Shrapnel Magazine

 Full details 

Shrapnel publishes experimental writing from emerging writers in the genres of fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, and poetry. We also converse with the Canadian literary community through book reviews, interviews, and columns.

We are also keen to publish graphic narratives and comics, as well as transgenre work that is not easily categorized.

Please note that Shrapnel is not currently publishing stories centred around trauma or grief.

Please read the submission guidelines for each genre carefully and submit your very best work. We will not respond to submissions that do not follow our guidelines.

All fiction, CNF, and essay publications are paid $25; original artwork for stories, hybrid works, and comics are paid $20; and poetry, book reviews, interviews, and columns are paid $15. We’re eager to raise the pay as soon as possible depending on what funding we can secure.

We’re paying extra for your voice! On top of our rates for written work, we’ll chuck in an additional $5 for writers who are able to record themselves reading their piece. This makes our content more accessible and gives people more than one way to experience your stories.

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Regarding All Submissions

Please include content warnings if your writing involves scenes of violence or sexual assault.

Some of our readers are sensitive to topics of this nature and we want to ensure everyone has a good time working with Shrapnel. Thanks for your cooperation.

If a submission is rejected, please wait six months before resubmitting.

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Genre-Specific
Submission Guidelines

Fiction, CNF, and poetry:
We’re looking for standalone, original work that hasn’t been published anywhere else yet. There’s no word limit, but make every sentence matter. Please note that you may submit up to five poems or ten pages of poetry in one submission.

Essays:
These are tricky to write well, but we’re looking for commentary and analysis on how stories influence each other as well as culture. These are slightly academic in nature and researched, but with a more casual voice. For examples of essays that smash it out of the park, read “Beyond Mangoes and Monsoons: Rupi Kaur and Exploiting Diaspora Trauma” by Kiran Misra and “The Stupid Classics Book Club” by Elisa Gabbert.

Book Reviews:
We want to celebrate recently published books written by Canadians because they’re incredible.

Sign up to our newsletter to see what books we are pretty much paying people to read (and giving away for free). Books are given a rating out of five stars and reviews span around 600 words each.