TAM33 Nonfiction Submissions (PRINT)
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Formatting: We accept nonfiction up to 3,000 words. We will consider book excerpts as long as they can stand alone. Stories that contain visuals or art are welcome as long as you own the copyrights. We may accept stories without accepting the art. Please use fonts like Times New Roman/Calibri/Arial, 12pt., double spaced, 1 inch margins. INCLUDE page numbers and a word count at the top of your manuscript. DO NOT INCLUDE your name/identifiers in your manuscript. If the unique format of your submission is critical to the piece, please feel free to keep your unique formatting.
Theme: Oasis–
Oasis is defined in Merriam Webster as the following:
- a fertile or green area in an arid region (such as a desert)
- something that provides refuge, relief, or pleasant contrast
For Thin Air Magazine’s upcoming issue, we seek to expand upon this notion.
In a turbulent, and at times seemingly desolate world, what is your oasis? Where do you seek shelter, or find comfort? What spaces fill, sustain, and save you? Is your oasis the physical body, spiritual self, home, community, or another source? How does one create sanctuary in the desert of the world?
Alternatively, we consider the conditions that are required to produce the oasis, and subsequently, what surrounds it.
For there to be an oasis, there must first exist a desert. An oasis can only exist when it is surrounded by, or contrasted by, a severe lack of something crucial to survival. What does it mean to be surrounded by a landscape of hostility, scarcity, or exclusion? In other words, what is your desert, and what drives you to find your oasis? Hunger? Thirst? Reprieve? Or is it something else entirely?
With this in mind, we wonder what else the oasis can represent.
What if the oasis can be a form of resistance? We think of the various forms of sanctuaries that are created in the midst of violence, fear, and the ever escalating political tensions: what oases have you noticed forming in the face of danger, desolation, and inaccessibility?
As creatives, we know that writing may even serve as an oasis and constant. In your creative, safe, and bold spaces, we encourage you to write all that you feel, see, and know of these oasis possibilities.
Aesthetic Statement: We love nonfiction prose that is alive and compelling, with a strong narrative voice–one we can trust and believe. Our readers are drawn to honest and provocative stories. They can be of struggles of joys, and everything in between. We accept traditional and experimental writing, whether short stories, personal essays, journalism, memoirs, flash nonfiction, or other forms are all welcome. For issue 33, we’re interested in work that highlights the contrast between abundance and desolation; safety and danger; resistance and oppression. What can be an oasis, or alternatively, the mirage?
Some writers who inspire us are Melissa Febos, Matthew Desmond, Leslie Jamison, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Carmen Maria Machado, James Baldwin, Eleni Sekelianos, Eula Biss, and Joan Didion.
Submission Deadline: This year’s print issue deadline is 10/17/26. We have rolling submissions open right now. Reading of submissions begins in August every year and runs until the deadline.
Reminders: In addition to these guidelines, please read our General Submission Guidelines. We only consider unpublished work. Please do not submit material previously published in anthologies, chapbooks, online, or on personal websites (including FB, Twitter/X, Insta, Flickr, blogs, etc.). Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but let us know immediately if a submission has been accepted elsewhere.