Border Crossing

Full details

Our annual reading period is September 15–February 1. To receive updates about new issues, deadlines, contests, and readings, please add us on facebook or Twitter. To submit, read the guidelines below, then click the button beneath them to be taken to our submission manager. 

We’re especially interested in writing that crosses boundaries in genre or geography, and voices that aren’t often heard in mainstream publications. The best way to see what we mean by this is read our latest issue. All of our submissions go through a rigorous editorial board process. We consider ourselves a “teaching journal,” in that one of our main goals is to give LSSU English and creative writing students editing and publishing opportunities prior to graduation. Every year, student interns read alongside faculty editors as part of the full editorial board and publish book reviews.
We only accept unpublished work for which writers can grant us first North American serial rights. We only accept submissions  via Submittable during our official reading period. Submissions emailed, mailed, or sent outside of our reading period will not be read. Please follow the guidelines for each genre. Please note that we do not accept multiple submissions in a single genre during our reading periods, unless you are specifically invited to resubmit by the editors. For writers who have been previously published in Border Crossing, please wait one year after publication before submitting again. Also please note that the editors may make minor copyedits to your work upon acceptance.
Please do not include your name, address, and phone number on your submission file, as our editorial board reads submissions blind. Only include that information on your cover letter, pasted into the cover letter area, along with an email address you regularly check, and a brief biography of about fifty words. We do accept simultaneous submissions; however, please return to the submission manager and withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. For poems, please add a note to your submission in Submittable indicating which part of your submission was accepted elsewhere.
Response time is roughly 4-6 months. At this time, we are not able to offer payment to all authors. However, with volume 5, our first online issue, we began featuring selected authors. Every year, after all of the work in each genre has been accepted, one author is chosen from those accepted in each genre for a paid feature. Featured authors receive prominent placement in the online journal, a published interview with the editors, and a $100 honorarium. One artist from Michigan or Ontario is also featured each year and receives the same benefits.

Fiction

No longer than 5000 words, with title and page number on each page after the first. If you have a longer piece which you think may be right for us, please send a query to bordercrossing@lssu.edu. Please do not include your name or any identifying information on the work itself, as our editorial board reads submissions blind. We are interested in traditional short stories as well as flash fiction, graphic stories, self-contained novel excerpts, and experimental forms. For graphic fiction, please submit one-shots (or self-contained graphic novel excerpts) 1-10 pages in length as a .PDF or .TIF.
We do accept simultaneous submissions; however, please return to the submission manager and withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. For flash, please include a note in Submittable indicating which piece has been accepted. Please note that you may only submit one file per reading period; multiple submissions will not be considered. We may take up to six months to respond.

Nonfiction

No longer than 5000 words, with title and page number on each page after the first. If you have a longer piece which you think may interest us, please send a query to bordercrossing@lssu.edu. Please do not include your name or any identifying information on the work itself, as our editorial board reads submissions blind. We are interested in personal essays, memoir excerpts (when self-contained), travel writing, flash creative nonfiction, and works of creative nonfiction in experimental forms (including graphic nonfiction). For graphic nonfiction, please submit one-shots (or self-contained graphic memoir excerpts) 1-10 pages in length as a .PDF or .TIF.
We do accept simultaneous submissions; however, please return to the submission manager and withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. For flash, please include a note in Submittable indicating which piece has been accepted. Please note that you may only submit one file per reading period; multiple submissions will not be considered. We may take up to six months to respond.

Poetry

We are interested in traditional forms, as well as prose poetry and experimental work. For experimental work, please upload the file in .PDF or .TIF format. Please submit 3-5 poems in one file; do not submit poems separately. Please do not include your name or any identifying information on the work itself, as our editorial board reads submissions blind. Please note that you may only submit one file per reading period; multiple submissions will not be considered. We may take up to six months to respond.
We do accept simultaneous submissions; however, please return to the submission manager and include a note letting us know immediately when poems are accepted elsewhere.