thelunchhour

a literary collective for writers & readers around the world.

thelunchhour

thelunchhour

what is this about?

thelunchhour is an online & print literary collective which publishes works of poetry, fiction, nonfiction+ every few months. our overarching goal is to publish a plethora of authors, both known & emerging, from all corners of the world. as a writer myself, i know the courage it takes to put yourself out there. i want to make that process a little less scary & give beautifully talented authors a space to shine. all my print issues are handmade with love & care, shipped directly to you!

what do you publish?

as a super broad (and overly-vague) answer: everything. i don't have a theme in mind for any issue of this journal, nor am i tied to any semblance of style, format, or genre. i truly do love it all - micro-poetry, prose, science fiction, sweeping romances. i like the weird, eccentric stuff just as much as the serious & grounded. to put it plainly: i will know it when i see it.

what is your publishing process?

i aim to put out a collection of work (with no set amount of pieces per genre) every few months. we'll have fresh pieces here at the end of february, may, august, & november. every issue will be published digitally & in print for a little fee - it's important to me to pay my contributors, and every purchase of an issue goes towards that goal! submissions to thelunchhour are always free.

the newsletter

a sporadic & handmade email newsletter delivered to your inbox - full of things like news & updates involving thelunchhour, new work & pieces in the community, announcements about contests, giveaways, releases, etc., and direct notifications about open & closed reading periods. click here & sign up for our email newsletter!

what are your reading periods?

we read between the following dates: december 1st to february 1st, march 1st to may 1st, june 1st to august 1st, september 1st to november 1st. we may close our submissions early during a reading period if we hit a contributor/accepted work cap.

when do you publish new issues?

thelunchhour is a quarterly publisher. we release a new print & digital issue on the following dates: february 28th, may 31st, august 31st, & november 30th.

what are some reasons i could be rejected?

we decline work for a number of reasons, and most rejections come down to extremely specific editorial preference. some of the most common reasons for rejection from our journal include using improper grammar or sentence structure, sending work that's extremely lengthy, submitting "tiktok poetry" (i.e. performative poetry that means nothing), the journal reaching a contributor cap before we get to your submission, and many more. immediate rejections before we even read the work are frequent - you can avoid this by only sending work in through our submission form while we're open for reading, only submitting one submission at a time, and being a kind author.

what do i do if i haven't heard back from you?

we respond to all submissions - rejections & acceptances alike. if you haven't heard from us yet & you submitted work a while ago, shoot us an email & we'll get back to you as quickly as possible. sometimes, emails go defunct & won't deliver. be sure your email is 100% correct before submitting it to us. if you haven't heard back from us over email about an urgent inquiry or message, please send us another email! please note, we sometimes don't respond to emails over the weekend. if that's the case, we'll get back to you first thing Monday.

why "thelunchhour"?

thelunchhour is named after the best hour of the day. believe it or not - we also work day jobs, and typically work most on the journal during "the lunch hour".

how are your issues made?

our quarterly issues are released in both digital & print format, and readers have the option to purchase print, digital, or both. digital issues are $15 (usd) and delivered to you via email. print issues are also $15 (usd), & are hand-crafted, printed, assembled, & shipped directly to you.

thelunchhour

we are currently closed for submissions!

what to submit

what not to submit

what happens after submitting?

what happens to contributors?

submission options

submit here!