Please read the genre-specific guidelines before submitting to Lunch Ticket.

GENERAL SUBMISSION  INFORMATION

  • Lunch Ticket’s 26th Issue comes out in December 2024. (see below for theme)
  • The submission window for Lunch Ticket's issue #26 is from August 1st to August 31st.
  • The submission window for Flash has been extended to September 14th.
  • The submission window for Amuse-Bouche is from August 1st to October 1st.
  • Visual Art, Translation, and Young Adult can be submitted year-round, but will only be reviewed from February 1st to March 31st for the spring issue and August 1st to September 30th for the fall issue.
  • Submitting to Lunch Ticket is always free.
  • Please submit to Lunch Ticket only once per submission reading period (regardless of genre).
  • If your work has been published in Lunch Ticket, please skip one submission reading period before submitting again.
  • All submissions at Lunch Ticket are read anonymously in the first round. We only read pieces that have all identifying information removed. Make sure no identifying information exists in the document title, submission title, or the work itself. Identifying information (such as names and bios) can only be included in the cover letter, and not in any attached files or the submission title.
  • We allow simultaneous submissions. Please indicate in your cover letter that this is a simultaneous submission, and if your piece is accepted elsewhere, you must notify us immediately.
  • We do not accept previously published work (this includes work published in personal blogs or social media).
  • We welcome multilingual submissions in all genres.
  • For all genres, contests, and Amuse-Bouche you will receive a selection notification. We will contact you no matter the result of your submission.
  • We do not accept AI-generated work.
  • Submitters must be 18 years of age or older.
  • All submitters are added to our bi-monthly newsletter email subscriber list.

ISSUE 26 THEME: RESISTANCE AND LIBERATION

Since their founding, Antioch University, the Antioch MFA program, and Lunch Ticket have centered the pursuit of social, racial, environmental, gender, and economic justice. As we watch the reversal of decades of social victories, the suppression of dissent, the use of indiscriminate violence, and the rise of authoritarianism in the USA and around the world, we at Lunch Ticket 26 feel compelled to address the theme of “Resistance and Liberation” for our upcoming issue. Lunch Ticket seeks to be a beacon and a home for stories, essays, poems, translations, and visual art that highlight how people resist oppression and fight for collective liberation. 

As Ursula K. LeGuin said, “We will need writers who can remember freedom.” We are looking for high-quality writing that engages with the nuances and complexities of our times and isn’t afraid to tackle difficult subjects.  While we are prioritizing such voices, we are also interested in reading your pieces even if they do not apply to our theme. As always, we aim to center writers and artists who have been marginalized and underrepresented, or historically misrepresented, and feature work that plays with form and strives for a more just world. We are especially interested in writing and art from people directly engaged in resistance and liberation. Multilingual submissions are welcome in all genres.


Lunch Ticket is an online literary and visual art journal, published in June and December. We are proud to host two prizes, the Diana Woods Memorial Award in Creative Nonfiction, and the Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multilingual Texts. We publish content throughout the year in our Amuse-Bouche series, featuring an individual writer or artist every other week.

NOTES ABOUT OUR CONTESTS:

This submission reading period, anyone hoping to be considered for the Gabo Prize for Translation & Multilingual Texts should submit their work directly to our Literary Translation Reading Team. All Translation submissions will be automatically considered for the prize.

Anyone hoping to be considered for the Diana Woods Memorial Prize in Creative Nonfiction should submit their work directly to our Creative Nonfiction Reading Team. All Creative Nonfiction submissions will be automatically considered for the prize.

Notes About Publication

If your piece is selected, Lunch Ticket retains the first North American serial rights of the work to publish, produce, reproduce, distribute, and market. All other remaining rights revert to the author upon publication. If the work is published again, we ask for a credit line to indicate that the work first appeared in Lunch Ticket.

We encourage submissions from Antioch University Alumni, but we require that two or more years have passed since their graduation. (Please see our “About” page for further opportunities for students and recent graduates.) We do not accept submissions from the Antioch MFA program’s faculty or staff for publication in any section of the journal.

Literary Translation note: Please refer to standard Lunch Ticket guidelines for either poetry or prose. Your submission should include the original work along with your translation. We also require a statement that grants us permission to publish both the original work and the translation online, and that certifies that you have received permission from the original rights holder (either the publisher or the author, as applicable) to grant us such rights. Please read more information here.

Thank you for your interest in submitting to Lunch Ticket. We look forward reviewing your submission!

submit to Translation

Please read these guidelines thoroughly before submitting. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will not be considered.

Literary Translation for Lunch Ticket Issue 27 

(see general guidelines)

Translation Submission Guidelines:

