Nonfiction

We will remain open in the month until we hit our 300 submission cap. While we're open to longer work, we typically publish essays under 5,000 words. Please note that book chapters or excerpts should read well as stand alone pieces. We also love flash nonfictions (<1,000 words)—send up to three flash nonfictions in one document, or one longer essay. Double-space your manuscript and include page numbers.

Waxwing wants to publish fiction and nonfiction that can stand alongside poetry: stories and essays where language is the primary concern. We seek writing that is like the characters and creatures we named the journal after—Daedalus made something that had never before existed, Icarus joyfully dared to do what hadn’t been done, and the eponymous birds seem to be what they’re not. We're interested in narratives that risk, that come close to failing but land on the other side, not in the sea, and like the red tips of feathers that look like sealing wax, we love flourishes. We're not interested in virtuosity that pleases the masses, but we do crave intensity, and stories that feel a little dangerous. We seek to showcase the particular and the peculiar, the odd and the revelatory—we want to read stories and essays that make us feel like we are learning something, even if it’s something we can’t quite explain.