General Guidance

Contributors will have 1 month from the day prompts are announced to write and submit their work.

The deadline for Volume 1 is the 1st of March 2026 at Midnight (00:00 GMT). Any pieces of work submitted after the closing date will NOT be accepted.

Our team will read your work and respond to you within two weeks of the submission deadline. Each volume will be published 2 months after its prompts were announced (thus Volume 1 will be published on the 1st of April 2026).

You may submit your work anonymously or use a pseudonym. The email address you supply will only be used for contacting you. All correspondence will use the name you provide.

All submissions will receive a response.

Submission Guidelines

Please read the instructions carefully before submitting. This ensures that we, in a timely manner, can read your work, respond with suggestions or revisions, and format the chosen pieces correctly.

Please submit all documents with the following title:

Volume of Magazine, Prompt, Name of Author, ‘Title of piece’.docx

Your piece may be submitted on a Microsoft Word Document or a Google Doc.

Poetry:

• Up to 50 lines (white space does not contribute to overall length)

• Font size: 12

• Font: Times New Roman

• If submitting work in another language please provide a translation in English (if someone else has translated your piece they must be credited in your submission)

• Poems can be in free-verse or any other recognised form (sonnet, sestina, haiku, villanelle etc.)

Prose:

• Up to 2,000 words of prose

• Font size: 12

• Font: Times New Roman

• Spacing: 1.5

• If submitting work in another language pleasure provide a translation in English (if someone else has translated your piece they must be credited in your submission)

You do not have to cite the piece of art you have used from our prompts list, however if you make references to any other piece of media please use footnotes to refer to it. These footnotes do not count towards your word count. Sketches Magazine will use Chicago Notes and Bibliography Style. An example reference for a book would have the the following structure:

Author Name Surname, Title of Book, (Publisher, Date), p. number OR pp. page-range.

If you are unsure and have access to this source online, add the link in your draft so we can check your footnotes while editing. If you have any queries or concerns about footnote formatting please contact us when your submission is accepted.

NOTE: Your submission must be entirely your own work. Use of generative AI is prohibited and your work will NOT be accepted.

Submissions

You can find the Google Form for submitting your piece(s) here. If you wish to submit more than one piece, please use a separate form for each.

If you are struggling to use the Google Form you may send in your submission to our email: sketchesmag@gmail.com

Please use the following formatting in your email:

• Full Name/Pseudonym/Anonymous

• Preferred email for contacting you

• Name of piece

• Indicate the prompt you have chosen

• Microsoft Word document or Google Doc link (with editing permission)

• Let us know if this is a simultaneous submission in advance

• Any comments you have about the process of writing your piece, or any extra details you wish to share with us

If you are submitting multiple pieces please use a separate email for each.