There is no fee to submit to their themed submission call for the web, for the Performance theme. “To perform is to, for some audience, create the illusion that reality is this, rather than that. We do this everywhere–our social (and social media) lives, our dress, our relationships, our feelings, our genders, all performed in their ways; all around us there is the low hum of wishful artifice imparting an intended impression onto seen and unseen—perhaps even imaginary--spectators. Taken to its logical conclusion, a reasonable, if cynical, truth emerges: performance, in our day-to-day, is so essential, so inextricable from our quote-unquote “authentic selves,” that perhaps the authentic self is simply the sum of a lifetime of performances–that the show has somehow become its own type of truth. In professional wrestling, the word for this is “kayfabe”--the unspoken agreement that not only is the show inextricable from reality, but that, in essence, the performance is the reality. Or is it? How do we perform, and for whom?” Submit one piece of short prose (non-fiction or fiction) of up to 3,500 words, or up to three poems. They pay $25 per poem or $75 per piece of prose. The submission deadline is 1st November 2025 for the web edition. Details here.

(There is a fee to submit to Ninth Letter’s unthemed print edition, with a fee-free period in December – see guidelines.)

Deadline: November 1st, 2025