We publish personal essays, short stories, poems, and black-and-white photography in print and online in our monthly magazine.
We’re looking for narrative writing and evocative photography from all over the world. Send us work that maps the human landscape, where the light catches on the faintest joy, where darkness sometimes threatens to overwhelm, and where ✗ never marks the spot because the truth is never so simple.
First-time authors and award-winners alike find their place in The Sun. We are particularly interested in submissions from marginalized voices.
Our uncommonly supportive community of readers includes 60,000 print subscribers and thousands more website visitors. And The Sun is ad-free, so when we share your work, we don’t crowd it with distracting sales pitches.
Detailed submission guidelines, including our compensation rates, are available on our website.
Essays, Fiction, & Poetry
Writing that can turn heads, open hearts, and change minds.
We publish personal essays, short stories, and poems by established and emerging writers from all over the world. Click here for submission guidelines and payment rates.
Readers Write is a feature in The Sun where readers share their personal writing on a given topic — a unique fixture of the magazine since the section’s inception in 1978. Send us your true story on an upcoming topic, and if we publish it you’ll receive a complimentary one-year subscription.
Not sure what to write? See below for some prompts to spark an idea. Writing style isn’t as important as thoughtfulness and sincerity, and topics are intentionally broad to give room for expression and interpretation.
You can read a sample Readers Write section here.
Upcoming Topics
All Night
Due November 1
There are times staying up all night is an adventure: sleepovers; endless coffees with friends at the 24-hour diner; awaiting the sunrise with a lover. And then there are times you’d give anything to get some sleep: battling insomnia; pulling an all-nighter before an exam; waking up every hour to soothe a crying baby. Do you work the night shift? Find you’re most creative in the wee hours? Have any strange nocturnal habits? Don’t sleep on it: the deadline for sending us your true stories is November 1.
Complexion
Due December 1
A barrage of pimples when you were younger. A steadily increasing number of freckles as you age. A whole lot of melanin, or maybe not much at all. Are you someone who can never find the right shade in the makeup aisle? Does the “flesh” crayon really miss the mark? Take a long look in the mirror, then send us your true story about “Complexion” by December 1.
We’re interested in black-and-white photographs. We’re not looking for photojournalism, just unique perspectives on the world around us — especially human interactions.
Please review our full submission guidelines and sample photographs before sending us your work.