Kill Your Darlings regularly publishes new short fiction alongside commentary, essays, memoir, reviews, profiles and interviews that examine books and ideas, creative practice and the publishing industry. If you’d like to be published in KYD, we strongly recommend that you read our content to familiarise yourself with our tone and style.
NON-FICTION PITCHES NOW OPEN
Pitches are now closed.
We accept pitches for commentary, essays, memoir, reviews, profiles and interviews to be published online in Kill Your Darlings magazine.
We’re looking for:
—Intelligent and accessible commentary or essays (1500–2500 words) that analyses a cultural or social issue of interest to KYD’s politically progressive and engaged readership, preferably through the lens of a new book release or publishing event. (See Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s ‘Girlboss, Interrupted’ for inspiration.)
—Insightful, well-considered commentary or essays (1500-2000 words) on influential figures or movements in the culture that take a new and original perspective. (See Aleks Hammo on ‘Hypermasculinity and the Stoic Industrial Complex’.)
—Smart, entertaining and polemical cultural criticism (1200–1500 words) that illuminates or engages with works, trends and controversies in literature and/or the writing industry more broadly. (See Nina Culley’s ‘Weird is In’, Amal Awad’s ‘Press for Humanity’ and Lauren Carroll Harris’s ‘How Neoliberalism Swallowed Arts Policy’.)
—Memoir or personal essays that explore the processes, practice and realities of writing and striving to be an artist today. See Em Meller’s ‘The Humiliation of Writing Fiction’ and Megan Cheong’s ‘On Motherhood and the Creative Life’.
—We always encourage feel-good or funny pitches on popular culture (to give us a break from the news!). ‘The Queer Art of Sitting’ by Ivana Brehas is the perfect example.’
Want to make your pitch shine?
To help writers put their best foot forward, we put together a short online course compiling our key pitching tips. This resource is available free and for immediate access online to KYD members.
Note: we receive a high volume of pitches, and it can take some months before we are able to respond. While we read and respond to every pitch, unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to offer editorial feedback on work we don’t commission or publish.
FICTION SUBMISSIONS
We are currently not accepting submissions for fiction. Become a KYD member for more exclusive fiction publishing opportunities throughout the year.
