 | $500 Awarded

Back by boisterous popular demand—

Announcing the CRAFT 2025 Dialogue Challenge!

For this challenge, we’re asking writers to recreate the serendipity of overheard conversations: think loud arguments in quiet restaurants, hushed confessions in out-of-the-way coffee shops. Think eavesdropping and interloping, but in the name of art. The only catch—we want to read only the dialogue: no tags, no stage directions, no settings—no added context whatsoever. What we want instead—the subtext. Leave the broad interpretation of the specific moment up to the reader. Just capture what your characters most need to say on the page (and please do avoid any obviously expositional dialogue), and we will fill in the rest. Let the reader own the work (and pleasure) of building the world that surrounds this particular conversation. 

For this challenge, we’ll consider scenes and excerpts, from 50 to 250 words, composed entirely of lines of dialogue. Don’t worry about presenting a full story or narrative arc. We’re interested in what dialogue can do here, in how it can reveal a relationship or even illuminate what’s not said. Remember, think subtext, not context. Check out last year’s winner for a prime example. For this opportunity, submit your choice of fiction or creative nonfiction—we’re seeking both! Each micro prose entry will cost $10, and multiple entries will be welcomed. Our editors will choose one winner to award $500 and publication.

GUIDELINES:

• Submissions are open to all writers, emerging and experienced.
• International submissions are allowed.
• Please submit prose work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• We seek micro prose only for this challenge: please submit 50 to 250 words per entry.
• Work may have been drafted prior to the challenge’s open, or within the ten-day window. Please revise and proofread carefully before submitting.
• HINT: Previously written passages of dialogue might make an excellent starting point. Remember to remove dialogue tags, stage directions, and any other added context. How does your dialogue stand on its own? Revise, if necessary, for more interest, tension, vivacity, emotion, et cetera.
• Submit polished prose only, please! We are not seeking lineated poetry, lists or listicles, or any accompanying artwork at this time. However, do feel free to experiment with the format of your dialogue-only submission. For instance, dispense with paragraph tabs or standard quotation marks if you find them unnecessary.
• Submitted pieces must be creative, first and foremost, but may be fiction or nonfiction.
• We review literary prose but are open to a variety of genres and styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.
• Submit previously unpublished work only—we do NOT review reprints (or even partial reprints) for challenges (including work posted on blogs, personal websites, social media, et cetera). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers, please notify us and withdraw your submission if your piece is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• We allow multiple submissions—please submit each piece as a separate submission accompanied by an entry fee.
• If you need to edit your entry, you may do so, once, but only before the entry is assigned to a reader for consideration. Notify us immediately if you wish to “open for editing.”
• This challenge requires a $10 entry fee per submission.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history, if applicable, and any appropriate content warnings to help safeguard our reading staff.
• We do not require anonymous submissions. The one grand-prize winner of this challenge will be chosen by our editorial staff. The winner will receive $500 and publication.
• We hope to publish the winning piece in December 2025. Any piece already scheduled to be published before March 2026 should not be submitted at this time.
• The winner will be asked to contribute an author’s note, or mini craft essay, that discusses their artistic choices in their piece. The note will be published with the winning work.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication: work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.
• Any AI-generated work submitted to this challenge will be immediately disqualified.
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work. Paraphrased lyrics are allowed, however, as are older lyrics that have already passed into the public domain.
• Any work that does not adhere to these guidelines will be automatically disqualified. Submissions that include the prohibited dialogue tags, stage directions, or added context will be automatically disqualified.
• We are always happy to help if you have questions. Email us: contact@craftliterary.com.

OPTIONAL EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:

You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your submission directly through the challenge’s submission form. We’ll provide marginal notes and a one-page summative letter, focusing on the strengths of the submission as well as our recommendations for development. While editorial feedback is inherently subjective, our suggestions are always actionable and encouraging. We aim to have feedback completed within twelve weeks of the close of the challenge. Should your piece win, no feedback will be offered and your fee will be refunded. Work that we critique is not eligible for future CRAFT challenges or contests, but can be revised and resubmitted for consideration in our general categories.

Editorial Feedback Platform

Need new eyes on your short prose?

Our team would love to work with you! 

CRAFT offers editorial feedback on creative prose up to 6,000 words. We've carefully chosen a team of qualified editors to provide thoughtful critique. For each piece sent, you'll receive line-level marginal notes, as well as a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. While editorial feedback is inherently subjective, our suggestions will always be actionable and encouraging. Please allow up to twelve weeks to receive your feedback materials.

For your convenience and savings, we offer two options—single letters and triple letters. Rates are detailed below. Triple letter packages offer an 8% discount. This form is for single letters, but you can find the triple-letter option here, if desired.

