Foglifter is a biannual compendium of the most dynamic, urgent queer and trans writing today. It’s a space where LGBTQ+ writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace

Foglifter welcomes daring and thoughtful work by queer and trans writers in all forms, and we are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. We want the pieces that challenged you as a writer, what you poured yourself into and risked the most to make. But we also want your tenderest, gentlest work, what you hold closest to your heart. Whatever you're working on now that's keeping you alive and writing, Foglifter wants to read it.

Editorial Statement

We provide a path to representation for a broad selection of LGBTQ+ voices, centering queer and trans literary artists of color, youth, elders, and those beyond traditional LGBTQ+ cultural centers so that our readers and audiences can see their own experiences authentically represented through queer and trans literary arts.

We believe that queer and trans people must curate our own artistic discourses and we curate with a commitment to not perpetuate harm in our communities and recognize our responsibilities as editors to uplift the voices of queer and trans people while not punching down on those of us who live at the intersection of multiple oppressed identities.

Writers in Need Fund

Foglifter is excited to launch the Writers In Need fund to support sliding-scale payments for our contributors. While we have been deeply fortunate to be able to compensate contributors for their important and incredible writing with a modest honorarium, Foglifter recognizes the many intersections of our queer and trans artistic communities, and that members of our community may be differently impacted by financial insecurity and historical disenfranchisement. This fund is an attempt to address those inequities. Please see the Submit page on our website for details. 

General Submission Guidelines

Title your submission with the title of the work(s) you are submitting (separated by commas).

Include a 50-word or less bio (with pronouns after your name, please!) in your cover letter. (If accepted, we will request an author photo; JPG or PNG files are best.)

We accept the following unpublished unsolicited submissions:

  • 3 to 5 poems, one poem per page (max 5 pages)
  • up to 7500 words of fiction or nonfiction (up to three flash fiction pieces)
  • up to 20 pages of cross-genre work, text-image hybrids, or drama

All submissions must be uploaded as one DOC or DOCX file using the following titling convention: First_Last_Foglifter (i.e., Audre_Lorde_Foglifter)

  • We accept simultaneous submissions; however, please withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere (or, if you only need to withdraw part of a submission, send us a message in Submittable).
  • Only one submission per genre is permitted each reading period.
  • We do not accept previously published material.
  • We welcome translated work in all genres, provided rights have been secured before submission. (Both author and translator will receive an honorarium.)
  • If we've recently accepted your work, please wait two reading periods (1 year) to submit again.
  • Contributors receive two copies of the issue in which they appear and a $100 honorarium (via PayPal).

Online Exclusive Issue Guidelines

  • Please submit up to 5 pieces
  • For video and audio submissions, please limit to 5 minutes
  • We accept art created via all mediums (except AI — no AI art submissions). This includes, but is not limited to, photography, painting, digital, ink, pencil, collage, etc.
  • Acceptable file types: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .tif, .tiff, .png, .svg, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, .mp3, .m4a, .wav, .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mpg, .3gp, .wmv
  • Visual and [multi]media work must be web-viewable—please include links or uploads through Submittable and include content warnings if applicable
  • All applicable artworks submitted will be considered for cover art for the online exclusive issue
  • We love experimental work, feel free to submit hybrid forms that blend genres

Submission periods for our print issues are:

  • February 1 to April 1 (Fall Edition)
  • August 1 to October 1 (Spring Edition)

Submission periods for our digital issues are:

  • August 15 to October 15 (Winter Edition)
  • February 15 to April 15 (Summer Edition)

Ends on
Submit to Foglifter New York: Workshop (led by jason b. crawford)

Submission Guidelines: Foglifter Workshop for New York City Writers & Artists

 

Thank you for your interest in Foglifter New York, a workshop for New York City based writers & artists, led by poet, Lambda Award winner, and Issue 8.2 Poetry Contributor jason b. crawford! jason b crawford is the author of YEET! (Omnidawn, 2025), winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry, and Year of the Unicorn Kidz (Sundress Publications, 2022).  A Lambda Literary Fellow, crawford was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Lansing, Michigan.

 

This workshop is centered around a central query: What does it mean to look at a work of art as a queer body? To bring desire, grief, memory, and speculation to the act of witnessing? In this generative workshop, jason b. crawford invites participants to move beyond conventional ekphrasis and into something stranger and more urgent: poetry that inhabits the world of its subject while speaking not just about art, but from inside it.

Drawing on crawford's practice as a speculative poet attuned to small details and the inner lives of objects, bodies, and spaces, participants will explore queer and trans visual art as a site of encounter, asking what the image wants, what it mourns, what it refuses. Centered in the Foglifter tradition of transgressive, intersectional, formally adventurous writing, this workshop asks: what happens when the queer eye looks back?

Participants will leave with at least one new draft and a set of generative prompts to carry into their own practice.

 

Please note, this workshop is available for New York City residents only and will take place in-person in New York City on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 from 2pm - 5pm. Applicants will be informed by August 1, 2026. While this workshop will be poetry-focused, writers from all genres are welcome to apply. 

To apply:

  1. Title your Work Sample (using the following titling convention: First_Last_Foglifter (i.e., Audre_Lorde_Foglifter)
  2. Include your a 50-word or less bio (with pronouns)
  3. Upload your work sample (as one DOC, DOCX, or PDF file)
  4. Include in Your Work Sample:
  • 3 poems (max 3 pages), or;
  • up to 5000 words of fiction or nonfiction, or; 
  • up to 3 pages of cross-genre or hybrid work, text-image hybrids, or drama
  • Only one work sample submission per person. 

 

Click 'Submit!' 

Foglifter Press