Strange Hymnal is a literary magazine of mystery, ritual, and obsession. A biome of writing and art that worships the strange and unusual. An investigation of liminal spaces, the ineffable, the profane, the god that lives inside the car wash. A made religion, consumed by possibility, the duality of self, the tension between fear and curiosity, the seen and unseen.

Submit up to five (5) pieces as a single .doc, .docx, or PDF; work submitted in any other manner will not be read. We will read up to 5,000 words. We accept art, hybrid work, poetry, essays, short stories, translations of the dead.

Our submission windows are June 1–August 31 and November 1–January 31. Please do not submit outside of our reading periods. Follow our Instagram or visit our Duotrope, CLMP, and Chill Subs listings for news on special issues and themed calls for work.

We’re especially interested in seeing work from BIPOC writers and artists, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodiverse and disabled creators, people from rural places, makers both emerging and late-career, and folks who make hard-to-categorize art: poems in a series, hybrid writing, mixed-media art, art with digital elements, so on and on.

Keep in mind:

• We do accept simultaneous submissions, though please let us know if a piece is accepted elsewhere.
• We don’t accept previously published work. This means that the piece and/or excerpts of it appear elsewhere, whether in a book, anthology, magazine/journal, website, blog, newsletter, social media, etc.
• Signing our accepted work contract means we’ll retain worldwide first serial rights, worldwide first electronic rights, and the right to use your work in promotional materials. This means that after Strange Hymnal publishes your work, copyright reverts back to you and you can do whatever you want with it.
• At this time, we can’t offer payment for your work, though this is something we’d love to do in the future. If you know of any rich patrons of the arts, tell them to DM us.
• If your work is accepted, don’t send us more work until at least one year has passed since the publication of your issue.
• If your work is rejected, please wait until the next submission period to send more work.
• Don’t overthink a cover letter; we’re just two little guys. We just ask you to send us an email with your submission document attached, say hi, and tell us whatever else you want us to know before we dive into your work, if anything. Feel free to throw in your bio, though what’s contained in it doesn’t influence our decision either way.
• We’re a small team, but we’ll try to respond to your submission within thirty days. If it’s been, like, six months without hearing from us, feel free to give us a gentle nudge.