Montana Mouthful is an independent, nonprofit literary magazine devoted to short fiction and nonfiction, poetry, and visual artwork. We are a digital publication with a print-on-demand option. Each issue and/or contest will be themed. We aim to publish three times per year.

Although we seek short pieces – just a mouthful – avoid sending anecdotes. Surprise us with your words. Strive to submit stories that build toward something more than a punchline or trick ending. Montana Mouthful is open to most subjects and styles; however, we are not interested in gratuitous sex or violence.

We publish:

Fiction

Flash Fiction – 1,000 words or less (up to 2 pieces);

Short Story – 2,000 words or less (up to 2 pieces).

Non-Fiction

Essay – 2,000 words or less (up to 2 pieces);

Narrative Nonfiction – 2,000 words or less (up to 2 pieces).

Poetry

1,000 words or less (up to 3 pieces).

Artwork/Photography

Up to 10 images

THE NITTY GRITTY

Please send us your work via Submittable. Emailed submissions will not be accepted.

PLEASE NOTE: We do not take any prose or poetry submissions over 2,000 words. 

Important: Submissions are read and judged blindly, so please DO NOT put your name on the piece itself. If your submission is selected for publication, we’ll ask you to provide a third-person bio.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere for publication.

Montana Mouthful seeks original work, so no reprints or works in translation.

We will attempt to respond as quickly as possible, but bear with us as we are a small magazine run by working writers and readers. Please allow up to ten weeks for us to inform you if we’ve selected your work for publication. If, after ten weeks, you choose to get in touch with us about the status of your submission, please email us at admin@montanamouthful.com and use the phrase “Submission Query” as the email subject.

Note: To avoid having our email caught by your spam filter, please add admin@montanamouthful.com to your allow list.

We are currently a non-paying market.  Although this is a non-monetary engagement, we passionately promote our writers and artists in all that we do. However, from time to time, we’ll feature paying contests.

Online Rights: If we select your work for publication, we ask for exclusive electronic rights to the piece for three months from date of publication, and non-exclusive rights indefinitely, so we can keep your work in our online archives.

Print Rights: If we select your work for publication, we ask for exclusive print rights to your piece for three months from date of publication. Additionally, from time to time, we may publish a print anthology or other promotional materials. Therefore, we ask for non-exclusive rights to your work to be used in these capacities. All other rights remain yours.

Last, but not least, we look forward to receiving your work!

Good luck from the Montana Mouthful Editing Team!