The Offing, the online literary magazine publishing work at the edges of genre and form, is currently open for submissions. There are no submission fees for 2026, and contributors whose work is accepted are paid between $25 and $100 depending on the department and length of the piece.

The categories currently open are Essay, Insight, Back of the Envelope, and Translation (Poetry). The Essay department welcomes personal essays of any length. Insight seeks creative nonfiction that fuses personal experience with cultural criticism; essays that weave together two unlikely topics to explore what interacting with art, literature, or ideology changed in the writer; the word limit is 5,000. Back of the Envelope is for writing that draws on science and the natural world, in any genre and any length, and is open to writers from both inside and outside the scientific community. The Translation (Poetry) category accepts translated poetry, up to six poems per submission.

Work must be original and previously unpublished in English. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided you withdraw promptly if accepted elsewhere. The magazine aims to respond within six months. All submissions go through the Submittable portal, email submissions are not accepted.

The Fiction department is not currently open through the portal, but the magazine will consider excerpts from novels and short story collections from small presses, sent directly to [email protected].