So to Speak

01/25/2022

We are so excited to launch our new project, the Young Writers Initiative, which invites teen writers & artists to submit work to be featured on our Blog. We launch Feb. 1st; Until then, read what Asst. Fiction Editor Anna Stolley Persky has to say about the project at the link in our bio!

If you would like more information or materials to share with Young Writers in your life, please DM or email us at [email protected]

01/10/2022

Huge Congratulations to our winners and runners-up of the 2022 Contest!! Big thanks again to our judges, Krys Malcolm Belc (), Alysia Sawchyn, Susannah Nevison (), and Ghislaine Fremaux ()

11/03/2021

We are thrilled to announce this year’s Pushcart nominees! Each of these pieces is beyond amazing, and we are so proud to recognize the hard work of these authors ❤️❤️

10/22/2021

Exciting News!! We are hosting our first collaborative reading with the amazing folks at on November 12th beginning at 8PM EST! Join us in person or virtually for some great readers and fun prizes. Register for the event on Eventbrite (link in bio)

09/30/2021

We are beyond excited to announce our Best of the Net nominations! Thank you to all of our nominees and contributors for sharing your words and art with us ❤️

09/12/2021

So to Speak updated their info in the about section.

So to Speak updated their info in the about section.

09/10/2021

Today’s the day!! Submissions for our Annual Contest are ✨OPEN✨ Our editors and judges cannot wait to see your beautiful writing and art.

$500 prize per genre

Submission period: September 10- November 14

$9 Submission fee (free for Black and Indigenous Writers and Artists)

Submit through (link to our website in our bio!)

09/09/2021

Meet Susannah Nevison, our Poetry Judge for this year’s contest—which opens tomorrow!!

What Susannah is looking for: I admire poetry that navigates risk: in voice, in sound, in form. I’m always taken with poems that push the envelope, that challenge my notion of what a poem can do or how a poem works. A poem that shows me something new and surprising, regardless of how it gets there, is a poem I’ll follow almost anywhere.

Learn more about Susannah and the contest at our website (link in bio).

09/08/2021

Just two more days until the contest!! That means it’s time to meet our fiction judge, Krys Malcolm Belc 🥳

What Krys is looking for: I have to admit that I read--and love--widely. What I love most in fiction is getting to be fully immersed in something else that is not my kitchen counter where I sit to read. Whether that's immersion in plot, character, form, or something entirely different, I want to be transported.

Learn more about Krys and the contest at our website (link in bio)!

09/07/2021

Introducing our nonfiction judge, Alysia Sawchyn!!

What Alysia is looking for: I love nonfiction that incorporates research, and I think of research as a wildly expansive term. There is so much "world" out there—secondary sources, yes, but what about buying a kilo of clementines and methodically peeling off the skin so that it remains whole again and again and again making sure that we've got the right language for the action? What about how the structure of a fairytale can help us to make sense of our messy experiences? I am looking for nonfiction that is paying close attention, regardless of where it fixes its gaze.

Learn more about Alysia and the contest on our website (link in bio)

09/06/2021

Our contest opens in 4 DAYS, so we thinks it’s about time you meet our judges! Today, we want to introduce you to Ghislaine Fremaux, our Visual Art Judge ✨

What Ghislaine is looking for: A compelling artwork is, to me, one that shows conviction – both in the conceptual intent and in the handling of the medium. I am interested in artworks with slow hands, that act on me incrementally, in both physical and intellectual ways. I appreciate works that enable me to know with parts of myself other than my brain, to know without recourse to language or reason.

Learn more about Ghislaine and the contest on the “Contests” page of our website (link in bio)!

09/01/2021

It’s September, which means with open for contest submissions THIS MONTH. Our editors and judges cannot wait to get started and award each genre winner $500!! Submissions open September 10th for $9, with free submission portals for Black and Indigenous writers and artists.

08/25/2021

We cannot wait to see your amazing writing and art!

07/05/2021

If you haven’t already, go to our latest issue and read the amazing poems from these writers!

