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.
Please note: We place a monthly cap on submissions in Essays, Fiction, and Poetry. If this category appears unavailable (or if you encounter a pop-up message), then our cap has been reached. Be sure to come back on the first of the month to send us your work.
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
First Dates Due August 1
Maybe it’s one you’ll never forget. Maybe it’s one you’d prefer not to remember at all. Maybe you used an app, or maybe it happened because you started a conversation with a good-looking stranger at a bus stop. Maybe it was when you were sixteen years old. Maybe it was when you were sixty-six years old. Maybe it was at a fancy steakhouse; maybe it was at a fast-food joint. Hook us up with your Readers Write submission on “First Dates” by August 1. We promise not to ghost you.
Locks
Due September 1
They secure homes, cars, suitcases, safes, diaries, bikes, and bathroom stalls. They keep your annoying sibling out of your bedroom and prying eyes out of your smartphone. They also keep people inside prisons cells and animals inside cages. They can be a hairstyle, a dance move, a wrestling hold, or a passage for boats. Lock in your submission and send us your true story by September 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.