Toasted Cheese

Website

From the Publisher

Toasted Cheese publishes poetry, flash, fiction, creative nonfiction, and reviews. Our focus is on quality of work, therefore the number of pieces published in each issue will vary. We welcome submissions from emerging and established writers and are actively seeking minority voices. Don’t let a lack of credits keep you from submitting. Many of our favorite pieces were submitted with “if accepted, this will be my first publication.”

Toasted Cheese is described with adjectives ranging from “quality” to “quirky.” Read our archives to get an idea of what we like to find in our inboxes. Following our simple guidelines will put you ahead of the pack. If your piece is rejected, try again with another. Post it to our forums (or to another community’s boards) for feedback, rewrite and resubmit. Editors want to publish your work, not dash your dreams.

Toasted Cheese is edited as a collective (i.e. we do not have a poetry editor, fiction editor, etc.). Featured Writing is work selected for inclusion by a majority of the editors. An Editor’s Pick is a piece that did not receive a majority vote, but had the strong support of at least one editor. We accept approximately 5% of the submissions we receive.

Fiction published in Toasted Cheese has been shortlisted for awards including Best of The Net and storySouth Million Writers Award. The literary journal has been named a top journal for flash fiction and our site has been included in Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers multiple times.

What type of submissions are you looking for?

The ideal poetry submission is concise, fresh and engages the senses, creating clear images while saying something beyond the surface of the poem(s).

For fiction, word choice is particular and the piece is technically good while the story (flash or short fiction) follows a traditional story arc and is complete in plot, theme and idea. Storytelling is essential; the reader must be engaged from the first line of the story.

Tell us about upcoming events or contests

Toasted Cheese sponsors four free-to-enter, no-registration contests per year. Prizes include publication and Amazon gift cards.

“Three Cheers and a Tiger” is a 48-hour genre contest held the first weekend in Spring and the first weekend in Fall. Entrants have 48 hours from the announcement of the theme and word count parameters to submit their stories.

“A Midsummer Tale” is open April 1 – June 21 annually. AMT is a summer-themed narrative writing contest open to non-genre fiction and creative nonfiction. Theme and word count vary.

Our winter-themed horror fiction contest, “Dead of Winter,” is open October 1 – December 21 annually. Theme and word count vary.

Information

Editors Name Stephanie Lenz
Print publication? No
Circulation 10,000
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL http://tclj.toasted-cheese.com/submission-guidelines/
Approx. Response Time? 30-90 days
How often do you publish? Quarterly
Year Founded? 2001
Do you pay? No