Bog Matter is a speculative literary magazine published annually. It seeks to publish new short fiction, poetry, and comics that could be described as science fiction, horror, fantasy, magical realism, slipstream, New Weird, utopian, dystopian, satirical, cross-genre, experimental, or exuding a general air of oddness. It is published in part by the Society of Writers for Alcoholic Mingling & Productivity (SWAMP), a Los Angeles-based informal writing group that seeks to foster a local writing community open to all. As a means to bolster this community, Bog Matter is proud to feature a selection of works by local writers in each issue, alongside the best new works submitted by writers from all over the world.
For Issue 03, we will be limiting fiction and poetry submissions to California residents only. Comic submissions are still open to non-California residents.
Submissions for Issue 03 will be open from October 1 to November 30, 2026.
Submit
◆◆◆ Letters to the Editor We publish letters to the editor in each Bog Matter issue. We welcome you to send your letters containing feedback, reviews, reactions, commentary, and other thoughts on the magazine to bogmattermag@gmail.com with the subject line “Letter to the Editor”. Please sign your email with the name you’d like to be credited with in the magazine, should your letter be chosen for inclusion. Full name, partial name, “Anonymous”, totally different moniker—it’s up to you. Please also include where you are writing from (city, state & country). Should your letter get selected for publication, we will send you a free copy of the print issue it appears in. We look forward to hearing from you!
◆◆◆ Previous IssuesClick below to view and purchase previous issues of Bog Matter Magazine.
◆◆◆ Bog Matter Submission Guidelines
We do not accept submissions via email. We only accept submissions through our submission form below. Please read the guidelines thoroughly before submitting.
Submissions will be open from October 1 to November 30, 2026.
Submit
General Info:
- We are accepting short fiction, poetry, and comics. Fiction and poetry submissions must be from California residents only.
- Maximum 3500 words (submissions under 2000 words are preferred and will have a higher likelihood of acceptance).
- Submitted pieces should be formatted to roughly follow Standard Manuscript Format and uploaded as a DOC or DOCX file. Graphic short stories should be submitted as a multi-page PDF file.
- Pieces should be self-contained and complete, meaning works in progress or excerpts from larger works will not be considered.
- Please note that any use of AI involved in the creation of a submission will result in its automatic rejection.
Fiction Short Stories
are paid at $0.02/word, with a minimum payment of $5, plus two copies of the print issue. We are looking for works that are intended for print, meaning no screenplays, please! Unless the format is intentional/experimental and ultimately intended to be read on a page. Submitted short stories cannot have been previously published.
Poems
are paid at $0.02/word, with a minimum payment of $5 (if your combined accepted poems do not reach 250 total words), plus two copies of the print issue. You are welcome to submit up to ten poems as long as they collectively do not exceed 2000 words. Please format them together into one single document. Multiple accepted poems from one author may be split up and/or reordered when placed in the final print magazine. Submitted poems cannot have been previously published.
Comics
are paid at $4/page (as laid out in Bog Matter), plus two copies of the print issue. They should be able to take up a minimum of 2 laid-out pages and a maximum of 20, but we are more likely to accept pieces that would occupy 4-12 pages. Submitted comics can have been previously published. Please note that all images will be printed in Risograph and may not look exactly as they do in the original digital file once printed. When submitting, please upload a PDF of your piece as is (whether that’s full-color, spot-color, grayscale, or black-and-white) and we will discuss printing and color options after acceptance. We do all prepress and color-processing in-house and do not require you to do any additional color separations or image editing (unless requested for content/layout).
We do not accept multiple submissions, meaning you can only submit once for each issue. Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please notify us promptly if your submitted piece gets accepted elsewhere. Please only withdraw your submission (via email) if it is accepted elsewhere, or you feel it truly isn’t up to your standards for publication. If you’ve edited your piece since submitting, we will consider your new edits after acceptance. Please do not withdraw a submission to submit a further edited version of the same piece.
We aim to deliver final decisions on submissions within 4-12 weeks following the submission period. However, final decisions may take as long as 8 months.
Feel free to reach out with any questions to bogmattermag@gmail.com.