To love is to experience the most human connection. It’s vulnerable. It’s messy. It’s perfectly imperfect. Love sustains us and teaches us lessons. And while the act of loving shouldn’t break our hearts, the absence of it does. It’s the easiest and the hardest thing we will ever do.
In The Heart of Us, we want to tell stories centering around relationships where love is at the root—all kinds of love. Romantic. Platonic. Parental. Spiritual. Tell us about a time when love conquered all… or when love wasn’t enough.
Submissions Open: August 31, 2024
Submission Close: November 30, 2024
What we want:
- Creative non-fiction stories (not to exceed 5,000 words)
- Poetry
- Essays
- Original artwork (black and white is best for printing)
- A wide range of emotions. This is not just an anthology of sweet and uplifting. We want the hard parts, too.
- Representation of all types of love, relationships, and gender identities
We do accept reprints.
What we don’t want:
- Fiction
- Erotica. We recognize that sex can be an expression of love, but we wish to keep this anthology free of explicit sex, particularly since the people depicted are real. If it’s absolutely essential to the narrative, please keep it poetic.
Copyrights and Payment
You, as the author, retain all rights to your work. All artists retain the rights to any published artwork.
As with our other Of Us Anthologies, chosen submissions will be unpaid. All proceeds from book sales will go to the American Heart Association. You can read about their mission at https://www.heart.org.
How to Submit
Please fill out a Google form submission HERE. We do take multiple submissions, but we kindly ask you to create a separate document for each piece and submit a form for each one. You may submit up to three (3) separate submissions.
Make sure the share settings on your Google Doc are not restricted. Due to the expected volume of submissions, we can only request access to view your document once.
- How to change share settings in Google Docs: In the top right corner of your document, click the blue “Share” button. In the pop-up window, click the drop-down menu under “General Access.” (It automatically defaults to “Restricted.”) Change from “Restricted” to “Anyone with the Link,” then hit “Done” so our readers can view your piece. Thanks!
We understand that Google isn’t everyone’s preferred submission method, but we cannot take submissions in any other form at this time. Please reach out if you need assistance.
Can we send previously published poems where author has the rights and would acknowledge first publisher?
Absolutely!
Dear Sirs,
i can share some endearing experiences about my father and me. Your request designates
only moms. Super, however, my dad was a prince among men and his love and self-sacrifice for me would definitely equal, even surpass that of a mom between her daughter or son.
Please inform me if you would be interested in my sharing this relationship with you.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Carmine Lombardo
Email: carminedlombardo@gmail.com
Thanks for reaching out. While the submissions can be about anyone of any gender, our anthologies are strictly authored by women. I hope this answers your question, and thank you for asking it!
How long does it take to receive a reply as to whether the submission was accepted for the anthology?
We aren’t making any decisions until after our submissions close on November 30th. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait too long after that, but we’re all volunteers here, so we do our best to make timely decisions. We don’t mind simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your piece is selected elsewhere.