All work sent through this event will also be considered for publication in CRAFT. Should we accept your work, the feedback fee will be refunded.

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com.

Testimonials from Previous Recipients of CRAFT Editorial Feedback:

As a published author of 75+ academic and professional articles, reports, and two (academic) books, I have to say that David K. Slay's feedback on my fledgling short story "John Huff" was the most thorough, perceptive, and helpful feedback and writing coaching I have ever received. I am very grateful for their attention to detail, voice, and flow—something I craved as I continue my journey into this daunting genre.  —Marjorie S.

I was so pleased with the feedback I received from Kyle Cochrun. His comments demonstrated that he understood what I was trying to accomplish with the essay and that he was 'thinking with me' as he closely read my draft. He didn't make a single comment that left me scratching my head—in fact, just the opposite. His feedback was like a private class in essay writing, and helped me see how to look at my drafts for unplumbed opportunities and to apply the strengths he identified to develop those opportunities. I've already completed the revisions and believe the piece is much stronger for his guidance.  —Aggie S.

Rates for Single Letters:

• Flash fiction / flash creative nonfiction up to 1,000 words (one flash piece or up to three micro* pieces totaling fewer than 1,000 words): $59
• Short story / creative nonfiction essay from 1,000 to 3,500 words (one piece): $79 
• Short story / creative nonfiction essay from 3,500 to 6,000 words (one piece): $99

*For our purposes, micros should be about 333 words maximum apiece, please. Include all three micros in ONE document.

How you can help us when sending work for our review:

• Please send only .doc or .docx files  if possible, so that we can use MS Word's Track Changes for our marginal notes.
• Kindly double-space and use Times New Roman 12.

Guidelines:

• CRAFT Editorial Feedback is open to all prose writers.
• Please send fiction or creative nonfiction only.
• International submissions are welcome.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but conceptually or stylistically necessary codeswitching is warmly welcomed.
• Please adhere to the 6,000-word-count maximum.
• If sending up to three micros, include all pieces in ONE document.
• Work that has received editorial feedback is not eligible for submission to CRAFT contests.
• We do not accept, review, or consider AI-generated work.
• We strongly discourage simultaneous submissions in conjunction with editorial feedback. If your piece is already under review by our team and you withdraw it, we will not be able to offer a refund. If you withdraw your piece before we have begun feedback, we will be happy to let you substitute another piece of equal length.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review (you will be refunded, less fees).

Editorial Feedback Team:

JOANNA ACEVEDO (she/they) is the Pushcart-nominated author of three books and two chapbooks. Her work has been seen across the web and in print, including Free State Review, The Rumpus, and The Adroit Journal. She received her MFA in fiction from New York University in 2021 and also holds degrees from Bard College and The New School. Find her on Twitter @jo_avocado.

MELISSA BENTON BARKER is the flash fiction section editor at CRAFT. A graduate of the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles, her writing appears in Longleaf Review, Moon City Review, Wigleaf, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Best Small Fictions 2021. She has received Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. She lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

KATE BLAKINGER is a writer and editor. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Epiphany, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Offing, and other journals. She is a Tin House Workshop alumna and holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. The Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Jentel, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center have supported her writing with fellowships. She lives in Philadelphia with her family.

ALYSE BURNSIDE is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Believer, and elsewhere. She's working on a book.

ALEXA DORAN recently completed her PhD in poetry at Florida State University. Her full-length collection DM Me, Mother Darling won the 2020 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize and was published in April 2021 (Bauhan). She is also the author of the chapbook Nightsink, Faucet Me a Lullaby (Bottlecap Press 2019). Look for work from Doran in recent or upcoming issues of Pleiades, Witness, Salt Hill Journal, and Gigantic Sequins, among others.

BRANDON DUDLEY is the author of Hazards of Nature: Stories, selected by Sigrid Nunez as the winner of the 2020 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Chapbook Contest. His writing, interviews, and criticism have appeared in New South, The Millions, The Forge, Fiction Writers Review, North by Northeast 2, and others. He holds an MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. He lives in Maine with his wife and two sons. Find him on Twitter @brandondudley8.

ROSS FEELER’s fiction has appeared in Electric Literature’s “Recommended Reading,” The Common, New South, Potomac Review, Story | Houston, Hypertext, and others. His novel-in-progress received the Marianne Russo Award from the Key West Literary Seminar and was a finalist for James Jones First Novel Award. He teaches English at Texas State University.

