Submission Guidelines
Submit only previously unpublished works. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please inform us promptly if your piece is accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions in the same genre are not accepted and will not be read or responded to. One submission per genre is permitted. Please wait until you receive a response from us before submitting in the same genre again. If your work is accepted, please wait two years from date of publication before submitting again.
For the Print Edition:
Stories and essays should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated, with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on the first page, title on subsequent pages. We are unable to read submissions of more than 7,000 words.
Poems (up to 5 per submission) should be typed with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address in the header on each page.
Translations of poetry (up to 5 poems per submission) and prose (up to twenty pages double-spaced) should include a brief bio of the author and indicate whether the translator has been given permissions. For poetry, we encourage authors to include the departing language in their submission.
Interviews and Reviews of literary collections or anthologies: Gulf Coast typically commissions book reviews, but unsolicited reviews are accepted and occasionally published. Single-book reviews should be no longer than four pages. We are particularly interested in reviews of first or second books. Interviews should not exceed twelve pages. All reviews and interviews should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated, with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on the first page, title on subsequent pages.
Art and Critical Art Writing: Gulf Coast is now accepting submissions of critical art writing.
For all other work, including proposals for commissioned work (reportage, travel writing, etc.) and graphic storytelling and visual narratives that are too large for upload in the online submissions manager, please query the Editor at EditorInChief@GulfCoastMag.org.
For Online Exclusives:
Gulf Coast will be closed to submissions for Online Exclusives from December 21st to January 25th.
Stories and essays should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated, with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on the first page, title on subsequent pages. We are less likely to accept submissions of more than 3,000 words.
Poems (up to 5 per submission) should be typed with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address in the header on each page.
Translations of poetry (up to 5 poems per submission) and prose (ideally, less than 3,000 words per each piece) should include a brief bio of the author and indicate whether the translator has been given permissions. For poetry, we encourage authors to include the departing language in their submission.
Gulf Coast's Reading Fee
Gulf Coast is committed to supporting the authors who publish in our journal. This support takes many forms, including offering editorial guidance, exposing new work to the widest possible audience, and providing competitive honorariums for that work. We believe this financial support is vital to maintaining a vibrant literary culture. To this end, Gulf Coast has instituted a small reading fee ($3.00) for regular submissions, 100% of which will go toward increasing the honorariums for the authors whose work we publish in the journal and on the website. Gulf Coast is now able to pay $50 per page for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. We thank you for your support of the authors who make Gulf Coast possible.
Gulf Coast reads general print edition submissions, submitted through the online submissions manager, from September 1 through March 1.
We no longer accept submissions by mail.
Submissions e-mailed directly to the editors or mailed to our offices will be discarded. Please visit our contest page for contest submission guidelines.
If you are already familiar with Gulf Coast's general submission guidelines, please read the details below.
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gulf Coast will be given annually for a work of prose translation into English. Honorable mentions will each receive $250. All entries will be considered for publication in print or online. This year's final judge is Mira Rosenthal.
Submit up to 10 pages of prose, fiction or non fiction translated into English and a copy of the original text. Excerpts from longer works are welcome.
Full entry fee is $20 and includes a yearlong subscription to Gulf Coast (2 issues). Only previously unpublished work will be considered. The contest will be judged blindly so your personal information should not appear in the uploaded document. *In your submission, please provide one of the following:
- A note (from the translator) in the Comments section of our Online Submission Manager stating that permissions are granted.
- From the copyright holder (in the event the piece makes it to the final judging round): Written permission granting you rights to translate the work in your contest submission. Permission should name the work being translated, date consent was given, and identify the copyright holder.
Deadline: September 7, 2026
Gulf Coast is now accepting entries for the 2026 Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing.
Established in 2017, the Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing provides a platform for the thoughtful exchange of ideas in visual arts scholarship, criticism, and research. Named in honor of Toni Beauchamp—board president of Art Lies from 2002 to 2004 and a lifelong supporter of the arts in Houston and across Texas—the prize celebrates her legacy by supporting emerging and mid-career writers who demonstrate a distinctive voice, combine scholarship with journalistic insight, and exemplify literary excellence.
The prize invites submissions of expository writing, scholarly essays, and exhibition reviews written or published within the past year. The 2026 Toni Beauchamp Prize awards $3,000 to the first-place recipient and $1,000 each to two runners-up. The winning essay will be published in Gulf Coast’s print journal.
This year’s judge is Andrew Berardini, His poems, essays, and criticism ease into each other, shaped by class, illness, and pleasure. A contributor to Mousse since 2007 and Artforum since 2006, he is the author of Relics (2015), a memoir-once-removed on the work of Danh Võ, and Colors (2023), a literary atlas of 110 shades of color. His writing has appeared in Purple, BOMB, and elsewhere, as well as for SFMOMA, the Whitney Biennial, and documenta 14.
He co-curated Kris Lemsalu's Estonian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, orchestrated Bruce Nauman's first-ever skywriting, performed as the Public Writer at Pierre Huyghe's retrospective, and has organized exhibitions at MOCA, Los Angeles; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and Castello di Rivoli, Turin.
Berardini is Editor-in-Chief of Art Bae Agenda, a longtime faculty member at the Mountain School of Arts, and a recipient of the Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. In Fall 2026, he will begin as a Clarendon Scholar at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford. His collected writings about Los Angeles are forthcoming. He composes through exhibitions, love letters, posters, pamphlets, performances, and songs. Often disabled by illness, he keeps language tender, strange, and alive.
GUIDELINES:
- Submit one piece of critical art writing, of no more than 1,500 words, in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Submissions may include previously unpublished work or work published within the past year.
- The contest will be judged blindly, so do not include your name or contact information in the uploaded document.
- If selected, writers are responsible for securing image permissions and, if applicable, reprint rights for previously published work.
- There is no entry fee.
Submission Deadline: September 14, 2026
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gulf Coast is given annually for a piece of short prose or prose poetry. Two honorable mentions will each receive $250. All entries will be considered for publication. This year's final judge is Leyna Krow.
Submit a piece of flash fiction, prose poems, or micro-essays of 500 words or fewer. Each entry can include up to three pieces. The fee for each entry is $20, which includes a yearlong subscription (2 issues) of Gulf Coast.
Only previously unpublished work will be considered. The contest will be judged blindly, so please do not include your cover letter, your name, or any contact information in the uploaded document.
Deadline: September 7, 2026