  • Translation can be submitted year-round. Submissions received between October 1st and March 31st will be reviewed for the spring issue (published in June), and those received between April 1st and September 30th will be reviewed for the fall issue (published in December). 
  • Please submit to Lunch Ticket only once per issue reading period (regardless of genre).
  • Any submissions received through this section that are not translations or multilingual texts will be declined without being reviewed.
  • If your work has been published in Lunch Ticket, please skip one issue before submitting again.
  • All submissions at Lunch Ticket are read anonymously in the first round. We only read pieces that have all identifying information removed. Make sure no identifying information exists in the document title, submission title, or the work itself. Identifying information (such as names and bios) can only be included in the cover letter, and not in any attached files or the submission title.
  • Please include names and bios for the original author and translator and a statement about your translation process (translator’s statement) in your cover letter.
  • Include the original work along with your translation, preferably in editable form (not a scan). The original work is published along with accepted translations.
  • If your submission is a self-translation or re-translation, please elaborate in your cover letter.
  • Indicate if your work is a multilingual submission (instead of a translation). Multilingual work submitted under Literary Translation will be considered for the Gabo Prize (see below). 
  • All prose must be double-spaced in 12-pt Times New Roman font.
  • Submit up to 3 poems per submission reading period. Submit all poems in the same document. 
  • We recognize that poetry often calls for its particular formatting. When in doubt, use 12-pt Times New Roman font.
  • Submissions should not exceed 3,500 words (source text not included in the word count). Please specify the genre of your submission (poetry, fiction, non-fiction).
  • We allow simultaneous submissions. Please indicate in your cover letter that this is a simultaneous submission, and if your piece is accepted elsewhere, you must notify us immediately.
  • We do not accept previously published work (this includes work published in personal blogs or social media).
  • We do not accept AI-generated work.
  • Submitters must be 18 years of age or older.
  • All submitters are added to our bi-monthly newsletter email subscriber list. 
  • PLEASE NOTE: This cycle, all pieces submitted to our Literary Translation section, including multilingual pieces, will be automatically considered for our Gabo Prize in Translation & Multilingual Texts.


 

The Gabo Prize in Translation & Multilingual Texts

Lunch Ticket is honored to host the Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multilingual Texts. The Gabo Prize is funded by writers, translators, and Antioch University Los Angeles MFA Alumni Allie Marini and Jennifer McCharen, who launched the prize to support the work of peer translators.

Gabo Prize winners receive $200 and publication in the next issue of Lunch Ticket. Two finalists will also be published in each issue.

The Gabo Prize is dedicated to upholding the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses code of ethics, defined as such:

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Additionally: friends, family, and associates of the judges are not eligible for consideration for the award.


We look forward to reading your work!

submit to Visual Art and Graphics

Please read these guidelines thoroughly before submitting to Lunch Ticket. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will not be considered.

Visual Art for Lunch Ticket Issue 27


 Visual Art can be submitted year-round. Submissions received between October 1st and March 31st will be reviewed for the spring issue (published in June), and those received between April 1st and September 30th will be reviewed for the fall issue (published in December). We accept photography, mixed-media, painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, graphic narratives, and other 2D work.  

(see general guidelines)

Visual Art Submission Guidelines:

  • Please submit to Lunch Ticket only once per issue reading period (regardless of genre).
  • If your work has been published in Lunch Ticket, please skip one issue before submitting again.
  • Any submissions received through this section that are not Visual Art and Graphics will be declined without being reviewed.
  • All submissions at Lunch Ticket are read anonymously in the first round. We only read pieces that have all identifying information removed. Make sure no identifying information exists in the document title, submission title, or the work itself. Identifying information (such as names and bios) can only be included in the cover letter, and not in any attached files or the submission title.
  • Submit up to 10 images in JPEG, PDF, TIFF, GIF or PNG format. Each image should be numbered and named in this format: “1_title.” If the title of a work is long, you may abbreviate it in the image name.
  • Submit in a single DOC or DOCX file (titled “Statement”) the following three things:

                  1. An artist statement (50-400 words) with no identifying information

                   2. The name of the collection

                   3. A list of submitted images with the following information in this order:

                                            Image Number, Image Title, Date (year), Medium, Dimensions

  • We allow simultaneous submissions. Please indicate in your cover letter that this is a simultaneous submission, and if your piece is accepted elsewhere, you must notify us immediately.
  • We do not accept previously published work (this includes work published in personal blogs or social media).
  • We do not accept AI-generated work.
  • Submitters must be 18 years of age or older.
  • All submitters are added to our bi-monthly newsletter email subscriber list.

If your work is accepted for publication, we will ask for a short bio, and you’ll have a chance to edit your statement for publication.

 We look forward to sampling your work!

submit to Young Adult (Writing For Young People 13+)

Please read these guidelines thoroughly before submitting to Lunch Ticket. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will not be considered.

Young Adult for Lunch Ticket Issue 27

(see general guidelines)

Young Adult Submission Guidelines:

  • Writing for Young People can be submitted year-round. Submissions received between October 1st and March 31st will be reviewed for the spring issue (published in June), and those received between April 1st and September 30th will be reviewed for the fall issue (published in December).
  • Please submit to Lunch Ticket only once per issue reading period (regardless of genre).
  • Any submissions received through this section that are not Young Adult (Writing For Young People 13+) will be declined without being reviewed.
  • If your work has been published in Lunch Ticket, please skip one issue before submitting again.
  • All submissions at Lunch Ticket are read anonymously in the first round. We only read pieces that have all identifying information removed. Make sure no identifying information exists in the document title, submission title, or the work itself. Identifying information (such as names and bios) can only be included in the cover letter, and not in any attached files or the submission title.
  • All prose must be double-spaced in 12-pt Times New Roman font.
  • Submissions should not exceed 3,500 words. 
  • For poems, please submit to the Poetry category. This section is for Prose only.
  • We allow simultaneous submissions. Please indicate in your cover letter that this is a simultaneous submission, and if your piece is accepted elsewhere, you must notify us immediately.
  • We do not accept previously published work (this includes work published in personal blogs or social media).
  • We do not accept AI-generated work.
  • Submitters must be 18 years of age or older.
  • All submitters are added to our bi-monthly newsletter email subscriber list.

We look forward to sampling your work!

Lunch Ticket