The Santa Barbara Literary Journal is not currently open for submissions.  

We accept short stories under 5,000 words. We will consider one short story per author per submission period. Poets may submit up to three poems per submission period. For flash, please send up to three pieces under 1,000 words each. Please only submit to one genre per submission period. We do not accept memoir. Lyrics are by invitation only. We publish two issues yearly in print. 

To help mitigate operational costs, we charge $2 per submission. 

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Your submission should include:
1. A short (3-4 sentence) biographical paragraph explaining who you are as an author. Include any websites/social media.
2. Let us know the total word count and the genre (if it defies genre, note that too).

We aim to respond within six weeks, although it is not always possible. Authors retain all rights to their work; we simply ask that you not publish it elsewhere during the first six months the Lit Jo issue is out.  

Who can send us work? Everyone. Anyone. The more the merrier. We read all work with hopes of finding a masterpiece, and we select work solely on the basis of craft. You do not have to live in Santa Barbara to be published in the journal, but let us know if you're local.

We accept simultaneous submissions, but let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere. We are not currenntly in a position to offer compensation for publication.  

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New Things to Come!

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In June 2023, we will begin accepting submissions of novels, novellas, novelettes, and story collections. As you may already have noticed, we're branching out to single-author books, and it's our intention to open submissions to all. Stay tuned for more submission details.