Diagonals Literary Festival is all about diversity and inclusivity.
That’s why we aim to publish all sorts of literary works across all sorts of genres, subgenres, topics and styles.
Our main categories are short fiction (up to 7,500 words), short non-fiction (up to 7,500 words), poetry and short plays/screenplays (up to 60 pages). We also publish longer works in a serialized format (contact us for this).
Fiction
We accept pretty much all kinds of fiction, of any style, genre and subgenre, big and small, known and unknown.
Claim your free submission!
Non-fiction
We publish narrative non-fiction; critical, personal, picture, documentary and experimental essays; investigative works; true crime; biographies; travel literature; articles; reviews and analyses of literary works, films, photography, music, art and more.
All of these can be on any topic.
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Poetry
“Standard” poetry, prose poetry and song lyrics all qualify for this category.
Just like with all the categories on this festival, we aspire to publish works that resist easy categorization and venture into strange and uncharted territories—and poetry is no exception.
If your poem doesn’t really look or feel like a “poem” and is more experimental in nature, then congratulations. You’ve come to the right place.
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Plays/Screenplays
Contrary to what is often thought of as just a step in the process of something else, to us, the script format is more than this. It is literature like any other, complete on its own. And here, on Diagonals Literary Festival, we treat scripts—of any kind—with due respect.
The category is “Plays/Screenplays” but that doesn’t limit it to theater, film or TV. In fact, scripts of all kinds are accepted as long as they possess literary qualities. They can be of produced projects or not, have plot or none at all, be written in regular industry format or in completely unknown, weird and experimental ways unseen anywhere else.
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Whatever your writing is, Diagonals Literary Festival poses no restrictions on format, style or content and how it “should” appear. Your writing can be anything you like and look like anything you like.
There are no limits on how graphic, explicit or bizarre a work can be. If it contains mature elements, we will put a “MATURE CONTENT” label or, if it contains more graphic depictions of sex, drug use or violence, a “MATURE/EXPLICIT CONTENT” label.
One thing to remember: Diagonals Literary Festival is not “Diagonals Literary Police.” You will never see or hear “that’s not how it’s done” coming from us. We value experimentation. If you can imagine it—and write it well—we publish it. We will never judge your work by how “standard” or different it is, but by how well you have done it—how well you have achieved what you intended to achieve—and whether it’s suitable for the festival. Rest assured, our margins are rather wide.
That being said, there are certain things that we don’t publish. Among them are:
– poorly written works with unintentional grammatical errors;
– any work intended for little children. We focus on writing intended for adults and young adults (it’s okay if your work sits somewhere between children’s and young adult’s);
– religious texts as well as texts with strong religious undertones;
– standalone summaries of stories and books;
– news;
– how-to tutorials.
It should be clarified that any of these can be part of other works. For example, a story containing news coverage.
If you’re not sure whether your work is something we publish, contact us at contact@diagonalsliteraryfestival.com before submitting.
Go to Submission Forms