Map Literary publishes poems & prose poems, short stories & short-shorts, scholarly essays & creative nonfiction, and art.
We also run the Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award every other year, as well as a writing contest for New Jersey high school students.
We do not consider work that has previously appeared elsewhere, either in print or on the web.
Please include a brief bio in the "cover letter" field when you submit.
We accept simultaneous submissions but expect to be notified in a timely manner if the work has been accepted elsewhere.
For fiction and nonfiction, submit one piece at a time for consideration; do not send a second piece until you have received a response to the first. You may, however, submit in more than one genre at a time. For poetry, submit 3-5 poems at a time; please send only one file.
We value provocative themes, experimental works, genre confoundings, fugue complexities, beautiful syntax, original voices, aesthetic risk-taking, creative research, ethnic hybridity, gorgeous paperweights.
We dislike clichés, gimmicks, SUVs, righteousness, PowerPoint presentations, nuclear arsenals, talking heads.
Thematic cartographers, we want to model today’s ethical, ethnic, and aesthetic realities. We look foward to hearing from you.
Please be so kind as to subscribe to our occasional newsletter.
Map Literary is pleased to announce that the 2026 Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award is now open for submissions. Named after our late colleague, this award honors beautiful, original writing through publication as a high-quality chapbook. This year the award will focus on PROSE. We seek new, original work, though individual pieces that have been previously published elsewhere may be included. The manuscript should be about 30 pages long (15,000-20,000 words). The deadline for entries is February 14th, 2026. There is no entry fee through Dec 25th; after that there will be an entry fee of $20. The winner will receive a $1000 honorarium and 25 copies of the winning chapbook, and a physical and digital version will be sold on Amazon.com, where chapbooks of the previous winners can be found.
Tomorrow Music: Stories (2021), by Pete Stevens
Cellar Testament (2019), poetry by Greg Glazner
Our Daughter and Other Stories (2017), by Wendy Oleson
Electrocution: A Partial History (2015), poetry by Dennis Hinrichsen
Faye Wikner, the 2025 Hayden’s Ferry Review Fiction Runner Up will judge submissions with Map Literary editors. Editors reserve the right to select no winner, or to select multiple winners, depending on the quality of submissions received.
Faye Wikner was raised in the lingonberry forests of Sweden, but currently lives in New Jersey with her cat. She received her MFA from William Paterson University, where she teaches Creative Writing. She wad the runner-up for Hayden’s Ferry Review Fiction Prize 2025 as well as the runner-up in Feign Lit’s The REIGN Prize 2025. Her work has been featured in CRAFT Literary, Short Beasts, The Colored Lens, Crow & Cross Key, and is forthcoming elsewhere. You can find her on instagram (@userxofy) and https://fayewikner.weebly.com/
Map Literary is pleased to announce that the 2026 Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award is now open for submissions. Named after our late colleague, this award honors beautiful, original writing through publication as a high-quality chapbook. This year the award will focus on PROSE. We seek new, original work, though individual pieces that have been previously published elsewhere may be included. The manuscript should be about 30 pages long (15,000-20,000 words). The deadline for entries is February 14th, 2026. There is no entry fee through Dec 25th; after that there will be an entry fee of $20. The winner will receive a $1000 honorarium and 25 copies of the winning chapbook, and a physical and digital version will be sold on Amazon.com, where chapbooks of the previous winners can be found.
Tomorrow Music: Stories (2021), by Pete Stevens
Cellar Testament (2019), poetry by Greg Glazner
Our Daughter and Other Stories (2017), by Wendy Oleson
Electrocution: A Partial History (2015), poetry by Dennis Hinrichsen
Faye Wikner, the 2025 Hayden’s Ferry Review Fiction Runner Up will judge submissions with Map Literary editors. Editors reserve the right to select no winner, or to select multiple winners, depending on the quality of submissions received.
Faye Wikner was raised in the lingonberry forests of Sweden, but currently lives in New Jersey with her cat. She received her MFA from William Paterson University, where she teaches Creative Writing. She wad the runner-up for Hayden’s Ferry Review Fiction Prize 2025 as well as the runner-up in Feign Lit’s The REIGN Prize 2025. Her work has been featured in CRAFT Literary, Short Beasts, The Colored Lens, Crow & Cross Key, and is forthcoming elsewhere. You can find her on instagram (@userxofy) and https://fayewikner.weebly.com/
Please be so kind as to subscribe to our occasional newsletter and follow us on Facebook.
