Submission Guidelines
Raising Mothers publishes experimental and traditional fiction, micro and flash, creative nonfiction, interviews, book reviews, photo essays, and comic/graphic narratives.
Raising Mothers exclusively seeks out and supports submissions by self-identified mothers and parents: biological, non-biological, step, foster, grand, or adoptive that are often marginalized in literary spaces. This includes Black and Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) exclusively; cis women, agender, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, two-spirit, and nonbinary people; LGBTQIA; with disabilities; and especially those living at the intersections of these identities.
We are also looking to include the voices of people (there is no requirement here to be a parent) who were un-mothered, under-mothered, have toxic parental relationships; people who are adoptees, and other child-centered perspectives. We are interested in non-heteronormative ideas of parenthood including queer parenting, chosen families, and any other ways not mentioned that reconceptualize “family”.
Raising Mothers reserves the right to remove previously published content for any reason, including but not limited to situations where we believe that doing so will protect the integrity of the publication and its mission.
Fee - Entirely voluntary.
Simultaneous Submissions - Yes - Please notify us immediately if accepted elsewhere.
Multiple Submissions - Members Only - Annual members will receive a special link for submissions. Please use that link when submitting. Become a member!
Previously Published Works - No - We only accept original unpublished work.
Response Time - 3-6 months - Thank you for your patience.
HOW TO SUBMIT
All submissions should have a literary quality: strong, engaging and non-academic.
Work should be submitted in 12 pt font (no fancy fonts, please), double spaced and uploaded as a doc. or docx. file. Comic and graphic narrative submissions should be uploaded as .pdf.
Files should be saved and uploaded as Your Name_Column Name. Include a word count in the document. We no longer accept submissions via email except when noted.
The draft you submit is considered final, excepting suggested changes by our editorial staff.
Include a 100 word bio written in third person.
We do not accept work created by AI. Any submissions not entirely created by a human author will be automatically rejected.
PAYMENT
Raising Mothers is a lean organization, with a fully volunteer staff. As it stands, we are able to pay a small honoraria for limited select work. Our aim is to be 100% reader-funded. In 2016, we launched a Patreon campaign to provide sustainability without turning to ad revenue and to work towards establishing a fund to pay contributors and expand our columns. Now with our move to Substack, we are phasing out our Patreon to move here.
We’ve just announced our most ambitious campaign yet: 1 of 100.
Our goal is 1,000 annual members, 100 members at a time.
More info right here:
Our tiers are based on our three most used tiers: $5/ month, $10/month (billed annually with a discount), and $15/month (billed annually with a discount). We also offered a $25/month tier and $50/month tier which can be billed directly through us privately if you would like to continue supporting us at those tiers.
Monthly and annual subscribers help us plan for our future while engaging our community, and one-time donations are always appreciated.
RIGHTS
By submitting to Raising Mothers, you’re granting first electronic rights exclusive for the first 6 months upon publication. You grant the right to excerpt portions of accepted work online in order to promote you, your work, and Raising Mothers. You’re also agreeing that if your work is republished in whole or in part digitally or in print, you will credit Raising Mothers as first publication, along with a direct link to the site where applicable. We reserve first world eBook, print and audiobook rights, and non-exclusive anthology rights for our published anthologies. Raising Mothers reserves non-exclusive online rights to publish and archive your work in perpetuity. All other rights remain the property of the author.
Selected pieces might be requested for future anthologies. You reserve the right to decline our offer.
OPEN CALLS
Interview pitches and finished interview submissions are accepted year-round. Please fill out Interview Pitch by completing this form. If you have completed an interview, email it directly to (submit@raisingmothers.com).
We are currently closing our submissions and will return with new calls this fall. Thank you so much for your interest in submitting with Raising Mothers.