submission guidelines
Submissions for Paris Lit Up Magazine No.14 are now open!
This year, our theme is ‘song’.
We want you to play with its meaning, stretch it, twist it. Improvise. Jam.
Song can be so many things. Chorus, canticle or chant. Hymn, ode or dirge. Psalm, shanty, ballad or anthem. Song can be simple as jingle, pretty as melody, obsessive as earworm. Song can be wordless. Song can be non-human.
Look for and find song everywhere: the chatter in the metro, waves on a pebble shore, the hum of traffic in the street, footfall in the hallway. You’ll know a song when you hear it.
A song is an act of communion, with others and with the world around you. It can confess love, herald death, reach for the divine. Song can lead to the dance floor and song can lead astray. It is the stuff of protest and praise, memory and mourning, love and longing, and everything in between.
With this theme, consider how to translate song onto the page, how to capture the wordless in ink, how to render the voice in writing. Make your words sing.
We are open for submissions in Fiction (short stories and flash fiction), Non-fiction (memoir, literary non-fiction, essay, creative non-fiction), Poetry, Art and Poetry in Translation (from French to English).
Submissions are open until 1 November 2026.
Guidelines:
This year’s theme is SONG.
Submissions should be sent in a Word document, and the text should be written in 12pt, Times New Roman, double spaced.
We do not accept AI-generated or AI-assisted writing.
Translations and citations must be accompanied by permission from the original writer or their literary estate. Be careful, this also applies to song lyrics. All translations for Paris Lit Up Magazine need to be French to English. Please note that we only accept translations of POETRY.
We’re a small publishing house without funding so we ask that each person limit their work submitted to no more than:
Three poems
Two pieces of fiction or non-fiction (3000 words max. for each piece)
Four artworks
Please consult our previous editions for a better understanding of the works we publish!
We accept simultaneous submissions—if your work is accepted elsewhere, congratulations, but please let us know and withdraw your piece.
If you have previously posted your work to social media, please inform us.
Art: images must be in high-resolution print quality (minimum 300 dpi).
Please be careful to respect the formatting requirements for our submissions (see above).
Please be careful to submit your work in the right category (Poetry, Non-Fiction, Fiction, Art, Poetry in Translation).
Please include a 50 word bio and your name as you would like to see it in print.
To submit, please email your work to submissions@parislitup.com.
Submissions for The Plug are currently closed!
The Plug —The PLU Gazette
The Moon: From goddesses to landings to pies, this distant yet familiar celestial body has fuelled myths, scientific discoveries, and conspiracy theories. It has inspired countless works of art across time and cultures, and continues to fill our conscious (and unconscious?) imagination. But what is it really like? Does it have a smell, a temper, a mortgage, a favorite food or poet? Does it slide into DMs and stalk us when we sleep? For this edition of The Plug, we are looking for unique and unclichéd takes on the moon.
We accept simultaneous submissions—If your work is accepted elsewhere, congratulations, but please let us know and withdraw your piece.
This year’s theme is THE MOON.
We accept written work of any kind, even those that defy genre!
Fiction & Non-Fiction: Submissions are limited to 1000 words.
Poetry: Submissions are limited to two A4 pages.
Translation: We will consider translations of French texts into English.
Art: Submissions are limited to two images.
Translations and citations must be accompanied by permission from the original writer or their literary estate.
Please include your full name as you would like to see it in print.
Submissions should be sent in a Word document.
If you’re having trouble submitting via the portal, email your work to submissions@parislitup.com.
