NBAP Literary is a biannual online magazine. We are currently accepting submissions for our Spring/Summer 2025 issue. Please see below to read our guidelines and to also submit your story, poetry, or art.
What we publish
NBAP Literary is an online magazine that publishes short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art that catches the eye.
We are looking for escapist fiction, stories that embrace the surreal, futuristic, dystopian, or stories that are emotionally raw or dark. We’re especially interested in afro-futurism and cyberpunk. We’re open to different types of stories, especially stories that force us to face uncomfortable truths about ourselves. We look for stories that feel organic and honest. Take us to another world. Tell us something about life or humanity that we may not know.
While NBAP Literary appreciates stories about very serious social issues, our online magazine is not about activism, it is about escapism. There are many other platforms and magazines dedicated to social issues. The stories we publish must be edgy and interesting above all else. So if a story must have a message reflective of a cause that is important to the writer, your submission must also enlighten and entertain like Orwell’s 1984 or Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neal Hurston’s, The Gilded Six Bits or perhaps Philip K. Dick. The underlying message in these stories are in the subtext. For us, that makes it even more intriguing and enlightening.
What we don’t publish
We don’t publish stories about sexual violence, or stories that are homophobic, racist, xenophobic, or intolerant towards marginalized groups or people. We will not accept stories that intentionally or subtly seeks to diminish the humanity and safety of others.
Submission Guidelines:
First time authors and writers are welcome to submit.
We accept unpublished works only. If you are submitting simultaneously to other magazines or publications, please let us know if your work is accepted somewhere else so that we may withdraw it from consideration. We expect first serial publishing rights. After our issue is published, writer is welcome to publish the story to other platforms or publications. Writer retains 100% copyright.
All submissions must be typewritten and single-spaced, at 12 point font. No cursive, script, unusual or quirky font types. Stories and poetry must be submitted through our website. We do not accept submissions sent to us by physical mail.
Flash fiction is limited to 1,000 words or less.
Short fiction is limited to 3,000 words or less. The minimum is 1,000 words.
Nonfiction is limited to 3,000 words or less. The minimum is 1,000 words.
We accept the following art: Photography, illustrations, paintings. AI art is accepted but it must be unique (beautiful and surreal). You must acknowledge that the work is generated by AI and what your contribution to the AI work entails and the meaning behind it. You may reply to the confirmation email of your submission with your artwork attached.
Please make sure that your dialogue is properly formatted. Remember that punctuation is inside of the end quote and that dialogue between characters should appear on separate lines, meaning there is a hard return (press enter) between characters who are speaking to each other.
Poetry submissions are limited to three 1-page poems. Styles and layouts welcome but keep in mind, digital layout may not be able to display poems that are written to have a certain shape on page. Please avoid this.
We may offer a critical review of certain works that are published by our magazine.
Payment for published stories: $25 upon publication to our digital magazine.