The WestWord vibe
Sending us stories that fit
When sending your stories to literary magazines, it’s really important to think about whether your work is a good fit with what they publish. It’s not nice when our work gets declined and despite our best intentions to toughen up, we can’t help but have at least a little pang of feeling the story isn’t good enough.
Often, I decline stories that are really well-written, have great characters, pace, conflict and tension and satisfying endings. Because they are not the kind of stories I want to publish.
Since I first launched WestWord in 2022, using storytelling to heal ourselves, each other and our world, by creating positive human connection in every story we tell, has become very important to me. You can find out more about that over on The Mindful Writer. So, the stories I want to publish here at WestWord also have to be aligned with that.
Please do not submit stories which glorify murder, racism, sexism, homophobia, religious hatred or any other kind of bigotry and hate. Any sex must be relevant to the story. I won’t publish graphic stories of rape, incest, child abuse, bestiality, or excessive violence and I do not want to read them.
This doesn’t mean I won’t publish stories that are about difficult subjects, but they must be written with nuance, empathy, compassion and love for our shared humanity at the heart of them. 💙
Submission Opportunities
There are three themed editions each year and we have the annual WestWord Prize and other competitions.
Plus submissions are always open for Short Story Spotlight, Story Sunday and Flash Focus!
Join our community
Want to join our community and get craft workshops and submissions to lots of our editions and competitions included? Membership starts at just £5 a month if you pay for the year in full. Plus this year we have a series of member-only short story workshops where stories created can be submitted for consideration for a special edition publishing in November.
