Mad Swirl is an arts and literature creative outlet. It is a platform, a showcase, and a stage for artistic expression in this mad, mad world of ours; a diverse collection of as many poets, artists, and writers we can gather from around the world; from Nepal to Ireland, from England to China, from California to New York City and all the places in between. Our Poetry Forum features works from over 170 contributing poets, our Short Story Library has over 40 participating writers and our Mad Gallery has over 50 resident artists.

A Bit About Submissions

If you’ve come to this page that means you came because you are interested in submitting to Mad Swirl. For that we thank-you. we are very pleased with the response we have received from our fellow mad ones to contribute their work to this collective community. This mad swirlin’ creative outlet is a place to showcase the many diverse artists in this big, blue, beat-utiful world of ours and to get this madness into as many heads as possible. just a few things before we lead you down to our submission guidelines…

    • Mad Swirl does NOT accept simultaneous submissions. Zero exceptions.
    • Mad Swirl does not pay for submissions. As much as we’d love to showcase your work and be able to give you cash for your talents, efforts and time, we cannot. Mad Swirl is fueled by our love for the arts, our passion for publishing and our deep seeded need to spread the mad, mad word. we currently do not make a single cent on posting and promoting.
    • Mad Swirl does not retain rights. Mad Swirl is your platform and creative outlet only. This is the place to share your poetry, your paintings, your stories and/or your opinions. You are only granting us the right to post your creations on our site and possibly to include them in our annual anthology, The Best of Mad Swirl. We will never request that we retain exclusive rights to your creations. They are yours to do with as you please, as it should be.

Online Submission: Guidelines

Gotta need to share? Wanna catch the swirl of madness? Well you came to the right place ‘cos submissions are ALWAYS welcome for MadSwirl.com, which in turn, will also be considered for future print issues.

“Who do you want to submit to madswirl.com?”
“What format do you need my short story in?”
“Should I send my 20MB photograph?”
“Can I copy and paste my work into my e-mail?”
“Can you review my upcoming/new book of poetry?”

If you have any of these questions and want answers then you’re in the right place!

Who

We are calling any and all: poets, illustrators, writers, photographers, painters and psychos (preferably harmless ones) to send ALL original submissions to be considered for MadSwirl.com to submissions@madswirl.com

Poetry, Short Stories & Submissions
  • We prefer to receive poetry/prose in .docx, .pdf, .txt files. If that’s impossible, please copy and paste your work in the body of your e-mail. this may go without saying, but please, please and please utilize sepll, um, spell check.
  • Please limit your poetry submissions to three (3) poems at one time.
  • Please limit the length of your poems to one page (if you’re proud of something you have which is longer, we will read it; we might accept it – if it makes us proud, too). If you have Haiku, five (5) at a time is OK.
  • Please limit your short story submission to (1) story at a time.
  • Please submit short stories that do not exceed one-thousand (1000) words, or less. (excerpts from larger bodies of work, limited to 1000 words, are acceptable.)
Criteria for Becoming a Contributing Poet to our Poetry Forum
  • If we accept three (3) poems from you, you qualify to be added to our Contributing Poets with your own poetry page, and…
  • If you make your contributions with a frequency of at least two (2) within a 12 month period. We like our Contributing Poets to be regular contributors to Mad Swirl.
  • If you have become a Contributing Poet, but have not submitted in 12 months, we will remove your name from our list of contributors. We will send you notice that this is imminent in the 12th month, so you have time to submit.
Visual Submissions
  • For image files (illustrations, photography, paintings, mixed-media, collages, etc.) we prefer they be saved as a JPEG, GIF, PNG format. This may go without saying, but please color correct and crop images as you would like them to be seen.
  • Please limit your visual submissions to a minimum of five (5) pieces but no more than ten (10) pieces at one time.
Submission Etiquette

If you have never submitted to an print or online zine before (or even if you have and wanna quick lesson in submission etiquette), there are a few considerations to keep in mind when you send off an e-mail to our editors. we made a checklist of what to include…

    • Write a subject line on your e-mail that tips us off to what you are sending, i.e. “Poems for consideration in Mad Swirl“
    • Provide a greeting. a “Hello ” or “Dear Editor” works great.
    • Tells us who are you. example “I am John and/or Jane Poet“. wow, that’s so easy!
    • Your purpose for sending your e-mail to us. check this out…”I am sending you the attached (poems, short story, photos, illustrations, paintings) to be considered for your website/publication.” If you really want to impress us, use the NAME of our publication “Mad Swirl“
    • A kind word to close. “Thank-you for your time and consideration.” will suffice.
    • A closing salutation with a name at the end. “Sincerely, John and/or Jane Artist“.