General Guidelines for submissions:

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED FEBRUARY 15, 2025. 

I anticipate re-opening the process in September or October. The Mule received over 300 submissions in 3 months -- don't know what ya'll think -- I think it's a bit of a moment reading through them all. 

There's just one thing to know and it's very important:

Your Cover Letter MUST contain your Southern Legitimacy Statement. 

If you don't know what that is, then you need to read The Dead Mule. Each bit of writing on the Mule (fiction, poetry, essay, creative non-fiction) begins with a few words about the author's Southern Legitimacy Statement. Everyone is south of somewhere, read the Dead Mule for examples. It's fun and simple. Write as little or as much as you'd like. Some people write multiple paragraphs. No more than 500 words or so.

This submission must be entirely human-generated; any content detected as being created by artificial intelligence (AI) will not be accepted 

Failure to include your statement means your submission is automatically declined. 

The rest of what you need to know: 

Attach your work as a .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf or .pages in the area provided. 

SINGLE-SPACE. Double space between paragraphs. No indents or tabs necessary.

Not accepting poetry submissions at this time. 

Fiction, Flash Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Essays: Specific requirements included in the Submission Information for each category. 

Looking forward to reading your work. 

WITHDRAWING YOUR SUBMISION: Do this through the Submittable app, from within the submission. Change the status from Active to Withdraw. You really don't need to email or message us. Thank you.

 Dead Mule grants us first electronic and indefinite archival rights. All other rights revert to the author upon publication. Please credit Dead Mule as the first publisher if you reprint elsewhere; we like seeing our name in print, too. 

We are nothing if not for our writers! Thank you for submitting to the South's oldest online literary journal.

-The Mule Staff