B. B. GARIN is a writer living in Buffalo, New York. Her echapbook, New Songs for Old Radios, is available from Wordrunner Press. Her work has appeared in Hawaii Pacific Review, Luna Station Quarterly, Palooka, 3rd Wednesday, Crack the Spine, and more. She is currently a prose reader and blog contributor for The Masters Review. She continues to improve her craft at GrubStreet Writing Center, where she has developed several short fiction pieces, as well as two novels. Connect with her online @bb_garin.

ELIANA GRUVMAN is a passionate reader, editor, and writer. She graduated from Fordham University with a degree in English and Spanish language and literature. She is currently a flash fiction editorial assistant at CRAFT and previously interned for Gallery Books at Simon & Schuster and for Ladderbird Literary Agency. Her work has been published on Fordham’s platforms—the Ampersand,MODE Magazine, Bricolage, and RELISH—and has been performed by Free Pizza Sketch Comedy.

COURTNEY HARLER (she/her) is a queer writer, editor, and educator based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe (2017) and an MA in English (Literature) from Eastern Washington University (2013). Courtney is currently editor in chief of CRAFT and editorial director for Discover New Art, and has read and written for UNT's Katherine Anne Porter Prize, The Masters Review, Funicular Magazine, Reflex Fiction, and Chicago Literati in recent years. She hosted the literary podcast PWN's Debut Review, and teaches and edits for Project Write Now, a nonprofit writing studio in New Jersey. For her creative work, Courtney has been honored by support from Key West Literary Seminar, Writing By Writers, Community of Writers, Napa Valley Writers' Conference, and Nevada Arts Council. Courtney's work has been published in multiple genres in literary magazines around the world. Find her on Instagram @CourtneyHarler.

KATELYN KEATING (she/her) was the editor in chief of CRAFT from 2018 to 2021 and now serves as editor at large. She was a 2017 fellow of the LA Review of Books Publishing Workshop and has been on their faculty since 2018, overseeing PubLab, leading the magazine track as a program manager, and serving as the publisher coordinator for LITLIT: The Little Literary Fair. She is a production manager with Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and was the production and operations manager at Prospect Park Books until it left California in 2021. Her essays appear in Crab Orchard Review, Flyway, Lunch Ticket, Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. Katelyn has an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles, where she worked for two years on Lunch Ticket, serving as editor in chief for issues 11 and 12. Find her on Twitter @katelyn_keating.

JILL KOLONGOWSKI writes the Substack Tiny True Stories and is also the author of the essay collection Life Lessons Harry Potter Taught Me (Ulysses Press, 2017). Her work also appears in Electric Lit, Insider, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Brevity, River Teeth, and elsewhere. Her essays have won Sundog Lit’s First Annual Contest series and the Diana Woods Memorial Prize in Creative Nonfiction at Lunch Ticket, and she earned her MFA from St. Mary's College of California. Jill teaches writing at the College of San Mateo, and lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter. Find her on Twitter @jillkolongowski.

VAL M. MATHEWS is a big-hearted, fun-loving editor who teaches courses in developmental editing for the University of California Berkeley Extension, Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and the Editorial Freelancers Association in New York City. Val also freelances on the side and works as an editorial consultant for CRAFT and The Masters Review. Previously, she was an editor for The Wild Rose Press, a small traditional publishing house in New York. She earned an MA in professional writing from Kennesaw State University and a BFA from the University of Georgia. Fun fact about Val: She’s been an FAA-certified flight instructor for over twenty-five years, and in the past, she flew Lear jets for a living.

GABRIEL MOSELEY is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and certificates in both editing and literary fiction from the University of Washington. His short story, “A Man Stands Tall,” was awarded The Masters Review Anthology Prize in 2017, selected by Roxane Gay. He received the General Motors’ Future Fiction Scholarship to attend Aspen Summer Words in 2023 and was chosen for the Jack Straw Writers Program in 2024. He has been selected for residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Centrum Artist Residency, and Seattle Public Library’s Writers’ Room Residency. He has also been named as a finalist for the Made at Hugo House Writing Fellowship, LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, and the Haleakalā National Park Residency. He has attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and Disquiet International, among others. His work appears in The Masters Review, Stratus, and Nordic Kultur Magazine.

JUSTINE PAYTON is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington where she is a recipient of the Philip Gerard Graduate Fellowship and the Bernice Kert Fellowship in Creative Writing. She has been published or has work forthcoming in the Bellevue Literary Review, Isele Magazine, The Masters Review, The Keeping Room, and others. She is currently the managing editor of ONLY POEMS, an editor for Ecotone, and an editorial intern with Tin House. Find her on Instagram @just_a_rose4.

