The Ex-Puritan seeks submissions all year round, from anywhere in the world.

The Ex-Puritan began in 2007 as The Puritan Literary Magazine, an independently funded print journal dedicated to publishing fiction, essays, and interviews in Ottawa, Ontario, and was sold in bookstores across the city. In its early years, The Puritan was Ottawa’s only quarterly prose journal. After a brief hiatus, the magazine returned to publishing, now in the form of an online magazine run from Toronto. Since expanding its mandate to include poetry, reviews, and experimental work, The Ex-Puritan now seeks to publish the best in all forms of writing.

The Ex-Puritan Magazine General Submission Guidelines

1. Regular submissions to the magazine are free of charge and should fall under one of six categories:

• Fiction
• Essays
• Poetry
• Interviews
• Reviews,
• And experimental/hybrid work. To submit to the experimental/hybrid section of the magazine, please email their section editors at hybrid.experimental@ex-puritan.ca. 

1. All other submissions must go through their Submittable Page.
2. Unless they are soliciting your work, all submissions must be previously unpublished (this includes self-publishing, publishing on blogs, and in chapbook format).
3. All submissions will receive a decision within four months of the submission date.
4. If you haven’t heard back from them in four months or for any other query not answered, get in touch with them at editors@ex-puritan.ca.
5. Please note that they CANNOT accept email submissions. They will be discarded.
6. The Magazine is open to simultaneous submissions for all regular submission categories. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please contact them immediately at editors@ex-puritan.ca to withdraw the piece.

If you want to submit to The Ex-Puritan Magazine, check out this article on how to be an eloquent writer to help you and your writing piece.

 

Fiction Guidelines

1. Do not submit stories over 10,000 words, flash fiction (under 1,000 words), or novel excerpts.
2. Please only send one story at a time.
3. Note that all submissions must be previously unpublished and that we will not publish the same author more than once per year.

 

Poetry Guidelines

1. Send up to four poems at a time. Learn how to write poems for submissions.
2. They are especially interested in work by LGBTQ2S+ writers, BIPOC writers, and writing from other marginalized folks, along with poetry in translation.

 

Essay Guidelines

1. Please include a succinct description of no more than 250 words in the Cover Letter field, along with a full working draft of your essay as a Word doc.
2. The essays should compel them with daring ideas and urgent, captivating writing.
3. Submissions should not exceed 5000 words.
4. They are especially interested in work by LGBTQ2S+ writers, BIPOC writers, and writing from other marginalized folks.

The Ex-Puritan Magazine Submissions Interview Guidelines

1. They are looking for long-form interviews that deeply engage our readers, examine literary works, ask compelling questions, and challenge the boundaries of literature.
2. Their editorial focus is on contemporary literary work, but are also interested in pieces that incorporate other disciplines and contemporary topics of conversation.
3. The Magazine especially want to feature interviews & conversations with traditionally underrepresented writers.
4. Submit interviews, or pitches that are thoughtful, detailed and less than 250 words.
5. If you are submitting a completed piece, please submit it titled, double-spaced in 12-point font, in the 3500-word range, including a short introduction and bios.
6. Feel free to include links to previous interviews you have published.
7. Please only send one interview/pitch at a time; note that it must be previously unpublished, and they will not publish the same author more than once per year.

Review Guidelines

1. They publish reviews of CanLit books, especially by marginalized & debut authors. Also, they love reviews of chapbooks; they love reviews both experimental and traditional.
2. Reviews don’t require a full draft; a pitch is acceptable as long as it is fully thought out and justified.
3. If you are submitting a draft, please submit it double-spaced in 12 point font.
4. Please only send one review at a time; note that it must be previously unpublished and that we will not publish the same author more than once per year.

Payment for The Ex-Puritan Magazine Submissions

• $100 per interview
• $200 per essay
• $100 per review
• $150 per work of fiction
• $50 per poem, or $100 per poet if multiple poems are accepted
• $50+ per experimental or hybrid work, at an increasing scale depending on the nature of the piece

Check out other amazing free opportunities for writers like this Craft Essay Pitch and this Climate-Focused Pitch Submissions. Goodluck