The Pinch has at least one genre open for submissions year-round. Our publication schedule dictates when we close genres.
We always accept orders for issues of the print magazine and merchandise. Please visit www.pinchjournal.com to read PJO, our sister publication. You'll get an idea of what we publish and more information about submitting.
The Pinch is a literary journal run by the faculty and students in the MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Memphis. We champion emerging writers and you'll find that 90 percent of what we publish comes from unsolicited submissions.
In the last five years, work featured in the Pinch has been selected for inclusion in the Pushcart Prize Anthology three times. In the nearly 50 years we've been publishing, work from our journal has appeared in Best American Nonrequired and Best American Essays.
Several times per year we offer equity submissions free of charge. Please check back for those opportunities.
We strive to respond quickly, however due to the academic calendar we take longer to respond to submissions sent to us during the months of May, June, July, November and December. If you are a subscriber to the Pinch, we will let you know the status of your submission within one month (if you don't hear from us and are a subscriber, please send us an email).
Please note, we rarely publish work over 4,000 words and we do not publish excerpts, translations, dramas, screenplays, and scholarly essays. For other questions, please read our FAQs.
We are a non-profit journal operating under the umbrella of the University of Memphis. All monies collected from Submittable fees are used to print the magazine and support the students in our MFA program.
Artists,
Use this form to upload up to 5 different art pieces for consideration. For each piece, please identify the medium you are using. You do not have to upload more than one piece to be considered.
We prefer images to be jpeg or tiff and the resolution needs to be at least 300 dpi. Please reach out if you have any questions.
We will consider up to THREE flash fiction pieces as one submission as long as altogether they are fewer than 4,000 words. Please ensure that the title of your submission is the title(s) of your stories. Prose submitted will be considered for the print edition of the Pinch as well in our sister publication PJO.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please notify us if any (or all) of your work is accepted elsewhere. We rarely publish excerpts and do not publish translations, scripts, or plays. Please do no submit additional stories before you hear back from us.
We strive to respond quickly, however due to the academic calendar we take longer to respond to submissions sent to us during the months of May, June, July, November and December. If you are a subscriber to the Pinch, we will let you know the status of your submission within one month.
Submission Checklist
- Fewer than 4000 words
- Double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, pages numbered
- Do not include identifying details in the submission itself (such as a cover letter, bio, name)
- The title of the work is the same as the submission title
- Submit documents in a single file
We will consider up to THREE poems as one submission as long as altogether they are fewer than 4,000 words. Please ensure that the title of your submission is the title(s) of your poems. Poems submitted will be considered for the print edition of the Pinch as well in our sister publication PJO.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please notify us if any (or all) of your work is accepted elsewhere. We do not publish translations. Please do no submit additional poems before you hear back from us.
We strive to respond quickly, however due to the academic calendar we take longer to respond to submissions sent to us during the months of May, June, July, November and December. If you are a subscriber to the Pinch, we will let you know the status of your submission within one month.
Submission Checklist
- No more than THREE poems and total word count is under 4000 words
- Do not include identifying details in the submission itself (such as a cover letter, bio, name)
- The title of the work is the same as the submission title
The Page Prize in nonfiction recognizes the best short-form nonfiction writing. All forms and types of nonfiction (essay, lyrics, hybrid, multimodal, hermit-crab, braided, etc) are eligible for this prize, so long as they are fewer than 1,000 words, previously unpublished and original. Every submission will be considered for publication in the Pinch and the winner will receive $1,000 in addition to publication.
Visit www.pinchjournal.com/contest for further information, including about our judge
Overview
- Submissions accepted from January 1 thru January 31 through our Submittable portal
- Entry fee is $15
- Winner receives $1,000 and publication in the Pinch
- Submissions should not exceed 1,000 words
- Previously published work and translations are ineligible
- Simultaneous submissions accepted, as long as you notify us if the piece is accepted elsewhere. (No refunds will be issued for withdrawals.)
Process
The contest editor, who does not read the submissions, will oversee the process. The first round of readers are students and faculty at the University of Memphis. They all serve in positions on the masthead of the Pinch.
Each contest entry is judged blind. To ensure that your entry is not disqualified, please title your entry the name of your essay and remove all identifying details from the document itself.
All entries are read and scored by two or more readers. Once all the entries have been read and scored, those submissions in the top percentile will be reviewed by the editorial team, who will choose ten finalists.
Finalists are sent to the contest judge, who will make all final decisions with respect to the winner, runner-up and any honorable mentions.
The winner and any runners-up and/or honorable mentions will be posted publicly to the Pinch website.
PAYMENT
Due to the administrative demands of the University of Memphis, it can take several months after the award is announced to fully process payment to the winner. For those who reside in the United States, the university requires a valid state issued or federal issued ID, and completion of a W9 form. For those who reside outside the United States (who are not US Citizens) the university will require photo identification and banking information to complete a wire transfer. The wire transfer can take upward of six months to process.
Guidelines
- Each entry should be a single file.
- All identifying information should be removed from the file. Please double check the name of your file, the first page, and the header, which often include identifying information. We do understand that in nonfiction it can be difficult to erase all identifying details. Please avoid using last names in the text.
- Do not include a cover page.
- If the form allows, please use Times New Roman 12 point font and double space the text allowing for one-inch margins.
- Any entry that exceeds 1,000 words will be ruled ineligible and will not be read.
- Disregarding these rules may result in disqualification; no refund will be offered.
- Questions can be sent to editor@pinchjournal.com
Frequently Asked Questions
- All contact with writers will be managed through Submittable or via our contest coordinator who can be reached at editor@pinchjournal.com
- We will accept multiple submissions, but each submission will incur the $15.00 entry fee.
- We will accept submissions from domestic and international writers. Please note in the event that an international entry wins the contest, payment may take up to six months to complete.
- We do not accept translations.
- We will accept memoir excerpts so long as they stand alone as a complete essay with beginning, middle, and end.
- Current Memphis students are ineligible to submit. Students at the undergraduate and graduate level must have been out of school for more than five years to submit.
- All current staff and volunteer readers of the Pinch are ineligible. Staff members and volunteers who have not been part of the journal for at least five years are eligible.
- Former students, relatives and friends of the contest judge are ineligible to submit.
- The editors may offer publication, in a future issue of the Pinch or in the Pinch Journal Online, to any entry submitted to the contest.