Founded in 1981, BOMB Magazine is dedicated to delivering the artist's voice. BOMB includes a print quarterly magazine and an online daily publication. In addition to conversations between artists of all disciplines, BOMB publishes original works of fiction, poetry, and translation.
BOMB hosts an annual literary contest, alternating between fiction and poetry each year, with a distinguished guest judge.
We encourage submissions of adventurous work that push the boundaries of form or content in some way. We open for general submissions on occasion. Please sign up for our newsletter for more details.
Before submitting, we encourage you to read the magazine, online and in print, to acquaint yourself with the material we have published. Subscriptions to BOMB are available here.
BOMB Magazine’s 2023 Fiction Contest is open for submissions, and we’re honored to have Jonathan Lethem joining us as this year’s guest judge. Lethem will select one winner to receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BOMB's quarterly magazine.
Submission Guidelines
- Manuscripts may contain no more than 5,000 words and consist of a single work of short fiction.
- Submission period: March 1–April 16, 2023 (at 11:59 pm ET).
- All entries will be considered anonymously. Do not include author name on manuscript pages. Non-anonymous manuscripts will be disqualified.
- Reading Fee: $30. Includes a year-long print subscription to BOMB for US entrants (a $60 value). All non-US entrants will receive a digital-only subscription. All new subscriptions begin with BOMB's summer issue, arriving on newsstands June 15.
- Current subscribers to BOMB will receive details on discounted entry via email.
- Work must be uploaded via Submittable.
- Work must be previously unpublished.
- Simultaneous submissions are permitted as long as you notify us if your piece is accepted elsewhere, but the fee is non-refundable.
Email firstproof@bombsite.com with any questions. The winner and finalists will be announced in July 2023.
About Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem is the bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Arrest, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. He currently teaches creative writing at Pomona College in California.
You can read Lethem's interview with Lydia Millet in our spring 2008 issue and his comic in collaboration with Julia Jacquette in our winter 2023 issue.