Guidelines for submitting to Folding Rock

If you would like to submit your work for our consideration, please read the below guidelines very carefully first. You’ll find our submission form below.

We’re always on the hunt for the best new creative fiction and non-fiction in, from and connected to Wales. We accept work by writers at any stage and age, and we pay for every piece we publish – the same rate for seasoned authors and first-time sharers alike.

If you would like your work to be considered for Issue 002 of Folding Rock, you’ll need to submit by 23.59 on Friday 11 April 2025. Read on for more about our theme of ‘Speak to Me’.

What We're Looking For

Folding Rock’s focus is on the bold, the innovative and the exciting, and our taste is more literary-leaning than genre-based. This doesn’t mean we don’t want your horror, sci-fi or romance – we just want them to be doing something new and ambitious with their forms. And if you have something that bends or blends, or defies easy labelling, do send it our way.

In fiction, we’re seeking short stories, or sections of longer projects that stand alone effectively for a reader. Unfortunately, we’re not currently accepting flash or micro-fiction, nor do we accept children’s or YA fiction.

In non-fiction, we’re keen on personal or narrative essays, nature or place writing, reportage and memoir. Again, anything extracted from a longer piece must work by itself.

Everything we publish – be it short story or essay – will exhibit brilliant storytelling, great use of language and a strong, consistent voice.

Unfortunately, this magazine doesn’t currently take poetry submissions (though our partners at Poetry Wales would welcome them). But if you have something that’s a bit outside the box or are unsure about where it fits, send us an email at info@foldingrock.com and we’ll see if we can help.

Our recommended submission length is between 2,000 and 4,000 words, and we unfortunately can’t accept any submissions below 1,000 words.

Folding Rock is a magazine dedicated to the best new writing in and from Wales. This can be interpreted in a number of ways, and by no means determines what our writers write about! We also publish select international and Welsh-language writing translated into English, and encourage translators and writers to approach us with proposals or samples if a piece feels thematically relevant.

As well as writing, Folding Rock also encourages submissions from visual artists such as photographers or illustrators. If you have a more visual piece, such as a work of short graphic fiction or a photo essay, that aligns with our latest theme, please contact us with a proposal.

Folding Rock strongly encourages submissions from writers who are under-represented in the arts as a result of their socio-economic background, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability.

Current Thematic Call-out

Issue 002 theme: Speak to Me

Deadline: 23.59, Friday 11 April 2025

For this second issue of Folding Rock, we invite writers, translators and visual artists to explore language and the myriad ways we communicate with one another. Whether it be a piece on love languages, bilingualism or the power of silence, we want to see it!

Tip: this theme is not a limitation, but a springboard, and we welcome any interpretation, no matter how abstract. We would encourage those submitting to try and avoid obvious or overly literal interpretations, or repeated mentions of the thematic word or phrase chosen.

If you have a great piece of work you think we’d like, send it our way. Our submissions are rolling and we may consider some work for future issues.

How to Submit

We only accept work digitally via the submissions form on our website, and can’t accept or return any physical copies of work sent to our office address. You are welcome to email us with questions at info@foldingrock.com, but please don’t send your writing to this inbox. Work should be uploaded through the form as one double-spaced .doc, .docx or .pdf file, set in a neutral font and type size (e.g. 12-point Times New Roman). We read all our submissions anonymously – so please make sure that you don’t include your name on the document you upload.

Our Promise to Writers

For any work accepted or commissioned for print publication in our magazine, we pay a universal rate of £360 per piece. This applies to all our writers, regardless of experience. We will also supply contributors with a gratis copy of the issue they appear in.

We only accept previously unpublished work for our print magazine. In all cases, copyright for a work remains the property of its author.

We will respond to every submission, though bear in mind that our team is small and at busy times this may take a while. If your piece is accepted elsewhere in the meantime, please let us know. While we can’t always provide feedback, we will do our best. In some instances, such as when we love a piece but know it isn’t right for a certain issue, we might ask to keep in touch about future opportunities.

Please note: we will only consider one piece of writing at a time, so please wait for a response before submitting anything else to the magazine.

Finally, all our contributors have the option to become part of a Folding Rock alumni community, where you can connect with other creatives, share work and stay in touch so that we can celebrate all your exciting writing news when it comes!