Literary Journal

Oddball Magazine

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About the magazine

Oddball Magazine is an independent online literary and arts journal founded in 2012 by poet and editor Chad Parenteau. Emerging from the vibrant Boston-area poetry slam and small-press scene, it was conceived as a platform for voices that resist easy categorization—work that is formally adventurous, tonally irreverent, or otherwise ill-suited to the conventions of mainstream literary magazines. The magazine publishes poetry, fiction, and visual art on a rolling basis, with a particular affinity for the raw, the experimental, and the unpretentiously strange. Its ethos is less about polish than about presence: a commitment to publishing work that feels alive, urgent, and unafraid of failure.

Editorial focus

Oddball Magazine is an eclectic online lit magazine with comic strips, music reviews, theater criticism, pop culture poetry, flash fiction, breaking news, tribute pieces, and more.

PoetryFictionCreative Nonfiction

Submitting your work

Reading periodJan 1 to Dec 31

Reading feeNo

PaymentNo payment

Response time3 to 6 months

Simultaneous submissionsNo

Unsolicited submissionsYes

Oddball Magazine accepts submissions year-round via email, with no reading fees. Poets should send up to five poems, fiction writers up to three short pieces (under 2,000 words each), and visual artists up to five images in common formats. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but notify the editors immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. The magazine favors work that is concise, vivid, and willing to take risks; sentimental or overly conventional pieces are less likely to find a home. Response times vary from two weeks to three months, so patience is advised. Above all, read several recent issues before submitting to understand the editors' eclectic taste.

We are an excellent independent two-man operation with many awesome long-time contributors. There really is nothing like us out there. We are redefining online lit magazines. Be active in our community. Read our submission guidelines. Send us your best work.

Read official guidelines