XRAY Submissions
XRAY LITERARY MAGAZINE SUBMISSIONS
X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine’s vision is to publish uncomfortable, entertaining, and unforgettable prose that shines brighter than the skeleton in your body, prose that sees through the skin and reveals something deeper. We work hard to give our readers the best authors on the planet.
XRAY Literary Magazine publishes new stories and features 4-5 times per week. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and wherever else tickles our fancy.
CATEGORIES AT-A-GLANCE
SHORT STORIES (2,000 to 7,500 words): We open these submissions on the 1st of each month. Submissions close when we reach our cap, which may vary from month to month. Every other month we limit these short story submissions to folk who have not submitted short stories to us in the past.
CREATIVE NONFICTION (300 to 7,500 words): We open these submissions on the 1st of each month. Submissions close when we reach our cap, which may vary from month to month.
FLASH FICTION: (300 to 2,000 words): We open these submissions on the 1st of each month. Submissions close when we reach our cap, which may vary from month to month.
MICROS (up to 300 words): We open these submissions on the 21st of each month. Submissions close when we reach our cap, which may vary from month to month.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
- We want prose only. No poetry, please.
- Wait until you hear from us before you submit again.
- You may submit your work elsewhere, no problem.
- We shoot for a response time of 1-8 weeks.
- We’re kind about it, but genre fiction might find a better home elsewhere.
- We’d love for you to look around before submitting. Have at it.
GRITTY BITS ‘N’ BOBS
- By submitting to us, if accepted, you grant us first electronic rights and non-exclusive archival rights.
- All submissions remain the intellectual property of the artist. Rights revert to author upon publication.
- We’d love if you’d credit us if your work first appeared here.
- Work previously published in print only welcome if in no violation of original rights.
- You’ll feel really good if you check out these kick-ass authors.
- Exposure to the website carries a small risk of radiation poisoning. We suggest wearing a lead apron while submitting.
FLASH FICTION
Your editors: Chris Dankland and Claire Hopple
- Submit one piece of up to 2000 words please.
- One piece per submission, please.
- Chris and Claire read and decide upon the last-round Flash Fiction submissions.
- Wait until you hear from us before you submit again.
- You may simultaneously submit your work elsewhere, no problem.
- Chris and Claire shoot for a response time of 4-8 weeks.
- We’d love for you to look around before submitting. Have at it.
SHORT STORIES
Your editors: Joshua Hebburn and Alice M.
- Submit one piece of up to 2000 words please.
- One piece per submission, please.
- Josh and Alice read all Short Story submissions.
- Wait until you hear from us before you submit again.
- You may simultaneously submit your work elsewhere, no problem.
- Josh and Alice shoot for a response time of 4-6 weeks.
- We’d love for you to look around before submitting. Have at it.
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Your editors: Jo Varnish and Michael Todd Cohen
- Submit one piece of up to 7500 words please.
- One piece per submission, please.
- Please ensure your submissions are creative nonfiction, and check the box to confirm this.
- Jo and Michael are looking for writing that moves, surprises, and engages. Tell them your secrets, expose your inner self, break their hearts!
- Wait until you hear from us before you submit again.
- You may simultaneously submit your work elsewhere, no problem.
- Jo and Michael shoot for a response time of 4-6 weeks.
- We’d love for you to look around before submitting. Have at it.
MICRO FICTION
Your editor: Jennifer Greidus
- Submit one to three pieces—each no more than 300 words—in one document, please.
- Micros can be fiction, nonfiction, and beyond. (“I don’t know what that means.”)
- Only Jennifer reads Micro submission. (“I like subtle writing that might disturb your dad.”)
- Wait until you hear from us before you submit again.
- You may simultaneously submit your work elsewhere, no problem.
- Jennifer shoots for a response time of 1-4 weeks.
- We’d love for you to look around before submitting. Have at it.
FEATURES
Your editor: Rebecca Gransden
- Pitch Rebecca at rebecca@xraylitmag.com.
- We don’t take reviews as often as interviews, and we rarely assign reviews to in-house editors. But go on, shoot your shot! Peek at what we publish first.
MASTHEAD
| Founding Editors | Jennifer Greidus Chris Dankland |
| Managing Editor | Chris Dankland |
| Creative Director | Rebecca Gransden |
| Creative Nonfiction Editor | Jo Varnish |
| Assistant Creative Nonfiction Editor | Michael Todd Cohen |
| Fiction Editors | |
| Assistant Fiction Editors | Tex Gresham Kira K. Homsher Jillian Luft Alice M. |
| Interviews/Reviews Editor | Rebecca Gransden |
| Readers | Eros Livieratos Elaine Cary Priya Ele Connor Harding Nairi Simonyan Holden Wright |
| Artwork & Sitework Emeritus | Bob Schofield |
| Media Layout | KKUURRTT |
Elaine Cary lives in Nebraska with her fiancé and pet bird, a pacific parrotlet who loves scritches and dried fruit. Her work is published in Rejection Letters and Barren Magazine. You can find her on Twitter @angsty_witch.
Michael Todd Cohen’s work appears in Columbia Journal, JMWW Journal and HAD, among others. He lives with his husband and two dogs, by a rusty lighthouse, in Connecticut. He is currently pursuing his MFA at Goucher College. You can find him on twitter @mtoddcohen.