John Parras: "I am particularly drawn to fiction with a poetic texture--fiction that employs intense figurative language and sophisticated prose rhythms. I like magic realism, experimental fiction, and sudden fiction (750-1000 words). I have recently been enjoying stories by David Means, Ben Marcus, Victor Pelevin, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian,' Paul Harding's 'tinkers,' and the beautiful sentences of Rivka Galchen."
Martha Witt: "I admire fiction that simultaneously surprises and convinces. When I read narratives with outrageous premises or unexpected twists that, in the end, seem absolutely inevitable, I am in awe. The emotional component is crucial, of course. Even great technique cannot save a story that offers its readers no emotional connection. Alice Munro, Deborah Eisenberg, John Barth, and Andrew Sean Greer write the kind of short stories I turn to again and again."
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION SUPPORTING THE WRITING ARTS!
Please be so kind as to subscribe to our occasional newsletter and follow us on Facebook.
Christopher Salerno: "I'm drawn to poetry that knows what year it is. Regardless of school or allegiance, my favorite lyric or meditative poems exist as a record of a process. They allow themselves to be in uncertainties. They beg to be reread, even if they’re simple. They may be simple. They may contain variants, diversions, or hiccups. Tonally, they may contain multitudes. A medley of historical references might include such hits as Keats' "Negative Capability," Lorca's "Duende," Frank O'Hara's "Personism," and the careful attentiveness of Charles Olson's "Projective Verse." Some of my favorite Small Press Poetry Publishers right now include: Wave Books, Birds LLC, Black Ocean, Ahsahta Press, Flood Editions, Wesleyan, Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Octopus Books, and others.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION SUPPORTING THE WRITING ARTS!
Please be so kind as to subscribe to our occasional newsletter and follow us on Facebook.
Creative nonfiction or scholarly essays; book & cultural reviews; author interviews. We are looking for writers who are engaged by contemporary cultural issues and who have explored forms such as the segmented essay, poetic prose, the braided essay, and the position piece. Also welcome are personal essays, travel essays, and memoir by writers who demonstrate both a strong sense of place and a range of content that extends beyond the confessional.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION SUPPORTING THE WRITING ARTS!
Short Fiction Contest for New Jersey High School Students
The William Paterson University Department of Language, Literature, Culture and Writing (LLCW) is pleased to host a writing contest for the most nuanced and page-turning short fiction we receive through our Submittable portal by February 13th, 2026, at 11:59 PM.
The winner will be published in WP's online literary journal, MAP LITERARY, as well as receive a cash prize of $250. The runner-ups will be considered for publication in Map Literary.
We welcome unpublished short fiction manuscripts up to a maximum of 2,000 words (about 5 pages long). Slightly shorter or slightly longer page counts are fine--but do NOT send a piece that is more than the word limit. And please submit one short fiction piece only.
The first 100 entries to this contest can be submitted free of charge; after that, there will be a $2 entry fee. Note that you may enter the contest only once, and submissions are accepted only from students who are currently enrolled in a high school in New Jersey.
SUBMIT TO THE CONTEST BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK. Note that to enter, you will need to create a Submittable account, which is completely free. We do NOT accept email submissions.
The contest will be judged by Dr. John Parras: the BA/MFA Coordinator, as well as Map Literary's editor-in-chief.
Poetry Contest for New Jersey Undergraduate Students
Are you a writer currently residing in New Jersey and in the process of completing an undergraduate degree? The William Paterson University Department of Language, Literature, Culture and Writing (LLCW) is looking for emotionally evocative, page-turning works of poetry by all New Jersey undergraduate students!
The winner will be published in WP's online literary journal, MAP LITERARY as well as receive a prize of $250. The runner-ups will be considered for publication in Map Literary and Zeitgeist. Submit your work through our Submittable portal by February 13, at 11:59 PM.
We welcome unpublished poetry manuscripts between 2-4 pages (about 350-500 words maximum). Poems should be double-spaced with 12pt font. The first 50 entries to this contest can be submitted free of charge. After that, there will be a $5 entry fee.
Note that you may enter the contest only once, and submissions are accepted only from students who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree program in New Jersey. To enter, you will need to create a Submittable account, which is completely free. We do NOT accept email submissions.
The contest will be judged by Dr. John Parras: the BA/MFA Coordinator and Map Literary's editor-in-chief.
- Submissions must be works of poetry.
- Submissions must be previously unpublished. If it is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it immediately.
- Submissions should be no more than 500 words. Limit 2-4 pages per person.
- The first 50 submissions are free. After that, submissions will be $5.
- Submissions are only accepted from individuals who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate, higher education college or university in New Jersey.
- Student emails (the ones given by your college) are required.
- The first place winner will have their piece published on Map Literary, in Spring 2026.