Submissions to the magazine are accepted from members only, including poetry, short stories, essays, nonfiction, music scores and compositions, book reviews, and member or branch news.

The Pen Woman, published quarterly, is the official magazine of the National League of American Pen Women. Its function is three-fold:
1. Provide updates from the League, including branch news, awards, contests, chaplain’s corner and the president’s message.
2. Serve as a special interest magazine, with articles on the creative process, member profiles and historical perspectives on our organization.
3. Showcase examples of members’ work, including poetry, short stories, essays, music and art.

General Guidelines

These guidelines apply to all submissions. Guidelines pertaining specifically to poetry are listed separately.
1. Submissions must be the work of Pen Women members.

2. Unless prior agreement has been made, all submissions must be sent electronically to the appropriate department editor on or before the deadline.

3. Submitting your work gives the League permission to edit it, publish it on a one-time rights basis, use it on the NLAPW website, and include it in marketing and promotional materials.

4. It is your responsibility to determine and secure permission for The Pen Woman’s right to publish.

5. Include your name, branch, and the title of your work above the piece. If you are a member-at-large, include that information in lieu of your branch identification.

6. Due to limited space, acceptance for consideration does not guarantee publication.

7. Written text should be proofed for spelling, usage, and accuracy.

8. Submit articles as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or in the body of your email.

9. Write your last name and branch in the subject line.

10. Art files should be attached as a .jpg, .pdf, .psd, or .tiff file and should not be embedded into the Word document.

11. Images should be high resolution or need to be large enough that they can be converted to 300 dpi (minimum of 1,800 pixels at the widest side is ideal; in some cases, however, larger files may be requested by the editors; small images will be considered on case-by-case basis).

12. Files larger than 4MB should be sent through a file-sharing program like Dropbox, MailBigFile, WeTransfer, etc.

13. Do not use space bars or punctuation when naming your files. Use dashes (-) or underscores ( _ ) instead. Include your last name and name of the piece in the file name. If you are submitting a photo of people, the file name should have your branch name and the names of the people in the photo from left to right. Please include a suggested caption, or names of the people in photograph. Please specify if photo credit is desired, and include the photographer’s name.

14. Color images are preferred, unless the art itself is grayscale.

15. If you cannot submit your files electronically, please contact the editor in charge of the department.

16. Fiction and nonfiction submissions should be shorter than 600 words.

17. Handwritten manuscripts cannot be accepted. Computer-generated music notation programs only.

18. Pen Women in the Spotlight submissions should be concise (limited to one paragraph) and include the member’s branch (or MAL).

19. When submitting branch news, please include whether a byline is desired; bylines should include the person’s title within the branch, if applicable.

20. Please inquire with the editor-in-chief when submitting announcements for upcoming events, to make sure the event date fits within the magazine’s distribution timeline.

Poetry Submissions

1. All submissions should be single spaced.

2. Any form or style is acceptable.

3. Submissions for the print magazine may not exceed 36 printed lines. Lines between stanzas do not count.

4. Use the title of the poem being submitted as the name of the file attachment. Include the poet’s name and branch below the poem on the attachment.

5. Please indicate whether you wish the poems to be considered for the blog, the magazine or both.

Submissions should be sent by email as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or directly in the body of the email. Include your name and branch or M-A-L on the same page as your submission. Both new material and previously published works (if the writer/artist has maintained the publication rights) are eligible.

Book Reviews

All books and book reviews must be written by NLAPW members.

If you’re submitting a review, include the name and branch of both the book author and the reviewer below the title of the book. We prefer reviewers and book authors to be from different branches, but will accept submissions when both belong to the same branch.

Reviews run 300 to 350 words, including title and other information. Use a standard 12-point Times New Roman font with line spacing at 1.5 or 2. Only one space after periods. The magazine style is to put book, poem, and essay titles in quotation marks.

Feel free to praise the book, but the review must give the reader a reason for spending time and money with it. So, a bit of the “what” and lots of the “why” and “how.” “How” is especially important in poetry, personal essays, and nonfiction. What literary devices move the story along? What imagery, rhyming schemes, structure, or meters impact the reader’s experience?

When quoting lines of poetry, use quotation marks with a slash and space to indicate a line break. Here’s an example from Ferlinghetti’s “New York — Albany” poem: “God I had forgotten how/ the Hudson burns/ in indian autumn/ …”

At the end, include the year of publication, publisher, cover price, and ISBN. We also need a high-resolution (300 dpi) art file of the book cover.