NOTICE: We will be closed to new submissions until further notice (you can probably expect a re-open in January/February 2024). As you've likely noticed, we haven't posted an issue in way too long, so we're closing down submissions to rectify that. We have a large queue to read and respond to, and three issues to release. It's been a difficult time for the editors over the past year, but we're going to buckle down and get Suburbia back to current. We're sorry for the inconvenience to any new submitters, but for the ones in queue, rest assured: we'll have a response to you in the next month. Thank you very much for your patience. 

You can still see our general guidelines below if you wish.

Suburbia Journal is an Arizona-based literary magazine founded by Miranda Williams and Nathaniel Buckingham. We began as Ember Chasm Review in Fall of 2019, back when we didn't quite know what we were doing, but after months of stress and obnoxiously strong cocktails, we decided we needed a name change, and a re-definition. 

We're incredibly excited to share this new vision of our magazine with you. 

Welcome to Suburbia. 

Who Are We Now? Suburbia wants to peel back the façades and expose the gross, absurd realities lurking behind the Suburban-Capitalist “Utopia," the smiling Nuclear Family, the “normal neighborhood” and the straight, happy, white, home-owning, monogamously homogenous molds boxing us in. We want explorations, especially, from underrepresented writers and voices like BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ and gender-fluid individuals, the houseless, the incarcerated—all those who have been disallowed, punished, or been devastated by the grotesquery of the status quo, the bottom line, the privilege and the desecrations of our environments (whatever that means to you). On the flipside, Suburbia is meant to also represent the positive aspects of the term: our community, inclusion, expansion, and shelter. A utopian literary and artistic neighborhood.

​To be more literal, we intend our mission statement to be an encompassing yet guiding direction for exceptional, innovative fiction, poetry, and artwork. If it's original in concept, content, language, or otherwise shatters walls, we're interested in considering it.

​Suburbia, more than Ember Chasm, focuses on pushing the boundaries of mixed-media, and creating new, innovative opportunities for writers and artists. Special issues for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, incarcerated, houseless, disabled, and gender-fluid and gender-queer people. Multi-media issues. An annual short film contest. A community center on the website dedicated to writers and featuring constructive critiques from Suburbia editors and other community members. Slam poetry features and contests. YouTube creative writing classes. TikTok  features. Author interviews and community events. And so much more on the horizon.

Look for the new opportunities soon!

What we enjoy reading: Authors like Carmen Maria Machado, Ottessa Moshfegh, Aimee Bender, K-Ming Chang, Miranda July, Ted Chiang, Ann Cummins, Raymond Carver. For poetry: Mary Oliver, Neil Hilborn, Allen Ginsburg, Billy Collins, Blythe Baird, Sylvia Plath, and Sherwin Bitsui. But just give us what we haven’t read before; give us what we didn’t know we wanted.

What We Accept: Previously published work, simultaneous submissions, multiple submissions, the weird, all genres (as long as they contain literary elements—you know what that means). Let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere. 

Publication Schedule: We publish print and online issues twice a year, in May and November. Both issues contain the results of our contests. Right now, we're accepting submissions for Issue VI, set to release in November in print-for-purchase and free to read digitally. We just released Issue V! Read it now, please, God, we worked so hard on it! 

Payment: We currently offer a $15 Honorarium and one print contributor copy of the issue. 

Masthead: Check our website here. 

We can’t wait to be moved by what you send us—for what matters more than the stories we tell? Also, if you like our method, consider donating on our website. Your contribution will help keep art accessible to everyone, and you’ll get some magnificent perks.