REBECCA REYNOLDS has an MFA in creative writing. Her short fiction has been published in various literary magazines, including Ascent, MudRoom, and The Boiler, and her story collection This Is How We Speak is forthcoming with Cornerstone Press. She lives outside Boston with her husband and three boys, and by day she is a children's librarian. Find her on Twitter @rsreynolds611.

GAGE SAYLOR is the assistant director of creative writing at Oklahoma State University. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Passages North, Tampa Review, Crab Creek Review, Iron Horse, and elsewhere. He has won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize at Nimrod and is a previous semifinalist for the Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize at North American Review. He received his MFA at McNeese State University, where he was awarded the Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction.

CHLOE CHUN SEIM is the author of CHURN, an illustrated novel-in-stories, which won the 2022 George Garrett Fiction Prize and was named a finalist for Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. Texas Review Press published CHURN in late 2023. Chloe’s fiction has appeared in LitMag, where she won the 2021 Anton Chekov Award for Flash Fiction, and in Split Lip Magazine, The McNeese Review, Potomac Review, and more. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

After retiring from full-time work, DAVID K. SLAY completed a two-year program of short fiction writing workshops in the University of California, Los Angeles, Writers’ Program. His short stories, flash fiction, and microfiction can be found in a group of diverse literary journals, including Door Is A Jar, Gold Man Review, ImageOutWrite, The Magnolia Review, Random Sample Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, American Writers Review, and others. Nonfiction craft articles are in CRAFT and Submittable’s “Content for Creatives,” and he has served as a guest editor for Vestal Review. He has been a submissions reader for CRAFT since 2019, and is currently an associate editor for the short fiction section.

Editorial Feedback Platform

Need new eyes on your short prose?

Our team would love to work with you!

CRAFT offers editorial feedback on creative prose up to 6,000 words. We've carefully chosen a team of qualified editors to provide thoughtful critique. For each piece sent, you'll receive line-level marginal notes, as well as a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. While editorial feedback is inherently subjective, our suggestions will always be actionable and encouraging. Please allow up to twelve weeks to receive your feedback materials.

For your convenience and savings, we offer two options—single letters and triple letters. Rates are detailed below. Triple letter packages offer an 8% discount. This form is for triple letters only.

All work sent through this event will also be considered for publication in CRAFT. Should we accept your work, the feedback fee will be refunded.

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com.
 

Testimonials from Previous Recipients of CRAFT Editorial Feedback:

As a published author of 75+ academic and professional articles, reports, and two (academic) books, I have to say that David K. Slay's feedback on my fledgling short story "John Huff" was the most thorough, perceptive, and helpful feedback and writing coaching I have ever received. I am very grateful for their attention to detail, voice, and flow—something I craved as I continue my journey into this daunting genre.  —Marjorie S.

I was so pleased with the feedback I received from Kyle Cochrun. His comments demonstrated that he understood what I was trying to accomplish with the essay and that he was 'thinking with me' as he closely read my draft. He didn't make a single comment that left me scratching my head—in fact, just the opposite. His feedback was like a private class in essay writing, and helped me see how to look at my drafts for unplumbed opportunities and to apply the strengths he identified to develop those opportunities. I've already completed the revisions and believe the piece is much stronger for his guidance.  —Aggie S.

Rates for Triple Letters:

• Flash fiction / flash creative nonfiction up to 1,000 words (one flash piece or up to three micro* pieces totaling fewer than 1,000 words): $149
• Short story / creative nonfiction essay from 1,000 to 3,500 words (one piece): $199 
• Short story / creative nonfiction essay from 3,500 to 6,000 words (one piece): $249

*For our purposes, micros should be about 333 words maximum apiece, please. Include all three micros in ONE document.

How you can help us when sending work for our review:

• Please send only .doc or .docx files  if possible, so that we can use MS Word's Track Changes for our marginal notes.
• Kindly double-space and use Times New Roman 12.

Guidelines:

• CRAFT Editorial Feedback is open to all prose writers.
• Please send fiction or creative nonfiction only.
• International submissions are welcome.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but conceptually or stylistically necessary codeswitching is warmly welcomed.
• Please adhere to the 6,000-word-count maximum.
• If sending up to three micros, include all pieces in ONE document.
• Work that has received editorial feedback is not eligible for submission to CRAFT contests.
• We do not accept, review, or consider AI-generated work.
• We strongly discourage simultaneous submissions in conjunction with editorial feedback. If your piece is already under review by our team and you withdraw it, we will not be able to offer a refund. If you withdraw your piece before we have begun feedback, we will be happy to let you substitute another piece of equal length.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review (you will be refunded, less fees).

