After much consideration, FLARE has decided to publish blog posts and/or media and book reviews about chronic illness, disability, and/or mental health.
Blog/Review Submissions Are OPEN Now to October 16, by 11:59 p.m. PST
Read more on how to submit below!
What Would FLARE Like to See?
- Blog posts could be about disability representation in media, sharing organizations that are disability-focused in some way to bring attention to other outlets, disability submission calls for other disability-led literary publications, tips for what’s worked for you when you’re having a bad mental health day or period or feeling sick/in pain, etc.
- In terms of format for blogs, I’d love to see easily digestible pieces, meaning subheadings and all–make it look like a blog!
- Film, TV, music, or book reviews that feature mental health, disability, and/or chronic illness and how media portrays disability
- Maybe it’s a critique of poor/unrealistic disability rep or alternatively, praise of good disability rep!
- You could answer: how does media (whether it’s a TV show, song/album, book, etc.) feature disability? What are some themes you see? What are the messages portrayed?
- Book reviews can be for nonfiction, novels, and poetry.
So Where Will This Be Published?
In an effort to grow FLARE‘s substack, all reviews and blog posts will be featured there! Don’t worry, the substack is always FREE to read! Read below for how to submit! Subscribe HERE!
How to Submit
- Send ONE blog post or media review in a given submission period and in the body of the email, in Microsoft Word, or Google Docs. I’m not sure how popular this will be yet, so I might change how many posts or reviews can be submitted in the future.
- Please send along the title of the work you’re reviewing or the title of your blog post and the writer/singer/artist you’re writing on if it’s a review (if applicable, doesn’t really apply for film/TV).
- Should be at least 500 words up to 1500 words
- Please don’t send any pitches. Just submit the full post or review.
- Posts or reviews must feature disability, chronic illness, or mental health in some way.
- Put BLOG POST or [BOOK, FILM, ETC.] REVIEW in the subject line!
- If applicable, send the book, music, film, etc. link along with your submission so that people can check these out!
- Try not to give big spoilers if it’s a review in case people want to check out the work.
- For reviews, these can be about something that’s already out in the world or forthcoming. Just include the year it came out (i.e. “[book title] was published in 2026”).
- Please include a short (100 words max), third-person bio along with your post, any social media handles with which platform they belong to, and your pronouns.
Like issues, please NO AI-generated or plagiarized content.
Like with other submissions, I can’t pay for reviews or blog posts. I’m a disabled creator myself, and this is a volunteer position, so this is mostly just to help spread the word about disability in other ways!
Unlike regular/special issues, I will NOT be offering a feedback option, mostly because I am the only editor who works on FLARE, and I don’t want to do too much, especially as a chronically ill person.
Simultaneous submissions are okay, as well as previously published posts. However, if you’re piece is previously published in another literary journal, please tell FLARE the name so that we can give credit to that journal!
Response Times for Blog/Review Submissions
Generally, I don’t think I’ll be as fast as responding as I am to issue submissions. I’ll try to get back to people within 2-3 weeks, but in the beginning, I might be faster since this is new, but I also don’t really know how popular this will be! This is more a fun side thing, and I won’t open to blog/review submissions when I’m open to issue submissions. Depending on how many are received, I might have to close submissions early, or alternatively, I might extend submission periods if I’m hardly getting anything!
When Will Your Blog Post/Review Be Published?
Again, this depends on how many are submitted to FLARE, but I’m thinking either Fridays or Sundays. I’ll publish in a rolling submissions way, rather than wait til the submission period ends (but it’ll be either on a Friday or Sunday)!
Each time there’s a new post, I’ll also shout about it on our social media!