We read submissions year-round, but our deadline for the spring issue is March 1 (published in May), and September 1 (published in November).
Because Collateral is run by writers on an academic timeline, there can be occasional delays in our response times. We ask that you wait 4-6 months before querying about the status of your submission. Send queries through our Contact page or email us at collateralsubmissions[at]gmail[dot]com.
Responses are sent to the email address writers provide. Please make sure your address is correct.
We do not accept previously published poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction. We do, however, consider previously published visual art.
We are happy to accept simultaneous submissions, but please wait until you receive a response to one submission before sending another in the same genre. Feel free, however, to submit in multiple genres at once.
For manuscript submissions, we prefer Word or PDF files (JPG for art).
We can only accept submissions through our submission system. If you have difficulty with this system, please email collateralsubmissions[at]gmail[dot]com and we will get back to you. Do not email your submissions to this address unless asked to do so.
Please include your name, city, and email address on the first page of your submission.
Cover letters are accepted in the body of a submission but are not required.
Fiction and creative nonfiction should be double-spaced. Poetry can be single-spaced.
Fiction and creative nonfiction pieces should avoid going longer than 5000 words. Send poems in batches of 1-5 that total no more than ten pages. Send 3-5 pieces of visual art at a time.
Collateral acquires first serial internet rights to the pieces we publish. All other rights remain with the author.
We write our own reviews and publish the reviews of other writers, and we're interested in all genres and lengths. Please do not submit previously published reviews at any time; simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you tell us if it is picked up elsewhere.
If you would like to mail us a copy of the book, please state this in your cover letter and we will give you a mailing address. Please note that books cannot be returned and do not guarantee a published review.
We accept photography, mixed media, well-lit and well-composed pictures of textiles, jewelry, paintings, drawings, sculpture and more.
For a complete list of submission guidelines on all genres, please see our submission guidelines page.