Editorial Feedback Team:

JOANNA ACEVEDO (she/they) is the Pushcart-nominated author of three books and two chapbooks. Her work has been seen across the web and in print, including Free State Review, The Rumpus, and The Adroit Journal. She received her MFA in fiction from New York University in 2021 and also holds degrees from Bard College and The New School. Find her on Twitter @jo_avocado.

MELISSA BENTON BARKER is the flash fiction section editor at CRAFT. A graduate of the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles, her writing appears in Longleaf Review, Moon City Review, Wigleaf, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Best Small Fictions 2021. She has received Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. She lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

KATE BLAKINGER is a writer and editor. Her short stories and essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Epiphany, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Offing, and other journals. She is a Tin House Workshop alumna and holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. The Elizabeth George Foundation, MacDowell, Jentel, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center have supported her writing with fellowships. She lives in Philadelphia with her family.

ALYSE BURNSIDE is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA from University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The Believer, and elsewhere. She's working on a book.

ALEXA DORAN recently completed her PhD in poetry at Florida State University. Her full-length collection DM Me, Mother Darling won the 2020 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize and was published in April 2021 (Bauhan). She is also the author of the chapbook Nightsink, Faucet Me a Lullaby (Bottlecap Press 2019). Look for work from Doran in recent or upcoming issues of Pleiades, Witness, Salt Hill Journal, and Gigantic Sequins, among others.

BRANDON DUDLEY is the author of Hazards of Nature: Stories, selected by Sigrid Nunez as the winner of the 2020 Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Chapbook Contest. His writing, interviews, and criticism have appeared in New South, The Millions, The Forge, Fiction Writers Review, North by Northeast 2, and others. He holds an MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. He lives in Maine with his wife and two sons. Find him on Twitter @brandondudley8.

ROSS FEELER’s fiction has appeared in Electric Literature’s “Recommended Reading,” The Common, New South, Potomac Review, Story | Houston, Hypertext, and others. His novel-in-progress received the Marianne Russo Award from the Key West Literary Seminar and was a finalist for James Jones First Novel Award. He teaches English at Texas State University.

B. B. GARIN is a writer living in Buffalo, New York. Her echapbook, New Songs for Old Radios, is available from Wordrunner Press. Her work has appeared in Hawaii Pacific Review, Luna Station Quarterly, Palooka, 3rd Wednesday, Crack the Spine, and more. She is currently a prose reader and blog contributor for The Masters Review. She continues to improve her craft at GrubStreet Writing Center, where she has developed several short fiction pieces, as well as two novels. Connect with her online @bb_garin.

ELIANA GRUVMAN is a passionate reader, editor, and writer. She graduated from Fordham University with a degree in English and Spanish language and literature. She is currently a flash fiction editorial assistant at CRAFT and previously interned for Gallery Books at Simon & Schuster and for Ladderbird Literary Agency. Her work has been published on Fordham’s platforms—the Ampersand,MODE Magazine, Bricolage, and RELISH—and has been performed by Free Pizza Sketch Comedy.

COURTNEY HARLER (she/her) is a queer writer, editor, and educator based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe (2017) and an MA in English (Literature) from Eastern Washington University (2013). Courtney is currently editor in chief of CRAFT and editorial director for Discover New Art, and has read and written for UNT's Katherine Anne Porter Prize, The Masters Review, Funicular Magazine, Reflex Fiction, and Chicago Literati in recent years. She hosted the literary podcast PWN's Debut Review, and teaches and edits for Project Write Now, a nonprofit writing studio in New Jersey. For her creative work, Courtney has been honored by support from Key West Literary Seminar, Writing By Writers, Community of Writers, Napa Valley Writers' Conference, and Nevada Arts Council. Courtney's work has been published in multiple genres in literary magazines around the world. Find her on Instagram @CourtneyHarler.

KATELYN KEATING (she/her) was the editor in chief of CRAFT from 2018 to 2021 and now serves as editor at large. She was a 2017 fellow of the LA Review of Books Publishing Workshop and has been on their faculty since 2018, overseeing PubLab, leading the magazine track as a program manager, and serving as the publisher coordinator for LITLIT: The Little Literary Fair. She is a production manager with Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and was the production and operations manager at Prospect Park Books until it left California in 2021. Her essays appear in Crab Orchard Review, Flyway, Lunch Ticket, Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. Katelyn has an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles, where she worked for two years on Lunch Ticket, serving as editor in chief for issues 11 and 12. Find her on Twitter @katelyn_keating.

JILL KOLONGOWSKI writes the Substack Tiny True Stories and is also the author of the essay collection Life Lessons Harry Potter Taught Me (Ulysses Press, 2017). Her work also appears in Electric Lit, Insider, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Brevity, River Teeth, and elsewhere. Her essays have won Sundog Lit’s First Annual Contest series and the Diana Woods Memorial Prize in Creative Nonfiction at Lunch Ticket, and she earned her MFA from St. Mary's College of California. Jill teaches writing at the College of San Mateo, and lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter. Find her on Twitter @jillkolongowski.

