The First Line Literary Journal is really fun. I love seeing what kinds of stories other writers come up with all from the same, first line. From romance, to adventure, to emotional, to quirky. Funny, uplifting to sad, dystopian. They all originated from that same, first line.
Talk about creative amazingness!
So, down to business, The First Line Literary Journal is accepting submission right now. They start every year with four fresh first lines: One for Spring, one for Summer, one for Fall, and one for Winter. Today’s post features their Fall deadline, which is August 1.
I know, that’s only two weeks away. I’ll get them out sooner.
Any who, the first line for the August 1 deadline reads: Her truck took the sharp turns of the mountain road with ease.
Already, ideas are hitting and every single one is different. That what is so great about The First Line Literary Journal: their first lines really do stir the creative works.
The details:
The First Line accepts fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
For Fiction:
- All fiction stories have to have the first line, that’s pretty much the point of the literary journal.
- They recommend stories to be between 300 and 5,000 words, though they will accept submissions if they are outside of this range. However, whenever someone gives you a word count range, your chances of being accepted are much higher if you stay inside those numbers.
- Any genre is accepted
For Nonfiction:
- They are looking for short essays where you discuss your favorite first line from a book or other literary work
- These are to be between 500-800 words. Like I said, short.
For Poetry:
- All poems must start with the first line
- There is no limit as to line count
For more information and details as to what they want, check out their submissions page HERE
To purchase previous issues for The First Line Literary Journal to get a better idea of what stories they accept, here is their MAIN PAGE. A PDF version of older issues can be as low as 3 dollars. I do highly recommend purchasing one copy for reference, as with any magazine/journal you are wanting to submit to.
The First Line Literary Journal does ask that you provide a 2-3 sentence bio with your submission. They prefer submissions to be sent as email attachments in MS Word or Word Perfect formats (NO PDFs), with your name, contact info, and the short bio included in the attachment. When you’re ready, you can find their email address to send your submissions to on their submissions page HERE
Now, go forth and have fun!