Bayou Magazine is open to submissions from September 15 through December 15. All submissions must be in English and previously unpublished in print or online. We accept submissions of poetry and fiction ONLY via Submittable. We do not accept mailed submissions. 

If after 5 months you have not received a response from us, feel free to contact us by email at bayoumagazine@gmail.com, and we will be happy to check on the status of your submission. 

We accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you immediately add a note to your submission specifying the piece/s are no longer available.

If we decline any submission, we ask that you wait 3 months from the date you receive notice before submitting anything else. More frequent submissions will be declined.

Please include a cover page with title, author, contact information (including an email address) along with an author’s BIO in 3rd person. This is the BIO we will use should your story be accepted.

Students, faculty, and alumni of the University of New Orleans are not eligible to submit.

Fiction Submission Information

• Submissions must be 7,500 words or less, double spaced, 12pt Times New Roman. NO COURIER FONT, please.
• Flash fiction and short-shorts are welcome, but we accept only 1 story per submission.
• Bayou Magazine publishes only original, entirely human-produced content. Bayou Magazine reserves the right to check for AI usage between acceptance and publication and the right to withdraw offers of publication from any work determined by the editorial staff to be largely shaped, constructed, or imagined by AI or other LLM systems.

Poetry Submission Information     

• Send only one submission of up to 5 poems at a time. Please wait until you receive our decision before submitting anything else. 
• We will not publish work that has been composed, revised, or edited by AI. 

Publication Rights and Payment
  After publication in Bayou Magazine, all rights revert to the author. Payment is one contributor’s copy unless otherwise specified by genre. All work published in Bayou Magazine is considered for Pushcart Prize nominations. All prose is sent annually to Best American Essays and Best American Short Stories for consideration. 

Payment

Payment for fiction of >3000 words is $150, <3000 words is $100.

Payment for poetry is $40 per piece.