Submissions are open to Spring Hill College students and alumni only. 

Prose: Up to 4000 words. Only send one piece at a time, though feel free to submit up to three flash pieces (up to 750 words) at once. Only accepted file types: doc, docx, or PDF. Do not copy/paste the piece’s text into the body of an email. We accept fiction and nonfiction of any kind. Send us your super creepy science fiction story or your contemporary realist literary fiction. Send your memoir about your first interstate road trip or that personal essay about your disdain for Arby’s. The only criteria regarding content: send us the best piece you’ve written!  

Poetry: Up to 5 poems at once. Make sure it is formatted in the way you’d like it to appear if accepted. Only accepted file types: doc, docx, or PDF. Do not copy/paste the piece’s text into the body of an email.  

Graphic Narrative: No more than 10 pages in length. Attach as a PDF.  

Artwork: We accept all types of visual art, from photographs to sketches to paintings, etc. Submit your visual work exactly how you would like it to appear if published. In other words, it’s probably not best to snap quick photos of your visual art with a phone. Make sure that the photo is cropped and edited (or “filtered”) appropriately before submitting. Also, take note of your file’s size. If you send us a file that’s too small, we’d have to stretch it out to fit our pages which may distort the image.  

Special Call For Submissions: Coming soon! 

Subject Line: Motley Submission: “Title of Piece(s)” - Genre  

Write a cover letter in the body of the email. This letter should let us get to know you a little bit: grade, major, hometown, etc.

Include a short, two-sentence bio that will be used in the issue if your piece is published.

Also, if you are on Twitter or Instagram, let us know so we can give you a shout out.  

Attach files to the email (no Google Docs or links to blogs, etc.).

Only doc, docx, or PDF files will be read. 

1. Do NOT submit anything new if you are currently waiting for a response. This process takes time. We promise we read every submitted piece.  

2. We only publish original work; if you have previously published a piece (i.e. on a blog), we will not publish it. With this said, if you wrote a piece for class, PLEASE SEND IT TO US! 

3. No fan fiction or anything bordering Academic Dishonesty policies. While The Motley not a class, the same plagiarism rules apply. And again—we can’t stress this enough—send us anything you wrote in class that you are proud of! 

4. We want to publish everything we receive--we really do. However, do keep in mind that we have limited space in our magazine. If your piece is not accepted for publication, please do not take that as a slight against your writing. Keep writing, as you’re going to find a great home for your work, whether it be in The Motley or elsewhere.