What we publish
Personal essays and creative nonfiction about the hard, strange, and beautiful parts of being alive: grief, family, the body, desire, rage, love that didn't hold, love that held too tightly. We are not interested in suffering that exists only to be overcome, or epiphanies that arrive too cleanly. We want essays that trust the reader enough to leave some things unresolved.
If your essay ends with a bow, untie it first and start again.
Read us before you submit. You'll know within two essays whether you're in the right place.
What we don't publish
Inspirational content. Writing that mistakes confession for craft. Work generated by AI.
The mechanics
- 2,500 words maximum, and yes, this is a real limit, not a suggestion.
- One submission at a time. Wait to hear from us before sending another.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine. Withdraw promptly if accepted elsewhere.
- Previously published work is considered only if exceptional; tell us where it ran. We may ask you to take it down if we accept it.
- All rights revert to you. If you republish, please credit TMS.
- Photos of yourself or something that fits the piece are welcome, but not required.
- We read everything and respond to everything. We are two people doing this because we believe in it. Please be patient.
Why we're still here
We've been publishing since 2011, and we've stayed on every platform, including the ones you've sworn off, for one reason: words matter more when they're harder to say. We seek to publish writers who take up space they weren't sure they were allowed to take.
If that's you, send us something.
— Angela & Amy
We are looking for essays about the gap between the self you present and the self you actually are, and what it takes to maintain that gap, year after year. The marriage that looks fine. The faith you perform. The professional identity you’ve outgrown. The sexuality you haven’t named out loud. The political position you hold in public that you no longer believe in private.
Double lives. Passing. The exhaustion of performing a version of yourself that was built for someone else’s comfort.
We’re not asking you to stop. Just to write about it honestly.
800-2,500 words.
- Simultaneous Submissions are fine
- Limit of 2,500 words
- Multiple submissions are not allowed