Beyond Words is an international print magazine of literature and art, founded in 2020.
We pair powerful writing with striking visual art, creating an experience greater than the sum of its parts.
Our global Editorial Board of 11 editors and writers reviews all submissions blindly, ensuring every piece is judged on its own merit.
We welcome poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, short stories, and all forms of inspiring visual art.
Beyond Words Press also publishes themed anthologies of poetry and prose (no visual art in these). Check our Submittable page for current open calls and themes.
We read submissions and send out decisions every day. We promise a one-day turnaround for most of our projects (excluding visual art submissions and 250-word competition submissions).
For further information visit our website, and don't forget to check out our Facebook and Instagram!
We are currently reading for Beyond Words Magazine Issue 69 (publication date January 2027).
We invite you to submit your poetry, or short fiction or non-fiction, for consideration.
Tired of waiting for months to hear back from literary magazines? We at Beyond Words Magazine believe there can be another way. We work around the clock and promise to respond to your submission after 24 hours with a decision.
BEYOND WORDS is an international magazine of literature and art founded in 2020. The magazine is stocked in bookshops in America and Europe. It is also featured in book fairs and writing conferences such as AWP and IndieCon.
Our global Editorial Board of writers and editors reviews all submissions in a blind review process.
Guidelines:
We accept submissions of poetry (up to three poems in a single submission) and flash fiction/non-fiction (one piece per submission; max. length 1000 words).
We consider previously published works. We also accept simultaneous submissions.
If your work is accepted by us for publication, you consent to giving Beyond Words first publication rights, after which all rights revert back to you. If you do republish your work somewhere else, we ask that you give a mention to Beyond Words.
Looking forward to enjoying your works! In the meantime, we invite you to add us on Instagram @beyondwordsmagazine and/or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BeyondWordsMagazine for the latest updates.
Unlike a simple desire, hunger is something that consumes, drives, and transforms us.
Following the success of our My Greatest Fear (2023), Once in a Lifetime (2024), Regrets (2025), Scars (2025), Hotel Stories (2025), Father Stories (2026) and Fathers, in Fragments (2026) themed anthologies, Beyond Words Press will release another anthology in Summer 2027. This time the prompt is HUNGER. We invite you to submit your poems, flash fiction/non-fiction, and short stories for consideration!
HUNGER is calling for stories and poems of longing, craving, need, and obsession. We want works that explore the many forms hunger can take: hunger for love, touch, power, freedom, belonging, revenge, meaning, beauty, home, or an unnamed hunger. Your hunger may be physical, emotional, spiritual, or existential. It may sustain, inspire, or destroy. Surprise us with unexpected appetites and desperate yearnings. Show us what your characters, narrators, or speakers cannot live without, and what they are willing to risk to satisfy that need.
We accept simultaneous submissions.
We are OK with previously published works. However, if a submitted piece has been previously published, please add a note about it.
There is no word count limit for poetry; for stories, we ask that your work doesn't exceed 4000 words.
We promise a fast turnaround - you will hear back from us within 24 hours.
We look forward to reading your wonderful works. Good luck!
Memory is where the past continues to live.
Following the success of our My Greatest Fear (2023), Once in a Lifetime (2024), Regrets (2025), Scars (2025), Hotel Stories (2025), Father Stories (2026) and Fathers, in Fragments (2026) themed anthologies, Beyond Words Press will release another anthology in Summer 2027. This time the prompt is MEMORY. We invite you to submit your poems, flash fiction/non-fiction, and short stories for consideration!
We are looking for stories and poems that explore the countless ways memory inhabits our lives. Perhaps it is a childhood summer that still glows decades later, a family story passed down through generations, a first love that refuses to fade, or a single moment that changed everything. Perhaps it is a fading memory, a false memory, or a forgotten photograph tucked away in a drawer.
We welcome works about personal memories, collective memories, inherited memories, and imagined memories. Write about the people you can never forget, the places that live on in your mind, the moments you wish you could relive, and the ones you wish you could leave behind. Explore memory through grief, joy, love, migration, family, friendship, history, identity, aging, dreams, or loss.
Your memory may be beautiful or painful, vivid or fragmented, reliable or deceptive. It may comfort, haunt, heal, or transform. Surprise us with your interpretation of the theme. Show us what remains, what is lost, and what endures.
We accept simultaneous submissions.
We are OK with previously published works. However, if a submitted piece has been previously published, please add a note about it.
There is no word count limit for poetry; for stories, we ask that your work doesn't exceed 4000 words.
We promise a fast turnaround - you will hear back from us within 24 hours.
We look forward to reading your wonderful works. Good luck!
We are thrilled to announce our brand new 250-word creative writing competition for Issue 72 of Beyond Words Literary Magazine! The prompt this time is: PROMISES!
We invite you to submit your poems and flash pieces up to 250 words. We will consider any literary work related to promises or promising. Our 11-member Editorial Board will read all submissions in a blind review process, and will then choose the best works. The winning pieces will be featured in Issue 72.
Good luck!
We accept nominations for our 7th Poetry Chapbook Competition!
Our extended Editorial Board, a group of international writers and editors, will review your chapbooks and select the most creative; those which demonstrate multiple poetry techniques; and read as one piece, each poem contributing to the others.
Decision letters will be sent out in December 2026. The winners will get their chapbook published with Beyond Words Press in 2027. We will promote you and your chapbook on our social media channels, and your chapbook will be featured in book fairs and writing conferences.
Guidelines:
Please only include poems or prose-poems.
We will only consider chapbooks up to 30 pages.
It is OK to simultaneously submit your chapbook elsewhere. However, please let us know immediately in case the chapbook gets accepted there.
Good luck!
Past award recipients:
Winners of the inaugural Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards:
Linda Neal Reising - Perpetual Astonishment
Weston Wise - The Songs of the Long Land
Lane Devers - Antarctica is Not the Moon
Winners of the Second Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards:
Hollie Ziskind - So Many Things Flammable
Clayton Spencer - Concerning the Service
Winners of the Third Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards
Von Wise - Grow a Cowboy
James Cook - Around the Lakes
Mar Ka - Near-Presence: An Abecedarian Psalm
Winner of the Fourth Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards
Andrew Christoforakis - But What If No One's Looking Out for Us?
Winner of the Fifth Beyond Words Poetry Chapbook Awards
Jo Matthews - A Stolen Child
We are looking for visual artists who would like to get their work - photography, paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures - featured in one of the next editions of Beyond Words Magazine!
Beyond Words is an international magazine of art and literature. In each issue, we match between literary and visual works and present them side-by-side, adding perspectives and strengths to both.
Please upload up to 15 pieces. We will get back to you with a decision soon.
Looking forward to reviewing your submissions! In the meantime, we invite you to add us on Instagram @beyondwordsmagazine and/or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BeyondWordsMagazine for the latest updates.
Good luck!