03/09/2021

Want to get editorial feedback on a (work in progress)? We’re offering $7 feedback on pieces of poetry and prose! Spots are filling up fast already—poetry is almost full and it’s not even 10AM here!—so submit if you’re interested at sotospeak.submittable.com/submit✨

03/06/2021

Something about this just says “squad goals” 😍 purchase a copy of our 2021 contest issue today! ✨Sotospeak.submittable.com/submit ✨

03/03/2021

It's here! Purchase an e-book of our 2021 contest issue for just $4 at sotospeak.submittable.com/submit. For an extra $3, we'll also throw in some digital back issues, just for you! Plus, we'll be launching our limited print edition VERY soon, so stay tuned. 👀

03/02/2021

COVER REVEAL! Our 2021 Spring Contest Issue is launching this week during and and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on this incredible writing & art 🤩

02/24/2021

Hey hey! We won’t be able to sell copies of our issues at AWP this year, but fear not—we’re participating in SMOL Fair which is a virtual book fair experience including events, giveaways, and more! Check out our listing at 👉smolfair.com 👈

02/08/2021

Submit to our summer online issue for free starting February 10, 2021, through April 10, 2021! We’ll be accepting fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art, all at sotospeak.submittable.com/submit ⚡️

01/12/2021

WE HAVE BIG NEWS! It’s... our 2021 contest winners and runners-up! Their incredible work will be available in our contest issue this March 🤩

12/29/2020

NEW on our blog: read Nonfiction Editor Stephanie Buckley's insightful interview with Jeannie Vanasco on Vanasco's memoir, "Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl." The memoir details Vanasco's conversations with her ra**st, fourteen years after he assaulted her.
http://sotospeakjournal.org/conversation-vanasco/
“For me, so much of the plot of memoir is the thinking that happens, the way that the author makes meaning out of the events. ...What separates books of similar subject matter is how each author reflects on [those] events.”
Content warning: sexual assault

12/10/2020

From the Archives: "Endlessly" - So to Speak

"Know this: anyone who brings you to believe that love comes with a hand across the face is a liar. Anyone who makes a mangled mockery of your most basic, essential right—the right to consent, your right to choose—knows nothing of safety and tenderness and respect. Know this: you deserve a love that doesn’t hurt."
Read Daniel Garcia's 2019 stunning essay "Endlessly," named a Notable in the Best American Essays 2020, plus an exclusive new author's note, on our blog today.
http://sotospeakjournal.org/endlessly/

I am not wasting myself. I am not waiting.

12/04/2020

Leaving My Abuser: My Adoptive Father - So to Speak

We are so excited to share a new poem & author’s note with you on our blog today! “Leaving My Abuser: My Adoptive Father” by Bo Schwabacher—check it out here 🌟 http://sotospeakjournal.org/leaving-my-abuser/

I am not wasting myself. I am not waiting.

11/28/2020

If you’re doing some shopping this consider supporting an independent bookstore like ! Read about OTB and all they’re doing for the writing community on our blog here (link in bio): http://sotospeakjournal.org/conversation-old-town-books/

11/16/2020

Let’s de-Monday this Monday with some good news: our awards nominees for this year! Right now, we are nominating for Pushcart, PEN/Robert J. Dau, and Best Small Fictions. To read these pieces, visit sotospeakjournal.org!

11/07/2020

Hi everyone, we are having FREE *nonfiction* contest submissions ALL WEEKEND LONG! Know a nonfiction writer? Got nonfiction? This is a sign to submit! 😍 $500 PRIZE!!!
Sotospeak.submittable.com/submit

11/07/2020

Thank you SO MUCH to our wonderful readers and attendees tonight! That was an incredible way to cap off the week. What an amazing community, y’all. ❤️❤️

11/05/2020

We’ve been thinking a lot about “resistance,” and what it means in our current times, lately—and we’d like to invite the community to join us. Open now on are submissions to our limited series on RESISTANCE, to be published on our blog: sotospeak.submittable.com/submit
.

“In a time in which numerous civil liberties are at risk and social and civil unrest is on the rise, it is essential to highlight the ways in which people are resisting injustice.”

Send us your resistance poetry, your fiction, your essays and musings and multimedia work.

11/01/2020

LAST DAY FOR $6 SUBMISSIONS! $500 prize per winner. If you're looking for a sign: THIS IS IT! sotospeak.submittable.com/submit

10/31/2020

Nothing spooky about this--to celebrate Halloween, we're offering one last weekend of reduced-fee contest submissions before we close on 11/10! $6 submissions in every genre, 10/31 and 11/1. $500 prize per winner. If you're looking for a sign: THIS IS IT! sotospeak.submittable.com/submit

10/29/2020

Happy almost-weekend! Let’s celebrate with an interview: EIC Kyra Kondis talks to published and award-winning authors , , and about their writing process during the COVID era—and their tips for short story writers—on our blog. Read it here: http://sotospeakjournal.org/covid-writing-process/

10/27/2020

ALERT! We are having our annual FEE-FREE DAY! Visit sotospeak.submittable.com/submit to send us your work—if you send it before midnight tonight (10/27), it’s free! $500 prize and publication for each winner!

We kindly ask that non-Black and non-Indigenous writers submit to the “Fee-Free Day” portal, rather than the “Fee-Free for Black and Indigenous Writers” portal. 🤗