VAL M. MATHEWS is a big-hearted, fun-loving editor who teaches courses in developmental editing for the University of California Berkeley Extension, Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and the Editorial Freelancers Association in New York City. Val also freelances on the side and works as an editorial consultant for CRAFT and The Masters Review. Previously, she was an editor for The Wild Rose Press, a small traditional publishing house in New York. She earned an MA in professional writing from Kennesaw State University and a BFA from the University of Georgia. Fun fact about Val: She’s been an FAA-certified flight instructor for over twenty-five years, and in the past, she flew Lear jets for a living.

GABRIEL MOSELEY is a writer from Seattle, Washington. He holds an MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and certificates in both editing and literary fiction from the University of Washington. His short story, “A Man Stands Tall,” was awarded The Masters Review Anthology Prize in 2017, selected by Roxane Gay. He received the General Motors’ Future Fiction Scholarship to attend Aspen Summer Words in 2023 and was chosen for the Jack Straw Writers Program in 2024. He has been selected for residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Centrum Artist Residency, and Seattle Public Library’s Writers’ Room Residency. He has also been named as a finalist for the Made at Hugo House Writing Fellowship, LitMag’s Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, and the Haleakalā National Park Residency. He has attended the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and Disquiet International, among others. His work appears in The Masters Review, Stratus, and Nordic Kultur Magazine.

JUSTINE PAYTON is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington where she is a recipient of the Philip Gerard Graduate Fellowship and the Bernice Kert Fellowship in Creative Writing. She has been published or has work forthcoming in the Bellevue Literary Review, Isele Magazine, The Masters Review, The Keeping Room, and others. She is currently the managing editor of ONLY POEMS, an editor for Ecotone, and an editorial intern with Tin House. Find her on Instagram @just_a_rose4.

REBECCA REYNOLDS has an MFA in creative writing. Her short fiction has been published in various literary magazines, including Ascent, MudRoom, and The Boiler, and her story collection This Is How We Speak is forthcoming with Cornerstone Press. She lives outside Boston with her husband and three boys, and by day she is a children's librarian. Find her on Twitter @rsreynolds611.

GAGE SAYLOR is the assistant director of creative writing at Oklahoma State University. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Passages North, Tampa Review, Crab Creek Review, Iron Horse, and elsewhere. He has won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize at Nimrod and is a previous semifinalist for the Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize at North American Review. He received his MFA at McNeese State University, where he was awarded the Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction.

CHLOE CHUN SEIM is the author of CHURN, an illustrated novel-in-stories, which won the 2022 George Garrett Fiction Prize and was named a finalist for Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. Texas Review Press published CHURN in late 2023. Chloe’s fiction has appeared in LitMag, where she won the 2021 Anton Chekov Award for Flash Fiction, and in Split Lip Magazine, The McNeese Review, Potomac Review, and more. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

After retiring from full-time work, DAVID K. SLAY completed a two-year program of short fiction writing workshops in the University of California, Los Angeles, Writers’ Program. His short stories, flash fiction, and microfiction can be found in a group of diverse literary journals, including Door Is A Jar, Gold Man Review, ImageOutWrite, The Magnolia Review, Random Sample Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, American Writers Review, and others. Nonfiction craft articles are in CRAFT and Submittable’s “Content for Creatives,” and he has served as a guest editor for Vestal Review. He has been a submissions reader for CRAFT since 2019, and is currently an associate editor for the short fiction section.

Welcome to CRAFT.

Submissions for longform creative nonfiction are open year-round and offer payment of $200 for accepted original work. This free category is for essays and standalone excerpts between 1,000 and 6,000 words. See our flash creative nonfiction category for essays of fewer than 1,000 words.  

As we have always done with our fiction as well, each published work of creative nonfiction will include an author’s note and an editorial introduction that both focus on the craft of the piece. We review literary nonfiction, but are open to a variety of styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft. 

