Illustration: snippets of flora in space falling towards earth

Submissions

🌻  Claw & Blossom is on hiatus.  🌻

Claw & Blossom has published 11 issues since March 2019 and it’s a bit disorienting to think about how quickly that time flew. Over 5300 submissions were received since the doors were first gnawed open. The editor is now taking an indefinite hiatus. Please take care of yourselves and enjoy reading the online archives!

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🌟 All response letters for past issues have been sent and the queue is clear 🌟

General Guidelines

WHAT

Claw & Blossom is an online seasonal journal of short literary prose and poems that touch upon the natural world.

The editor hopes to see explorations that relate meaningful personal struggles not only to a larger picture of humanity but beyond, to the context of other species and the state of the planet. The editor is partial to work that is layered and shows reflective complexity, and they are particularly fond of pieces that utilize emotional movement or narrative tension. Portraits and odes are unlikely to be a good fit.

The natural world MUST also be an element of your work. Though it need not be the main focus of the piece, it should have a distinct and relevant narrative presence (such as through use of a natural-world metaphor or as a necessary element of context).

Claw & Blossom publishes themed issues, and the editor enjoys receiving interpretations of the theme that are suitable and on-point while still being subtle and surprising.

Issues generally shape themselves around the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. The editor looks for final pieces that show originality while still complementing one another, and work that might flow well narratively with illustrations when the issue is read front-to-back.

Before sending your work, please familiarize yourself with past issues (free to read online) to get an idea of the general vibe.

HOW

For POEMS, send one poem per submission. The editor is not interested in publishing rhyming poetry and is unlikely to publish formal verse.

For PROSE, send up to 1,000 words. This can be one piece or linked micros (please send these all in one document, rather than as separate subs).

Claw & Blossom is not likely to accept commercial fiction or stories that could be considered part of the action-, thriller/slasher/gore-, or romance genres. Ideally, your submission would fit under the general umbrella of literary prose.

If you are submitting a work that is “After” another writer’s work, please provide a link or reference to the original.

Submissions are initially read anonymously. Please do not include any personal information in the uploaded file. Instead, include a brief cover letter with your submission in the requested field on the form. Short third-person bios are welcome in your cover letter; this information will be viewed in later rounds.

Claw & Blossom does not consider previously-published work. This includes pieces that have been posted to social media accounts.

Claw & Blossom does not consider multiple submissions. Please wait for a response to your submission before sending another new piece.

Claw & Blossom encourages simultaneous submissions. Should your work be accepted elsewhere while under consideration, please withdraw the piece immediately from Claw & Blossom by using the Withdraw option in Submittable.

Claw & Blossom pays $25 USD per acceptance upon publication via PayPal only and the editor is unable to issue payment through other methods. If you are unable to receive funds through access to PayPal, the editor is always grateful to instead apply the amount towards defraying Claw & Blossom’s operating costs. Linked micros are considered one acceptance.

🌟 The queue is cleared every 3 months and all submissions receive a response before issues are published. 🌟

Spam filters are capricious beasts, so if you don’t seem to have received a response, please don’t hesitate to send a query by using the Contact form.

Due to submission volume, the editor can unfortunately no longer send very many personalized response letters, but they do read and appreciate cover letters that express a bit about you as a sentient being. It is a comfort to know that even flapping around out here in our own orbits we’re all still subjecting ourselves to the same laws of gravity and doing what we can to make sense of life’s eternal bewilderments.

WHITHER

By submitting your work to Claw & Blossom for consideration, it is understood that you accept the following terms:

  • That the work you send Claw & Blossom is of your own making and has not been plagiarized in whole or in part.
  • That Claw & Blossom is purchasing the rights to publish your work on its website and to archive that work in its Issues archive.
  • That if your work published with Claw & Blossom is later reprinted elsewhere, you will kindly add an acknowledgement of first publication.

THANK YOU

for your interest in Claw & Blossom!

 

Space Flora Falling to Earth illustration by C.B. Auder.