military anthology Submissions

Milltown Press seeks submissions of prose, poetry, and art from current and former active-duty U.S. military members and their families for G.I. Days: An Anthology of Military Life (title subject to change), a perfect-bound print book to be published in late 2023. 

We’re seeking creative work (personal essay, memoir, fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, and art) that reflects some aspect of military life. We’re not looking for stories of epic battles in times of war (although if that’s the story you want to tell, please send it). 

We’re interested in small moments of everyday military life: stories involving friendship, camaraderie, travel, love, loss, growth, transformation, disappointment, joy, disaster, frustration, family, embarrassment, or awe. Bring us into your world. Make us feel something. Show us the unexpected.

We want to hear diverse voices! Women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other underrepresented writers/artists are encouraged to submit. We seek to amplify the voices of folks who have traditionally been silenced in military writing and in the larger literary community.

Submission Guidelines

• Send your best polished, edited, publication-ready work. If your work is accepted, it will be published as submitted. Editing will be limited to minor changes to spelling, punctuation, and/or formatting, if needed. If you choose to revise your work after it has been submitted, please withdraw your piece and resubmit within the submission period.
• Submissions must be (primarily) in English and may be sent from anywhere in the world. 
• Work must be previously unpublished.
• Submissions must be your own, original work. Do not send AI-generated material! 
• Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please withdraw your work immediately if it has been accepted elsewhere. 
• Multiple submissions are allowed, but please only submit once per category. 
• Include title and word count on the first page, but do not include your name on your submission (except as part of the narrative). Save your piece with the title of the work as the file name, e.g., WeWonTheWar.docx.

Prose (Personal essay, fiction, memoir, etc.) – Submit no more than 6000 words in Times New Roman 12-point font with standard margins, doubled spaced, in .doc or .docx file format.

Poetry – Submit 1-3 poems of no more than 3 pages each, in Times New Roman 12-point font with standard margins, in .doc or .docx. file format. Poems may be single or double spaced.

Art – Submit up to 6 images that reflect military life in some way. Submissions may be photography, illustration, comics, graphic narrative, painting, mixed media, or 3D art. Please send quality, high-resolution .jpg, .tif, or .png files of at least 300 dpi, preferably in portrait orientation. All work will be printed in grayscale with the exception of cover art. Accepted images may be cropped and edited for tone, etc. Graphic/illustrated poetry or prose should be submitted in this category.

Submission Period

• Submissions will be accepted from April 1, 2023, to May 31, 2023. Deadline for prose and poetry extended to June 9.
• There is no submission fee.
• We aim to respond within 2 months. If you have not heard from us in 90 days, feel free to reach out.

Compensation 

• Payment for accepted work is one contributor copy (copies can only be mailed to addresses within the continental United States). 
• We are not able to offer monetary compensation. 
• We ask for first worldwide print anthology rights. All rights revert to the author upon publication.