Chris Dankland lives in Phoenix with Jennifer Greidus. He is a Founding Editor of XRAY Literary Magazine and author of Weed Monks.
Priya Ele is a New York-based writer. She studies dramatic writing at New York University and has work in Passages North, The Blood Pudding, Hobart after Dark, and Pidgeonholes, among others. Her play Red Handed was performed at the Soho Playhouse as part of the Lighthouse Series. You can find her on Twitter @priyaeler or Instagram, @priyarinkus.
Rebecca Gransden lives on an island. She is published at Tangerine Press, Burning House Press, Muskeg, Ligeia, and Silent Auctions, among others. Her books are anemogram., Rusticles, and Sea of Glass.
Jennifer Greidus lives in Phoenix with Chris Dankland and their sweet dogs. She is the Founding Editor of XRAY Literary Magazine and author of American Lit, her first novel.
Tex Gresham is an award-winning screenwriter, novelist, and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. His books include Sunflower, Heck Texas, and This Is Strange June. His debut feature, MUSTARD (which he wrote, directed, edited and acted in), is available to stream for free on Vimeo. He’s online at www.squeakypig.com and on Twitter as @thatsqueakypig.
Connor Harding is a fiction writer and current MFA candidate from the Midwest. His works have been published in HAD, Unstamatic, Every Day Fiction, Rogue Phoenix Press, and is forthcoming in Crow & Cross Keys. When he isn’t doomscrolling on Twitter (@connorharding25), he’s probably eating a nice bowl of soup.
Joshua Hebburn is a fiction writer who lives in Los Angeles. His fiction has appeared in New World Writing, here, and elsewhere.
Kira K. Homsher is a writer from Philadelphia, currently living in Los Angeles. She is the winner of phoebe’s 2020 nonfiction contest and is a Pushcart nominee. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Kenyon Review Online, Indiana Review, Passages North, Longreads, The Offing, and others. Find her at kirahomsher.com.
Claire Hopple is the author of five books. Her fiction has appeared in Wigleaf, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Peach Mag, Forever Mag, and others. She grew up in the woods of Western PA and currently lives in Asheville, NC. More at clairehopple.com.
KKUURRTT writes and Adobe Creative Suites.
Eros Livieratos is a Greek-Belizean writer & artist whose work focuses on the intersection of identity, aesthetics, and capital in the Anthropocene. Eros has published poetry, fiction, non-fiction, comics, photography, and film score work. They can usually be found making harsh noise & screaming in your local basement.
Jillian Luft is a Florida native currently residing in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in Hobart, Expat Press, Booth, The Forge Literary Magazine, and other publications. Find her on Twitter @JillianLuft.
Alice M. is a pseudonymous nonbinary femme writer and painter from London. Aer short fiction has appeared in X-R-A-Y, HAD, Hobart, Rejection Letters, and has been reprinted in Salt Publishing’s Best British Short Stories (2022 volume). Ae are founding editor of bodyfluids.org, a small journal for writing about social discomfort.
Nairi Simonyan is an Armenian writer based in Los Angeles, California. She self-published her first novel, From Afar, in 2016. Since then, her work has appeared multiple times in The Northridge Review, and she has gone on to work for The Gryphon Press. Sometimes, you’ll find her prophesizing on Twitter as @nsimonyann.
Jo Varnish is a writer and editor from England, who lives outside NYC. She has a PhD and an MFA and work in Jellyfish Review, PANK, JMWW, among others. Her pit bull Theo is her constant companion, and you can find her on Twitter @jovarnish1.
Holden Wright is a queer writer and teacher whose words have appeared in Ninth Letter, Salt Hill Journal, Barren Magazine, and elsewhere. He has previously read for Mid-American Review and JuxtaProse.
“X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine is my favorite new journal. Whenever I feel the fatigue of fiction, all I have to do is go there and read one of the brilliant, idiosyncratic stories curated by the awesome editors and writers Jennifer Greidus and Chris Dankland. Each story they publish gives me a pleasurable jolt of electricity, the linguistic equivalent of touching someone’s hand and getting a static electric shock, or a story that generates a more intense charge, in the sense of being struck by lightning.”
-Alistair McCartney, author of The Disintegrations
“X-R-A-Y is legit lit. Best writers around publishing favorites of mine along with surprisingly good newcomers. Everything I’ve read there has been great. Jennifer and Chris are the most provocative and exciting editors you’re likely to come across.”
-Troy James Weaver, author of Temporal
“A clouded X-R-A-Y Magazine is your moon tonight. I stand at a corner of the internet and stare up, astonished by its own secret light.”
-Eîlot Tuerie, publisher at Wasted Books
“X-R-A-Y is doing a phenomenal job at curating stories that are excellent and weird. The writing is strong, the aesthetic is unconventional, and Chris and Jen celebrate their writers well. Honestly though, all I care about is whether the writing moves me, and X-R-A-Y stories have been doing it for me on a freakishly consistent basis.”
-Stephen Mortland, a super X-R-A-Y contributor
“Words can be like X-R-A-Ys if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”
-Aldous Huxley, our biggest fan