Literary Journal

OtherwiseMag

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Journals & literary magazines1 open opportunity listedUnited Kingdom

About the magazine

OtherwiseMag is an online literary and arts magazine founded in 2019 by a collective of writers and artists seeking to create a space for work that resists easy categorization. From its inception, the magazine has prioritized interdisciplinary and experimental pieces that challenge conventional boundaries of form, genre, and medium. Its mission is to foster a community of makers whose work is as intellectually rigorous as it is emotionally resonant, offering a platform for voices that might otherwise remain marginal in mainstream literary and art circuits.

Editorial focus

OtherwiseMag publishes stories that speak the language of lived experience. This may be a biography, a portrait, an event, a situation, a historical moment, or an encounter. They expect stories to achieve depth, have narrative coherence, and take readers on a journey that deepens understanding and solidarity. They urge their authors to tell stories that are dialogic, multivocal, and multicentered. They oppose modes of storytelling that perpetuate othering narratives.

PoetryFictionCreative Nonfiction

Submitting your work

Reading periodJan 1 to Dec 31

Reading feeNo

PaymentNo payment

Response timeLess than 3 months

Simultaneous submissionsYes

Unsolicited submissionsYes

Artists and writers should approach OtherwiseMag with a clear understanding of its aesthetic: work that blurs boundaries, embraces hybridity, or interrogates the act of creation itself. Before submitting, review several issues to gauge the magazine's tone and scope. Submissions should include a brief cover letter that contextualizes the work within your broader practice, and for visual art, ensure high-quality reproductions. The editors value concision and clarity in artist statements. Response times vary, but patience is advised; simultaneous submissions are accepted, though prompt notification of acceptance elsewhere is appreciated.

Stories should have a beginning and an end. Some authors think that storytelling is a space for them to tell a story that is not consistent, to wonder about the confusion, without no clear direction. Here we follow Calvino religiously: a story must be light and exact. A good story contemplates multiplicity while being quick and agile. A story makes the invisible visible while still having a beginning and an end. If there is no end, stories can be open-ended but take the reader somewhere.

Read official guidelines