SUBMISSIONS

General Guidelines

Mandatory Contributor Form: Please fill this form for your submission to be read by the Editors.

Submission Format:

• Please include “SUBMISSION” along with the genre you are submitting for in the subject line of your email.
• Kindly send all submissions in a Word File attached to the body of the email. The text (except for poetry) should be double spaced, utilizing the Garamond font, sized 12.
• Compose your brief (~80 words) bio in third person within the email body of your submission. Please ensure to include your photograph and social media handles.

Payment Policy:

• As of December 2023, Usawa has become a paying market.

Submission Limitations:

• You may submit up to one entry for each genre during a given submission period.

• Although we prefer exclusive submissions, we understand if you choose to make simultaneous submissions. In such cases, please clearly indicate this in your submission and promptly notify us if another publication accepts your piece before our review. To withdraw your submission, kindly contact the sectional editor and the Managing Editor.
• Please be aware that any work published in Usawa cannot be reprinted in any other publication, whether online or in print, until six months after the initial publishing date. After this period, we request that you seek permission from and credit Usawa wherever the piece is republished by contacting our Managing Editor.

Editing Policy:

• We regret to inform you that minor edits cannot be accommodated once an issue has been published. Only in the case of major errors may you contact our Managing Editor for consideration.

We encourage you to peruse our previous issues and review our monthly newsletters to gain insight into our editorial preferences. You may subscribe to our newsletter here http://eepurl.com/iv7LdA

Due to the high volume of submissions and limited staff, we regretfully cannot offer feedback on declined pieces.

Thank you for adhering to our submission guidelines. We eagerly anticipate reviewing your work.

Section Guidelines

Poetry: 

Please submit 4-6 poems to our Poetry Editor, Babitha Marina Justin, at babitha@usawa.in

Usawa will be publishing unpublished poems only. However, poems that have been shared on the author’s social media are acceptable. If you have previously published work that strongly resonates with our theme kindly share the same with the Editor stating why you would like the piece to be considered. The body of editors will review it collectively and take a decision accordingly.

Short Fiction:

Submit short fiction of length up to 5000 words to our Fiction Editors, Smita Sahay, at smita@usawa.in and, Kinshuk Gupta, at kinshuk@usawa.in 

While we primarily seek literary fiction, exceptional genre fiction is also welcome. 

Translations: 

Submit your translated works to our Translations Editor, Sonakshi Srivastava, at Sonakshi@usawa.in. Include at least 4 poems or a text ranging from 2000-5000 words for consideration. The translation should be alongside the source text. 

Please ensure that you have the original author’s consent and mention the same in your submission. 

Book Reviews: 

Submit 1000-1500 word book reviews to our Books Editor, Ankush Banerjee, at ankush@usawa.in. Reviews can be of fiction, poetry, and non fiction books.

Submission Guidelines for Book Reviews

Non-Fiction 

Submit non fiction of length up to 5000 words to our Non Fiction Editor, Namrata Pathak, at namrata@usawa.in.

We are looking for pieces that reflect honesty of the experience, personal or from the point of witness. Show us the universality of the personal, the ingredients that bind us all as human, one. Vulnerability, curiosity. An evident love for the language, care for the sentence and structure, and attention to detail. We do expect pieces to reflect craft but give us authenticity to go with it. Simply put, we may pick a piece that is honest over one that glorifies technique.

If addressing a topical issue, consider contacting the editor for timely consideration. 

Photography submissions

Please send up to six-eight stand-alone photographs or photo essays in .jpeg format at 300dpi along with an artist statement or paragraph about the inspiration behind your piece to our Visual Arts Editor, Priyanka Sacheti, at priyanka@usawa.in. 

We are looking for images which see the world anew, the camera revealing what our gaze sometimes overlooks. There are so many ways of looking and we are particularly interested in those images moving away from and challenging the patriarchal/male gaze. We would also like to see images where the framing of a subject is as much a story as the subject itself.

We welcome both landscape and portrait oriented images, as well as colour and black and white images.

Interview Submissions

Kindly send your interview submissions accompanied with a short description of 100 words in the body of the mail, highlighting what made them choose the individual, to our Interviews Editor, Kabir Deb, at kabir@usawa.in

We are looking for interviews of people from every sphere of the society. Since our world is built with dreams, hard work, kindness and   compassion, our objective is to understand people who embody these traits in their work. Our idea is to acknowledge and celebrate an individual’s contributions towards shaping the society.

The interview piece should have at least 5-8 questions. Kindly mention whether you have taken the interview in person or by any virtual tool or through questionnaires.