About Our Literary Journal
Identity Theory has been publishing original literature—fiction, poetry, essays, interviews, and more—online since July 2000.
Based in southern Nevada, our internet-only publication has earned the attention of major print media throughout the world—including the New York Times, Washington Post, and many others—and reaches thousands of influential readers every week.
Quick Literary Submission Links
Note: In order to support writers of all economic backgrounds, we always provide a free option for submissions. Those include traditional email submissions (detailed below) and the free Submittable submission period that starts on the 1st of each month.
After reading our submission guidelines, submit your fiction, poetry, and essays to us through Submittable unless you'd rather email your submission to us directly, in which case:
Short story writers, read our fiction submission guidelines.
Creative nonfiction authors, read our essay submission guidelines.
Poets, check out our new poetry submission guidelines.
What We Publish
Interviews, fiction, poetry, essays, and blogs are the focus of our current publishing efforts.
Over the past two decades, our journal has published highly regarded long-form interviews with literary authors, indie musicians, filmmakers, and artists.
We have posted fiction from well-known and up-and-coming authors and essays that have been anthologized in the Best American series, among other places.
We also publish book and film reviews, which sometimes appear on places such as Rotten Tomatoes and Powell's Review-a-Day, and we accept social justice pieces and artwork.
How to Get Your Writing Published
If you want to avoid the Submittable ecosystem, send your submission to the appropriate section through the above section guideline links. If you have questions, query directly to Matt Borondy at editor@identitytheory.com.
More suggestions:
1. Write the type of submission and title in the subject line, e.g., "Fiction Submission: 'My Dog is Also A Cat,'" or, "Interview Query: Inventor of No-Spill Coffee Tells All in New Memoir."
2. Feel free to send simultaneous submissions as long as you notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.
3. Do not send previously published work unless you have a lights-out reason.
4. If you want to send your piece as an attachment, use Word. Optimally you would paste the submission in the body of the email and then back it up with an attachment.
5. Include a third-person bio—preferably a brief one, but knock yourself out—along with any links you would like included with your work. Social media handles may also be included in your bio. (We'll most likely follow you if you mention your Twitter and Instagram names.)
6. Or just use Submittable.
Other Ways to Contribute
We publish blogs on film, music and literary news and reviews, among other topics. To be considered as a regular or guest blogger, please email us regarding your background and the types of subjects you'd like to cover. You may also start your own column.
You can also request to have your work reviewed or suggest yourself for an interview.
Or you can apply to be an editor.
Contacts
For most queries and submissions, email Matt Borondy at editor@identitytheory.com. More info is available on our contact us page.
More Submission Policies and Notes
- We do not charge for email submissions.
- We do not officially pay for accepted work. However, we often send gift bags and provide other surprise benefits for our contributors.
- We will be nominating this year's best published pieces for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards.
- We promote stories (and the work of our contributors) on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Substack, and the like. Please join our communities there.
- We like dogs. Why not include a photo of your dog with your submission? That always helps. (Or, okay, perhaps a cat?)
- We are here to help your work flourish. You remain free to seek print publication and other outlets for your work after we publish it, but we prefer to be the only publication in which your piece is published online for a reasonable chunk of time after we post it.
- Again, for more info, view our specific guidelines for sending fiction, poetry, and essays.