General Submission Guidelines
For over half a century, Puerto del Sol has been dedicated to providing a forum for inventive and fresh prose, poetry, hybrid work, reviews, criticism, and artwork. We strive to publish voices from both emerging and established writers and artists. Most importantly, we pride ourselves in not following a standardized aesthetic—instead, we seek work that presents authenticity, sincerity, and respect. We recommend reading our most current issue or works from our online journal to get a sense of the content we have published recently. Thank you for your interest in our magazine, and we look forward to reading your work.
Puerto del Sol accepts general submissions from Sept. 1st - May 1st but reserves the right to close submissions at any time due to high volumes of work. General submissions may be open during the summer months, but that depends of the preferences of our current editorial staff. NOTE: General Prose Submissions Closed Until Further Notice Due To High Submission Volumes. We will announce on our website when this category re-opens.
Our literary magazine is staffed and managed by MFA graduate students who work only during the academic year (Aug-May); therefore, response times may take up to 6-8 months, and we thank you for your patience.
To keep up with news about Puerto del Sol's contests, themes, and online publication series--Voz, BVS, Editor's Picks--follow us on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram @puertomag
Please do not submit more than once per year. While we do accept simultaneous submissions, please notify us promptly should your work be accepted elsewhere. We do not consider previously published work or excerpts.
Puerto del Sol is currently accepting entries to our 9th Annual Prose Contest between March 15 and August 1, 2025.
Winners in both genres will receive $750 and publication in our next print issue; runners-up will receive $250 and either online or print publication. The $15 entry fee will be waived for the first two weeks of the contest (March 15-March 31) and is collected to support our acclaimed judges. All submissions will be considered for publication.
Each prose submission should use standard manuscript formatting (Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spacing). However, names and contact information should not be included in the piece itself. Submissions are limited to one self-contained work that has not been published elsewhere, with length under 25 pages. While we accept both fiction and creative nonfiction to our prose contest, please specify the genre in your cover letter. Winners and runners-up will be announced in September 2025.
Students or faculty who have attended or taught at New Mexico State University within the last five years are not eligible, nor are close friends or former students of the judges.
We are so excited to experience your work. Give us the inventive, the fresh, the everything in-between.
Click here to learn more about our Annual Prose & Poetry Contest.
Puerto del Sol is currently accepting entries to our 9th Annual Poetry Contest between March 15 and August 1, 2025.
Winners in both genres will receive $750 and publication in our next print issue; runners-up will receive $250 and either online or print publication. The $15 entry fee will be waived for the first two weeks of the contest (March 15-March 31) and is collected to support our acclaimed judges. All submissions will be considered for publication.
Each submission should use standard manuscript formatting (Times New Roman, 12-point font, double spacing) unless changes in font or conventional formatting are integral to the poem(s). However, names and contact information should not be included in the piece itself. For the title field, please include the title of each poem separated by commas. Submissions are limited to three poems. Please submit all poems using one Word or PDF document. Winners and runners-up will be announced in September 2025.
Students or faculty who have attended or taught at New Mexico State University within the last five years are not eligible, nor are close friends or former students of the judges.
We are so excited to experience your work. Give us the inventive, the fresh, the everything in-between.
Click here to learn more about our Annual Prose & Poetry Contest.
What we like to publish
Puerto del Sol seeks high quality, innovative literary fiction & nonfiction from emerging and established writers. We like polished drafts, the ones you're ready for the world to see. Please do not send us something you will continue to edit - we want the final product! Our tastes vary depending on our current editorial staff, which changes each year, but generally we want to be floored by your work, to be moved, to be rocked to our core, to come away from your work with a newfound sense of ourselves, of the world, of something we may have never known had we not engaged with your work. This is the kind of stuff we're interested in publishing.
We do not consider previously published work. We do not accept excerpts.
Order our latest issue or check out our prose archives at puertodelsol.org to get familiar with Puerto del Sol's previous publications.