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com 

GUIDELINES: 

• Longform creative nonfiction submissions are open to all writers.
• We accept longform creative nonfiction only in this category; please, no academic work (we have a separate category for critical writing and interviews).
• International submissions are allowed.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• We adhere to a 6,000 word count maximum (for essays of fewer than 1,000 words, please choose the more appropriate flash creative nonfiction category).
• We review literary nonfiction, but are open to a variety of genres and styles including memoir, lyric essays, personal essays, narrative nonfiction, speculative creative nonfiction, and experimental prose.
• We do consider reprints, though we are unable to pay for these pieces.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers please notify us and withdraw your piece if your work is selected for publication elsewhere. If you withdraw your work, you may submit another piece in the same genre.
• We no longer allow multiple submissions—please send only one piece of longform creative nonfiction at a time, until you've heard back from us.
• If your work is declined, we ask that you wait three months before submitting again to the same genre, unless an editor requests more work from you.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. Email us if you need accommodations.
• Please send your piece as a Word doc. PDFs are acceptable, if necessary.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any relevant content warnings (if applicable).
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.

Welcome to CRAFT. 

Submissions for flash creative nonfiction are open year-round and offer payment of $100 for accepted original work. This free category is for essays and standalone excerpts fewer than 1,000 words. See our longform creative nonfiction category for essays between 1,000 and 6,000 words.

As we have always done with our fiction, each published work of creative nonfiction will include an author’s note and an editorial introduction that both focus on the craft of the piece. We review literary nonfiction, but are open to a variety of styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft. 

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com 

GUIDELINES: 

• Flash creative nonfiction submissions are open to all writers.
• We accept flash creative nonfiction only in this category; please, no academic work (we have a separate category for critical writing and interviews).
• International submissions are allowed.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• We adhere to a 1,000 word count maximum (for essays between 1,000 and 6,000 words, please choose the longform creative nonfiction category)—please send only ONE flash creative nonfiction piece between 401 and 1,000 words.
• OR, up to three micros (400 words or fewer each / fewer than 1,000 words total) may be submitted in a single document—this file counts as ONE submission.
• We review literary nonfiction, but are open to a variety of genres and styles including memoir, lyric essays, personal essays, narrative nonfiction, speculative creative nonfiction, and experimental prose.
• We do consider reprints, though we are unable to pay for these pieces.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers please notify us and withdraw your piece if your work is selected for publication elsewhere. If you withdraw your work, you may submit another piece in the same genre.
• We no longer allow multiple submissions—please send only one piece of flash creative nonfiction at a time (unless you're sending three micros, of course, which count as one submission), until you've heard back from us.
• If your work is declined, we ask that you wait three months before submitting again to the same genre, unless an editor requests more work from you.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. Email us if you need accommodations.
• Please send your piece as a Word doc. PDFs are acceptable, if necessary.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any relevant content warnings (if applicable).
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.

Welcome to CRAFT.

Submissions for short fiction are open year-round and offer payment of $200 for accepted original work. This free category is for short stories and standalone fiction excerpts between 1,000 and 6,000 words. See our flash fiction category to submit stories of fewer than 1,000 words.

We are thrilled to be able to pay for published stories, but subsequently must be highly selective in our choices.

To serve our aim of exploring the art of fiction, each published story includes an editor’s introduction as well as a craft essay (author’s note) by the writer. This essay will be requested upon acceptance.

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com

GUIDELINES:

• Fiction submissions are open to all writers.
• We accept short fiction and standalone excerpts only in this category.
• International submissions are welcome.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• We adhere to a 6,000 word count maximum (for stories of fewer than 1,000 words, please choose the more appropriate flash fiction category).
• We review literary fiction, but are open to a variety of genres and styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.
• We do consider reprints, though we are unable to pay for these stories.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers please notify us and withdraw your piece if your work is selected for publication elsewhere. If you withdraw your work, you may submit another piece in the same genre.
• We no longer allow multiple submissions—please send only one piece of short fiction at a time, until you've heard back from us.
• If your work is declined, we ask that you wait three months before submitting again to the same genre, unless an editor requests more work from you.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. Email us if you need accommodations.
• Please send your story as a Word doc. PDFs are acceptable, if necessary.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any relevant content warnings (if applicable).
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.

Welcome to CRAFT.

Submissions for flash fiction are open year-round and offer payment of $100 for original work. This free category is for flash fiction up to 1,000 words. See our short fiction category for stories between 1,000 and 6,000 words.

We are thrilled to be able to pay for published stories, but subsequently must be highly selective in our choices.

To serve our aim of exploring the art of fiction, each published story includes an editor’s introduction as well as a craft essay (author’s note) by the writer. This essay will be requested upon acceptance.

