The Story Room Magazine — Submission Guidelines
The Story Room Magazine is a quarterly literary magazine published inside The Heroine Society. We publish fiction and personal essays by midlife women writing from inside a life in transition. The lens does the filtering, not the credentials.
Each issue contains prize-winning pieces, Featured Pieces, and Honorable Mentions. Issues drop August 1, November 1, February 1, and May 1.
What We’re Looking For
Writing from the gut. Specific, honest, alive on the page. Pieces that reflect the messy middle you’re struggling through during our second coming-of-age.
We want pieces a reader can't shake. The ones that follow her into the kitchen three days later, mid-pour of her coffee, where she stops with the kettle in her hand and thinks, oh. That woman wrote my life.
We publish fiction and personal essay. One stream, both forms. The piece either works or it doesn’t.
What We’re Aren’t Looking For
In Heroine's Adventure terms: we don't want the Reintegration essay where you've already arrived, wisdom in hand, lessons neatly packaged. We want the Threshold Crossing essay, where you're still bleeding from the doorway and don't yet know what's on the other side.
Format
Length: 1,500–3,500 words
Format: Google Doc only (your doc must be set to share with edit rights)
Document: Title, your name, word count, and category (Fiction / Essay) at the top. Double-spaced, 12pt, standard font.
File naming:
[Last Name] – [Title] – [Fiction or Essay]
Theme
Each issue has a single theme that functions as a constraint and guideline. Your piece must connect to the theme, but be creative oblique connection is fine. We trust the writer.
Inaugural theme (August 2026 issue): The Threshold
Themes are announced when each submission window opens.
Submission Window
Submissions open the month before each issue drops:
May — for the August 1 issue
September — for the November 1 issue
December — for the February 1 issue
March — for the May 1 issue
Paid subscribers get a two-week early submission window at the start of each call. Paid submissions are read first; remaining slots open to all readers for the back half of the month.
Deadline: midnight Eastern Time on the last day of the submission month.
How Submissions Are Read
Three tiers per issue:
🏆 Prize Winners
One fiction winner and one essay winner per quarter, plus runners-up in each category.
If your piece wins:
$150 (winner) or $50 (runner-up)
Publication in the quarterly Magazine PDF (paid-subscriber download), with byline and bio (link to your Substack or website)
Featured in The Annotated Edition. A recorded commentary with notes in the margins of your piece (for paid subscribers only). This is not a writing critique. It’s a conversation around the meaning and message of the piece.
Featured in the Reading & Conversation. Lisa-Marie reads your piece aloud and records a one-on-one conversation with you about the work (scheduled at your convenience, ~30 min)
Inclusion in the year-end print anthology consideration (end of year 1 onwards)
Paid subscribers only: eligibility for the annual retreat prize — a funded seat at one of The Heroine Society writing retreats. Destination announced when ready.
✦ Featured Pieces
Additional submissions selected for publication.
If your piece is Featured:
Publication in the quarterly Magazine PDF with byline and bio (link to your Substack or website)
Inclusion in year-end anthology consideration
(Featured pieces are unpaid in year 1. As the Magazine grows, this changes.)
You opt in to Featured publication on the submission form. If you only want to be considered for the prize, that’s fine, you can just say so.
Honorable Mentions
Strong pieces that didn’t make the issue. Listed by name in the issue, with the title of your piece and a link to your Substack or website.
What Happens to Pieces We Don’t Publish
You retain all rights. Submit elsewhere immediately. No exclusivity period.
If your piece is selected for publication (Prize or Featured), we ask for first publication rights and non-exclusive ongoing rights to keep it in the Magazine archive and any future anthologies. You retain everything else.
How to Submit
Submit via the Google Form:
A Note
Submitting work you cared enough to write is brave. Every submission gets read. Every writer who submits is part of how this room comes alive.
We can’t publish everything we love. But we read everything that comes in.