Reading Period for Obsidian 2024
For the next general issue of Obsidian, submit May 15–October 15, 2024 by 11:59 PM Central time (US & Canada). Unless otherwise noted, submissions sent from October 16, 2023 through May 14, 2024 will not be accepted.
Submitting Online
We accept submissions via our online submission management system only. Submissions via postal mail or email will be discarded without response. To submit online, please use the Obsidian submission management system, found at obsidian.submittable.com/submit.
Notifications and Queries
Expect three to five months for a decision. Using our online submissions system you will be able to track the status of your submission. We accept queries after five months have passed. Queries should be sent via email. They should include:
• Your name.
• The date, genre, and title of the submission.
• The title of the Call for Submissions to which you are responding, if applicable.
Spam Notice
To ensure that you receive our email responses, please add staff@obsidianlit.org and notifications@email.submittable.com to your address book so that our correspondence does not end up flagged as spam.
Audio Submission Guidelines
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence
- Submit up to five (5) sound files totaling no more than 75 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as .mp3 or .wav file(s)
Drama/Performance
- Submit one act or a collection of short scenes no longer than twenty (20) pages in the Samuel French format. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.
Please number each page of your manuscript. Submissions should be no longer than twenty (20) pages in length and double-spaced.
Image Submission Guidelines
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
- Submit up to five (5) images totaling no more than 40 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as .jpg or .tif file(s) (.tif preferred) in 300 ppi at the size(s) intended to be used.
- Specify the orientation of the image(s) as portrait or landscape.
Submit up to five (5) poems totaling no more than eight (8) pages.
Video & Media Arts Submission Guidelines
- Include a short cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted and citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
- Submit up to three (3) video and/or gaming files totaling no more than 800 MB.
- Upload your submission(s) as an mpg, .avi, or .mov files, Flash Animation (.swf), Graphics Interchange Format (.gif), UNITY game files, and HTML5 (with or without CSS and JavaScript markup).