Brain Mill Press is an independent publisher of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and graphic novels, as well as essays on our digital magazine platform, VOICES.
Our acquisition priority is work by authors of color, women, LGBTQIA+, disabled authors, and First Nations authors.
This page is where our editors will open calls for queries, open reading periods, magazines, and essays. Please follow the guidelines provided by each editor for any open calls.
We do not accept queries, pitches, or manuscripts via snail mail or email. Please use the Submittable platform. If you have any questions or barriers to using this platform, please email us at inquiries@brainmillpress.com. Brain Mill Press accepts directly solicited queries, pitches, and manuscripts via the "Invited Submissions" portal. Do not use this portal unless you have communicated with an editor at Brain Mill Press who has directed you to submit via this portal.
Brain Mill Press accepts agented submissions directed to one of our editors or to the publishers via inquiries@brainmillpress.com.
Call for Pitches: Essays for BMP Voices Column "Makers on Making"
Opens: ongoing
Brain Mill Press seeks emotional, radically authentic essays of 750-1,500 words to appear on Voices, our online content platform, in the "Makers on Making" column.
Makers on Making features a different maker each month — printmakers, writers, knitters, crafters, painters, photographers, textile artists, and anyone else involved in art — with essays about their process on a particular project. These pieces delve into the psychology of making, the lessons we learn from success and (often more usefully) failure, and what it is to be a human authentically and emotionally involved as a maker in our world.
Essay pitches will be reviewed for suitability by Brain Mill Press staff. If your pitch is selected, you will be given a mutually-agreed period of time to write your essay. You will receive editorial development and feedback on your submitted piece, a contract granting Brain Mill Press the limited right to reproduce your piece in Voices, and payment at industry-standard rates upon publication. You will retain all other rights to your work.
Your essay and profile will be promoted on our social media outlets. Your essay will contain your headshot and bio, as well as information you may wish to include about recent work and your website and social media links. We will also include your profile on our page of Voices contributors.
Brain Mill Press exclusively invites submissions from people of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ writers.
Other interested writers for Voices, please contact inquiries@brainmillpress.com directly, and we will consider your pitches on a case-by-case basis depending on the response to the original call.
Brain Mill Press publishes “Love Books for Humans” in multiple genres. Find more information at brainmillpress.com.
Contact Brain Mill Press at inquiries@brainmillpress.com with questions.