Submit
100 words for your story … no more or no less. Tell a story, pen a slice of your memoir, or try your hand at an essay.
You get 100 words—exactly 100 words—which is both the pain and the pleasure here. It’s short, you tell yourself. You could write 100 words at a bus stop, on your lunch break, in your sleep. But with 100 words you must tell the whole story in its entirety, so it holds together like a perfect little doll house. (Your title is not part of the 100 words.)
Please include a short bio (25 words, max!) with your submission. Also, did we say exactly 100 words? We weren’t kidding! We count words according to Microsoft Word’s word-count tally. Also, make friends with your spell-check, or have a friend proofread your story.
We currently charge a $2 submission fee, the minimum in order to cover the costs of the submission system. Submissions are open the first week of every month, and you can submit as many stories as you’d like, but each story needs to be submitted separately.
Submissions will re-open from September 1-10!
Free Submissions for Underrepresented Writers: At 100 Word Story, we are eager and committed to publishing work from underrepresented writers. 100 Word Story recognizes that the literary canon and the publishing world have largely privileged certain stories and voices over others.
At 100 Word Story, we believe that as a literary journal we have the responsibility to publish creative work that reflects diverse experiences, identities, and cultures on both a national and global scale. We are especially committed to uplifting the voices of those who have long been marginalized and underrepresented.
If you identify with any underrepresented group, please submit for free to “Free Submissions for Underrepresented Writers.” Among the many types of underrepresentation that exist in literature, we particularly encourage Black, Indigenous, People of Color, those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and those who belong to the LGBTQIA+ and disability communities to submit to 100 Word Story.
Will you read vignettes?
Yes, we’ll read vignettes. The 100-word form is open to all genres–however you want to define it.
Good question: The title is separate for our word count.
Do you count the words in the title to get 100 words or is the title separate?
’76, not as hot or humid as the previous year but warm enough to provide us with long grass, summer long, to hide away from the envious eyes of the “ad-vice squad” as we had named the old folk in our town. Heat, skin, hair and a necklace of electric kisses. Sunlight breaking through and inflaming her sweat-curled, summer-mad, auburn hair. In-your-face emerald eyes gently mocking my boyish shyness. Two years difference in age; twenty in experience. Those kisses cracked the fragile shell of my desires. Hands, hoping, helping. Contours of a new world. Then I went for a beer.