SUBMIT

Submissions are open to the public for Issue 17 from November 28, 2023 - January 15, 2024.

All submissions are read blindly. Everyone is eligible to submit, regardless of age or geographic location. The specified submission deadline may be different for solicited writers.

Submissions in multiple categories are encouraged. Upon acceptance, COUNTERCLOCK receives first North American publishing rights and archival rights. All rights revert back to the author upon publication. We ask that you credit us if the work is reprinted in the future. 

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. We do our very best to respond to all submissions within one month. If you do not hear back from us after 4 months, feel free to send us another email inquiring after the status of your submission, but please do not query us before then. We also offer expedited submissions (72-hour response time) and Feedback Corner (in-depth feedback on your work within 2-4 weeks, depending on the package selected).

No AI-generated submissions, please. We are happy to consider previously published work on a case-by-case basis, as long as you hold the rights to the poem.

All works should be attached to the email in .docx or .pdf format.

We do not currently pay our contributors, but hope very much to in future issues! We are committed to keeping COUNTERCLOCK accessible and will always offer fee-free submissions. 

Any questions separate from submissions or inquiries about publication – e.g., about joining the staff – may be directed to counterclockjournal@gmail.com. Please do not send the submissions to counterclockjournal@gmail.com. If you send your submission to that address, it will not receive a response.

We look forward to reading your work!

 

GUIDELINES

In your submissions, please title the email subject line "Genre_First & Last Name" and email all general submissions to counterclocksubmissions@gmail.com. Any submissions sent to other emails will NOT be considered. Include a brief, third-person biographical statement with your submission. Cover letters are welcome but not required. Special folio submissions should be directed to counterclockjournal@gmail.com (e.g., PATCHWORK). [Note: We are no longer considering OUTBREAK submissions.]

  • Send us up to three of your best original, previously unpublished fiction and nonfiction with the total word count under 6,000 words. Previous publication on social media/personal websites is acceptable. Please do not include any identifying information within the document of your submission. All submissions should be in 12-point Times New Roman.

  • Send us up to five pages of your best original, previously unpublished poetry. Previous publication on social media/personal websites is acceptable. All submissions should be in 12-point Times New Roman. Please do not include any identifying information within the document of your submission. Short films of performance poetry are also welcome.

  • Send us up to five high-resolution .jpg or .png files of your best original, previously unpublished visual art. Previous publication on social media/personal websites is acceptable. Please do not include any identifying information within the document of your submission. We are especially interested in photography, painting, charcoal, digital art, and mixed medium work. You may include an Artist's Statement if you wish. 

  • If your creative work doesn’t fit into any of the above genres, please still send it to us – we’d love to review it. It can be a single work or multiple works in conversation; it can be half a work, or the negative space of someone else’s work. Ekphrasis, rap, found poetry – send it all to us with the genre heading of ‘CrossGenre.’ The nitty-gritty: all audio should be in .mp3 or .m4a format; all images should be in .jpg or .png format (or, if they’re embedded in text documents, as high resolution as possible); all films should be in .mp4 or .m4a, or links to Vimeo or Youtube versions. We’re especially interested in the how and why, so we encourage you to send us an Artist’s Statement. There is no minimum or maximum to what you can send us, as long as you feel that it is necessary for your message to be completed. For spoken pieces like rap or spoken word, please include a written transcription for our editors to follow along with.

 

PAID OPTIONS

COUNTERCLOCK hopes to provide a sliding-scale feedback corner service for writers facing significant financial hardship – particularly writers of color & members of the LGBTQ+ community. You’re welcome to discuss with us in your email if you’re unable to pay the full amount due to factors beyond your control. You can put “Attn: Feedback Corner” in your subject line.

COUNTERCLOCK editors and readers offer a paid editing service for writing in the following categories: fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and cross-genre work. Receive in-depth feedback from multiple members of our editorial staff for $28 for two members in four weeks and $35 for two members in two weeks.

Please see more details about this option here.

We offer an expedited submission option (48-hour response time) for $7.00​. 

Please see more details about this option here.

 

ADVANCE REVIEW MANUSCRIPTS

We are open year-round to unsolicited manuscripts for review on our blog. You can browse our articles and past reviews here.

Send us up your full manuscript as a .docx or .pdf attachment to the body of the email. In the body of the email, please include a brief, third-person biographical statement, a half-page synopsis, and the date of your manuscript’s publication with your submission. Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unfortunately unable to respond to all pitches and manuscripts. If you do not receive a response within 2 months, we were not able to find a space for it within COUNTERCLOCK.

Please title the email subject line "Manuscript_First & Last Name" and email all work to counterclockjournal@gmail.com. Cover letters are welcome but not required.