"Winter Tangerine is not married to a specific aesthetic. Winter Tangerine’s staff is concerned with the way a poet’s positionality affects the way they render the content of a poem. I believe in a politic of proximity, which is to say I believe that those most affected by particular issues in our world should take precedent in the larger conversation. I’ve read many a poem by non-Black poets that, without critical engagement, name drop people who have died at the hands of police brutality. This comes across as a flippant grab at an emotional response that demands my emotional labor in an imbalanced way. Winter Tangerine seeks work that is genuine in its entanglement with oppression and liberation narratives."
-- Xandria Phillips, Winter Tangerine poetry editor, in an interview with Frontier Magazine.
Winter Tangerine is on an extended hiatus. We are not currently open to submissions of any kind.
Before you submit, please look over these guidelines:
We accept submissions of poetry, prose, and visual art.
Submissions are read without names or identifying factors so please do not put any identifying information on the document you upload to Submittable, or in your title. We automatically reject submissions that do not follow this, so please look over your submission before you press send.
Please send all poetry submissions in Times New Roman or Garamond, size 12.
Please send all prose submissions in Times New Roman, double-spaced, size 12.
Please send a cover letter with your submission. The cover letter should include a brief biography and the title of your pieces. This letter cannot be viewed by our reading staff so your identity will not be revealed to those considering your work.
Please include an artist statement on the first page of your submission. Use this space to show how your identity helps shapes your work. This statement will not be included in publication -- it's for us to have an extra lens when viewing your work. Literature does not exist in a vacuum; identity is an important shaping factor in any artist's work. Please do not include your name or specifically identifying information in this statement.
We like works that combine and subvert language. Pieces in English that weave other languages are welcome.
We do not accept previously published work. If your piece has been published anywhere other than a personal blog/website, please don't submit it. This includes submissions through the Tip Jar and to any of our Spotlight or Spitfire features.
We encourage simultaneous submissions, but please inform us through Submittable if your work has been accepted for publication elsewhere.
Please send your work in one singular submission, within the appropriate category. If you want to send four poems and two short stories, please send the poems in one document through the Poetry category, and the short stories in one document through the Prose category.
We will not consider erotica or graphic violence. We also will not consider misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise bigoted work. Be thoughtful.
Contributors to all WT issues, Spitfires, and Spotlights are compensated with $50 flatly. Contributors retain their copyrights. We reserve the right to feature any excerpt or image in promotional work or a "Best of WT" anthology in perpetuity.
Winter Tangerine publishes exclusively online. If you are interested in print publication, take a look at our sister press, Honeysuckle Press.
We only accept submissions through Submittable. You can ask us questions through email, but just in terms of logistics, we can't look over work sent to our email address. And if you have questions, feel free to email submit@wintertangerine.com or ask here.
It can take some time for us to respond to you. It might be a day or it might be several months. Sometimes we get backlogged. Actually, we are almost always backlogged. Sadly, we don't have the capacity to provide status updates on submissions; please do not email us asking for a status update unless you have not heard from us in 8 or more months. If your work is "In-Progress" on Submittable, that means we are still actively considering it.