Deadline: November 30th, 2025
Payment: $50
Theme: Walls: Real, imagined, perceived, constructed, demolished, and rebuilt
Walls
Whether breaking through a wall, scaling it to freedom on the other side, or sitting at the top as you take in the view, walls are structures where great stories happen. Walls are not neutral; they divide and imprison, they enclose, they exclude, they liberate.
Walls welcome weary travelers and define sacred spaces. Walls guard wounded hearts. And let’s not forget, walls always have more than one side. In fact, some walls, like hedgerows, can become their own ecosystems and communities from within.
We want your stories about walls. Tell us of walls you’ve left behind and walls you dared to exist on the wrong side of. Tell us, too, of walls you’ve scaled, broken, or broken yourself on. The wall might be a glass ceiling, a broken/unbroken fourth wall, or it might be a literal barrier keeping someone out. What social, cultural, and institutional walls have you encountered, fought, or even found yourself building?
Small Robin Press champions intersectional voices. If you find yourself at the crossroads of disability, neurodiversity, queerness, poverty, ethnicity, or race, your voice belongs here.
We highly encourage writers who have not previously had publishing experience to submit their work. We recognize the very real barriers in the publishing world. Our press exists to confront those barriers by extending a hand to small writers with big voices. Publishing with Small Robin Press showcases your voice to a community of over 5000 readers looking for precisely the kind of thing you create.
Small Robin Press is looking for nonfiction works that examine life in a sincere, human way. While we have boundaries in our submission requirements, your writing on our themes should be boundless. The essays we select are ones that break our hearts, delight and open our minds, and push us into new—possibly even uncomfortable—places. Works must be creative nonfiction, and we look for the craft of storytelling to shine through.
ase review all submission requirements below. Small Robin Press accepts submissions through Duotrope. A paid subscription to Duotrope is NOT required.
author information
Authors will be asked to provide the name they wish to publish under (this can be your real name or a pen name). Submissions are accepted through Duotrope, which requires a free account.
All submissions are anonymized to help us prevent bias in reviewing and selecting them.
your submission
All submissions must be complete and unpublished. No pitches or reprints will be accepted or reviewed.
Original work is required. We will not accept previously published work. Plagiarism is not accepted.
our AI stance
The use of generative AI is not permitted. More on our AI policy can be found here.
essay length
Submissions can be up to 3,000 words. This does not include the title or byline. Submissions over 3,000 words will not be reviewed. Please check your word count closely. Do not include an author bio.
There is no minimum word count for submissions.
your document
Documents should be formatted as rich text (RTF) or Word doc (doc or docx). Google docs (or other shared document types) will not be accepted. Generally, you can convert a document to an RTF by saving it as an RTF (File > Save As > RTF).
fees and payment
There are no submission fees. Authors whose submissions are accepted will receive payment upon publication of the anthology.
mature content
We expect life stories to have mature themes and complexity, but we are not interested in reading pornography or detailed illegal acts.
multiple/simultaneous submissions
All authors are limited to one submission per anthology. If you have been published previously by Small Robin Press, please wait 12 months before submitting again.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed but must be identified clearly. If your submission is accepted elsewhere, you must notify Small Robin Press and withdraw it immediately.
contract
A sample author contract is available upon request via the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page.
Via: Small Robin Press.
