Welcome to Vineyard Literary, an online venue for excellent fiction, poetry, and artwork. When submitting to us, consider the initial connotations of a vineyard: the rolling fields, vines, the golden sun, grapes distilled to wine of all kinds—salted, dry, sweet, peppered—and the delicious food pairings that wine can have. Consider the pound of cool rain, the drip of sweat and powder of dry dirt beneath bare feet, and restaurants with glitzy patios, humans joining together for tastings, clinking glasses, laughter.

Then consider the darker connotations. Crushing and barreling. Pretention, snobbery, people drinking entire dollar bottles from plastic cups alone, the implications if grapes had voices and could scream. Consider what lurks in the silent fields at night, or the vintage labels only available to millionaires and politicians, and what those bottles would witness from their shelves.

Finally, consider what we haven't considered. For everything we've said above, there's infinite connotations and moments that went unsaid, unwitnessed, untasted. Give us those, too.

Most of all, Vineyard just wants to get drunk on good stories and poetry.

Though we mostly publish literary fiction, we also love magical realism, absurdist writing, and surrealist writing. Really, we're most looking for well thought out, emotionally moving narratives. The best way to know that means is to taste test our previously published writing. Unlike wine, it's free—you can read our issues on our website. 

We publish three online issues per year as well as one print anthology. Submissions are accepted only through Submittable.

Guidelines & Specifics:

General

-We're aiming for a two month response time, but like other literary venues we're run by a small, volunteer staff, and may take longer. If you're still in progress, we're still considering your work, so please don't reach out. 

-Also like other literary venues, if you'd prefer not to wait in the typical queue, we offer a week response option.

-Contest payments vary. 

-We encourage you to submit the same work to different projects—occasionally, something we didn't find was the right fit for our online issue might work well in our print anthology. 

-Considering that we make every attempt to read blind, multiple submissions are also encouraged.

-If you've read all of our guidelines, and you still have a question, please reach out through Submittable or send us an email at vineyardliterary@gmail.com.

Fiction & Creative Nonfiction

-One piece of prose between 50 – 5,000 words. If you're submitting flash (50-1500 words), you may send up to three pieces in one document.

-Any font and font size is fine! Just please don’t use one that is difficult to read (ex. Curlz, Chiller, etc.).

-Any spacing or margin size is fine, as well.

-Please send a .doc or .docx file type.

-Simultaneous submissions are always accepted. Please only reach out to us let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. 

-No previously published works.

-We prefer to read blind. However, if you accidently leave your name/contact info, don’t worry about it! We will still review your work!

Poetry

-Up to five poems in a single document. There is no line minimum or maximum.

– Same font decisions as fiction—any font except something difficult to read, like Chiller, unless that's part of the poem's artistic intent.

-Any spacing or margin size is fine, as well.

-Please send a .doc or .docx file type.

-Simultaneous submissions are always accepted. Please only reach out to us let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. 

-We prefer to read blind. However, if you accidently leave your name/contact info, don’t worry about it! We will still review your work!

Visual Art

-Please send us up to five pieces of visual art.

-Send us whichever size image you see fit. If we need something different we will let you know.

Finally,

Thank you for considering us. We appreciate the time you've given Vineyard thus far.

C. Smith-Hernandez

Editor-in-Chief