County Lines
A Literary Journal
Open Submissions (CLOSED)
Open Submissions (CLOSED)
June 1, 2026 — July 31, 2026
Reading window: 12:00:00 a.m. to 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern time (USA) on the aforementioned dates
[These rules and guidelines can also be downloaded as a PDF here.]
County Lines: a Literary Journal is published annually by the Carolina Piedmont Writers Guild, showcasing a curated collection of the finest poetry, prose, and interior art/photography by creators of all ages from all over North Carolina Piedmont, the United States, and beyond.
Writers, poets, and artists whose works are accepted for publication will receive one complimentary copy of the journal.
🌟New for 2026: North Carolina Writers are Prioritized🌟
For at least 20% of the accepted submissions, North Carolina writers, poets, and artists will be prioritized in our selection process. That is the goal at least. We are still experimenting with this acceptance criteria.
Submitters can be of any age and from any location worldwide.
The work must be your own original creation and previously unpublished (including online publication).
Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Simply alert us if you have been accepted elsewhere.
All works must be your own, original creations.
No AI-generated prose, poetry, or art will be considered.
Work may not contain erotica, violence, hate, political editorial, or excessive profanity.
If you get lost in the interface, click “Discover” at the top of the Submittable.com interface and search for "County Lines". Or just click the link above once again.
Acceptance or rejection should be completed within 4 weeks of close of the submissions window. It could take longer, depending. Each volume of County Lines is published in late November or early December.
You may submit as often as you like. For each submission …
Prose submission: only one work of prose of no more than 3,000 words, excluding title. (.docx, .doc, or .odt)
Poetry submission: only one poem of no more than 30 lines, excluding title and stanza-separating empty lines. (.docx, .doc, or .odt)
Cover Art submission: only one image, grayscale. (.jpg)
Formatting the content of your work …
WRITTEN WORKS: Author William Shunn provides an excellent resource that demonstrates standard manuscript formatting: prose and poetry. Also check out writer Todd Warner's page on the same subject (includes templates), and his general resources for writers.
ARTWORK: Portrait orientation and high-quality images are best.
Filenames: we suggest a filename for your work that includes your byline last name and a shortened title. For example, filenames for works by Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) might be named as such: carroll-jabberwocky-poem.docx, woolf-haunted-house.docx, and twain-celebrated-jumping-frog.docx.
By submitting a work for consideration, you implicitly grant one-time publication rights to the Carolina Piedmont Writers Guild in the event the work is accepted for inclusion.