Formatting
Submitters are limited to one (1) self-contained work and this includes flash prose. All prose should be typed in 12-point font, Times New Roman (or any other serif typeface), and double spaced. We currently accept work that's up to 5,000 words (or around 20 double-spaced pages). Please include the total word count in your cover letter and indicate if your submission is fiction, nonfiction, or autofiction.
Be sure to include a third-person bio (less than 100 words preferred) and brief cover letter with your submission.
Please do not submit more than once per reading period. While we do accept simultaneous submissions, please notify us promptly should your work be accepted elsewhere.
Puerto del Sol accepts submissions year round but only reads from August to April. Response times vary. Please give us at least 6 months to respond due to the large number of submissions we receive.
What we like to publish
Puerto del Sol seeks high quality, innovative poetry (in various shapes & forms) from emerging and established writers. We like polished drafts, the ones you're ready for the world to see. Please do not send us something you will continue to edit - we want the final product! Our tastes vary depending on our current editorial staff, which changes each year, but generally we want to be floored by your work, to be moved, to be rocked to our core, to come away from your work with a newfound sense of ourselves, of the world, of something we may have never known had we not engaged with your work. This is the kind of stuff we're interested in publishing.
We love multilingual work and have published translations.
Order our latest issue or check out our poetry archives at puertodelsol.org to get familiar with Puerto del Sol's previous publications.
Formatting
Submitters are limited to five (5) poems. Please include all poems in one document (.docx and .doc are preferred). List the titles of your poems in the "Title" box of our submission form. Along with your submission, include a third-person bio (less than 100 words preferred) and a cover letter.
Please do not submit more than once per reading period. While we do accept simultaneous submissions, please notify us promptly should your work be accepted elsewhere. We do not consider previously published work.
Puerto del Sol accepts submissions year round but only reads from August to April. Response times vary. Please give us at least 6 months to respond due to the large number of submissions we receive.
We are so excited to share our Spring 2025 Issue 60.1 with you. Featuring the work of 49 incredible contributors, this is one you will remember long past the final page. Free shipping to all US addresses.
Please be aware that our staff are not on site from May 1st to August 20th. If you place an order during this time, it will not be shipped until we return in August. We thank you for your patience. We will excitedly process summer orders as soon as possible. Any concerns can be directed to the email address above.
Thank you for supporting Puerto del Sol!
This form is for those shipping within the United States only. For international shipping, please head to our other form.
We are so excited to share our Spring 2024 Issue 59.1 with you - and with free shipping! Featuring the work of 36 incredible contributors, this is one you will remember long past the final page.
Please be aware that our staff are not on site from May 12th to August 15th. If you place an order during this time, it will not be shipped until we return in August. We thank you for your patience. We will excitedly process summer orders as soon as possible. Any concerns can be directed to the email address above.
Thank you for supporting Puerto del Sol!
This form is for those shipping internationally (outside of US). For US domestic shipping, please head to our other form.
Want to subscribe to Puerto del Sol?
We feel honored! In fact, since you care so much about our literary magazine, we want to give you a sweet deal for subscribing to us for a year. Instead of paying $15 for each individual issue, we'll send you 2 of our latest issues for only $25 - and that's with free shipping!
If your subscription begins March-August, we'll send you our latest Spring issue first then mail your second book after the release of our next Fall issue. If your subscription begins September-February, we'll send you our latest Fall issue then mail your second book after the release of our Spring issue.
Please note that our Fall issues usually release close to November and our Spring issues release anytime between March and April. Further, be aware that our staff are not on site from May 1st to August 20th as Puerto del Sol is led by MFA students at New Mexico State University. If you place an order during this time, it will not be shipped until we return in August. If you become worried that your subscription is not being filled, please contact us at puertodelsoljournal@gmail.com so we can look into it.
These subscriptions are non-renewable, so once you've received your second copy, your subscription ends. In the case that you just can't get enough of Puerto del Sol, you can always purchase another 1-year subscription each year that you wish to continue receiving future issues.
We thank you for your patience & for supporting Puerto del Sol!
This form is for those shipping within the United States only. We don't offer subscriptions that require international shipping due to high costs, but please consider purchasing a copy of our latest issue through another form.