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com

GUIDELINES:

• Flash fiction submissions are open to all writers.
• We accept flash fiction only in this category.
• International submissions are allowed.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• We adhere to a 1,000 word count maximum (for stories from 1,000 to 6,000 words, please choose the more appropriate short fiction category)—please send only ONE flash fiction piece between 401 and 1,000 words.
• OR, up to three micros (400 words or fewer each / fewer than 1,000 words total) may be submitted in a single document—this file counts as ONE submission.
• We review literary fiction, but are open to a variety of genres and styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.
• We do consider reprints, though we are unable to pay for these stories.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers please notify us and withdraw your piece if your work is selected for publication elsewhere. If you withdraw your work, you may submit another piece in the same genre.
• We no longer allow multiple submissions—please send only one piece of flash fiction at a time (unless you're sending three micros, of course, which counts as one submission), until you've heard back from us.
• If your work is declined, we ask that you wait three months before submitting again to the same genre, unless an editor requests more work from you
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. Email us if you need accommodations.
• Please send your story as a Word doc. PDFs are acceptable, if necessary.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any relevant content warnings (if applicable).
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.

This form is currently open ONLY to BIPOC and other mis- and underrepresented writers.

While our submissions for short and flash prose are always free and always open, we are currently offering a fast response option for free to BIPOC and other historically mis- and underrepresented writers.

This form is for both short fiction and longform creative nonfiction (short stories, standalone excerpts, and creative nonfiction essays) between 1,001 and 6,000 words, and for flash and micros (both fiction and creative nonfiction) up to 1,000 words.

We will respond to your piece within four weeks of submission.

We pay $200 for accepted short stories or longform creative nonfiction, and we pay $100 for accepted flash or micro pieces. To serve our aim of exploring the art of prose, each published piece includes an editor’s introduction as well as a craft essay (author’s note) by the writer. This essay will be requested upon acceptance.

If you have questions about submissions, please send an email to: contact (at) craftliterary (dot) com

GUIDELINES: 

• This fast-response category is open only to BIPOC writers and other historically mis- and underrepresented writers.
• International submissions are allowed.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• For this category, we review previously unpublished work only.
• For short fiction and longform creative nonfiction, we adhere to a 6,000 word count maximum.
• For flash, we adhere to a 1,000 word count maximum—please send only ONE flash prose piece between 401 and 1,000 words.
• OR, up to three micros (400 words or fewer each / fewer than 1,000 words total) may be submitted in a single document—this file counts as ONE submission.
• We review literary prose, but are open to a variety of genres and styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers please notify us and withdraw your piece if your work is selected for publication elsewhere. If you withdraw your work, you may submit another piece in the same genre.
• We no longer allow multiple submissions—please send only one piece at a time (unless you're sending three micros, of course, which count as one submission), until you've heard back from us.
• If your story is declined, we ask that you wait three months before submitting again to the same genre, unless an editor requests more work from you.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. Email us if you need accommodations.
• Please send your submission as a Word doc. PDFs are acceptable, if necessary.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any relevant content warnings (if applicable).
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication. Work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.
• Please do not submit work to this category if you do not identify as BIPOC or as a writer from another demographic who has been historically mis- or underrepresented in publishing.

Interested in writing critically for CRAFT? Please see the guidelines below and select the appropriate dropdown option when you submit your work. We do not consider previously published material (reprints) in this category. 

We review essays on writing craft, critical literary analyses, and interviews. Please visit our Craft Section to see the type of content we publish. 

All work in this section is concerned with fiction or creative nonfiction. Please do not send critical work about poetry, film, or any other genres. Those pieces aren't for us. Please do not send personal essays—send those to our creative nonfiction forms. We pay $50 for craft and critical essays, $50 for most standard interviews, and $100 for hybrid interviews (a critical essay paired with a Q&A).

Craft and critical essays range from 1,500 to 2,500 words concerning the craft of fiction or creative nonfiction. We recommend familiarizing yourself with our archive. Most essays we publish offer a careful examination of craft elements in fiction or creative nonfiction.

We welcome queries, pitches, and completed interviews with fiction or creative nonfiction writers. We will want to know if the interview is already approved as well as which elements of craft will be explored. We often schedule interviews well in advance—please contact us as soon as possible with your proposed interview.

We no longer allow multiple submissions—please send only one piece per genre at a time. If your craft/critical submission is declined, you may submit again to the genre immediately. Overall, you may have one piece of fiction (either short or flash), one piece of creative nonfiction (either longform or flash), and one craft piece under consideration at one time.

Details:

Craft and Critical Essays 

Please send completed essays concerning the craft of fiction or creative nonfiction, and include in your cover letter what you're exploring and why it is a good fit for us. Submissions should be 1,500 to 2,500 words and should consist of a careful examination of craft. We only consider completed pieces.

Interviews & Hybrid Interviews

Typically our interviews run around 2,000 to 2,500 words and our hybrid interviews run 3,000 to 4,000 words, 1,000 to 1,500 of which comprise a critical essay about one or more of the interviewee's books. We consider both completed pieces and queries/pitches.