Compose Journal

We are pleased to announce our 2017 nominations for the Pushcart Prize: Congratulations and best of luck to all of our nominees! Photo credit

Sending you hearty autumn greetings from the editorial team at Compose! Our Fall 2017 issue is now well underway, and we very much look forward to sharing the work of these writers, poets and artists with you in late October. In the meantime, as we work through edits and lay out the issue, take a…

Our Spring 2017 issue is now well under way, and we hope to launch very soon! If you’ve submitted work to us and haven’t yet received a response, your work is being considered for our Fall 2017 issue. We’re always reading, so send us your poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, photography and art anytime. Submission guidelines can be…

We are pleased to announce our nominees for the 2016 Pushcart Prize! What is the Pushcart Prize, you ask? “The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series, published every year since 1976, is the most honored literary project in America. [H]undreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays have…

Fall is officially upon us, and our eighth issue is nearly ready to launch! Over the next couple of weeks we’ll finalize the layout of our Fall 2016 issue and send out final proofs. Our editors have devoted several months to putting together the issue, and we think you’re going to be pleased with the results. Hoping to have your…

Update: Please note that this position has now been filled.  Have you always wanted to join the exciting world of lit mags? Now’s your chance. Compose is looking for an assistant managing editor. This role involves an interesting combination of responsibilities, including reading submissions, copyediting, and managing social media. For the right candidate, this could be an amazing opportunity to…

Spring is on the way, the days are getting longer, and here at Compose we’re getting excited about our forthcoming issue. We received nearly 600 submissions across all genres during the past reading period, but we had space to accept only a small percentage of those. Our senior editors are now working through edits with our contributors to prepare each selection…

Today’s post is written by Catherine Cobb Morocco, whose poem “What Father Brought Home” appears in our Fall 2015 issue. “What Father Brought Home” draws on my memories of my father’s homecoming after the Second World War. Much about the war and his return were confusing—where he was in the world, whether he was in danger. My…

The issue is now live! You can read it here. We’d like to thank all of our readers and those who submitted work to us during the last reading period. We’re excited and encouraged to see such growth at Compose, having received more than 800 submissions to consider for the forthcoming issue. Wow! Our senior editors are preparing our Fall 2015…