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 2025 Fiction Contest is open for submissions, and we’re honored to have the Pulitzer Prize finalist and MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link joining us as this year’s guest judge. Link will select one winner to receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BOMB’s quarterly magazine.
Submission Guidelines
- Submission period: March 1–April 15, 2025 (at 11:59 pm ET).
- Manuscripts may contain no more than 5,000 words and must consist of a single work of short fiction.
- All entries will be considered anonymously. Do not include author name on manuscript pages. Nonanonymous manuscripts will be disqualified.
- Reading Fee: $30. Includes a yearlong print subscription to BOMB for US entrants (a $60 value). All non-US entrants will receive a digital-only subscription. All new subscriptions will begin with BOMB’s Summer 2025 issue, arriving on newsstands June 15. Current subscribers to BOMB will receive details on discounted entry via email.
- Work must be previously unpublished.
- Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but we ask that you notify us if your piece is accepted elsewhere. The fee is nonrefundable.
- Work must be uploaded via Submittable.
Email firstproof@bombsite.com with any questions. The winner and finalists will be announced in July 2025.
About Kelly Link
Kelly Link is the author of five collections and the novel The Book of Love. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her family and owns the independent bookstore Book Moon. A former MacArthur Fellow and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, she coedits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. You can find her on Bluesky at @kellylink.bsky.social.
You can read an expanded version of Kelly Link's interview by Kevin Brockmeier (from Winter 2024) online.