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
Shaving
Due January 1, 2024
Maybe your mom taught you how. Maybe your dad. Maybe no one did, and you’ve got the cuts to prove it. Tell us about an experience shaving, or choosing not to: for a job interview, for an intimate affair, or for a time you tried to reinvent yourself. Get your piece to us in the nick of time, and remember we only publish true stories in Readers Write.
Fuel
Due February 1, 2024
Perhaps yours is a massive thermos of coffee first thing in the morning, or a bottle of those barely regulated pills they sell at truck stops. Or possibly you’re so used to running on empty you wouldn’t know how to operate on a full tank. Have you ever been stranded on the side of the road, waiting for someone to show up with a gallon of gasoline? Send us your story—just make sure it’s a true one—and we’ll consider it for this upcoming Readers Write.
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.