Submissions will open on September 15, 2025.
Grande Dame Literary is for WOMEN WRITERS of any age and their VIBRANT VOICES. There is a Grande Dame in every woman, and we are women writers/editors who support women writers. We do not define age, nor should you. If you like our posts and feel your voice is a good fit, send us a piece. Empowering and encouraging women writers is of utmost importance. Your vibrant voice is the greatest asset to your writing and Grande Dame Literary accepts work based on the strength of the story, the solid arc of characters, and potential appeal to our readers.
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Please note, we do not accept work that promotes discrimination, division, sexually explicit, graphic depictions of abuse, or that is political in nature.
Please see the submission form for guidelines and accepted genres.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
ACCEPTED GENRES
FICTION:
literary chick-lit, upmarket women's contemporary, comedy, dramedy, rom-com, romance, drama, magical realism, humorous scary stuff like mystery, suspense, thriller, murder, we relish a good twist
MEMOIR:
the author must be the central 'character' in the memoir, must read like a story, no graphic description of abusive or sexual situations. Must read like a story. No academic pieces. Book excerpts are permitted, but must be able to act as standalone pieces.
ESSAY:
encouraging feel-good pieces that make the world a better place (food, motherhood, relationship, health, lifestyle), share an inspirational story
POETRY:
Follow same guidelines as above for acceptable subject matter. You may submit up to three poems at a time. We will choose anywhere from one to three, if accepted.
DIFFICULT SUBJECT MATTER: We accept difficult subject matter as long as it adheres to our accepted genres. Please note, we do not accept work that promotes discrimination or division, graphic depictions of abuse or abusers or sexually explicit situations, or that is political in nature.
General Information:
- NEW - PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK IS ACCEPTED, please note at the end of the piece that it has been published elsewhere, and when, and that the previous publication is ok with this.
- Title formatting only allows for five words. It cuts automatically.
- Make your first sentence attention grabbing. It is what shows on the post listing and will get readers to view your work.
- Please allow up to 90+ days for review. We get a lot of submissions.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
- Once your work has been accepted, changes are not allowed. If you need to make a change, you will need to resubmit. Please review your work carefully before sending. We have a no refund policy.
WORD COUNT BRACKETS for stories, memoir, and essay:
- 1500-3500 WORDS $15.00
- 3501-5000 WORDS $20.00
- 5001-7500 WORDS $25.00
POETRY:
- Three poems allowed per submission. $15.00
- Each one one a separate page.
- May be single spaced.
FAST READ is available for $25.00
FORMATTING: (Hard decline, if formatting is not followed.)
POETRY
- POETRY MAY BE SINGLE SPACED with bio on a separate page.
SHORT STORY, MEMOIR, ESSAY
- 12PT Times New Roman, 1" Margins, Double-spaced
- 50 WORD BIO at bottom of story.
- You may submit social media links, but they must be in a URL format (www.xxxxxxxx.com). We do not have the ability at this time to use social links. No emails, please only websites.
- No footnotes or endnotes.
We ask for first rights and archival rights. This means that once we offer an acceptance, we ask that we be the first place the story is printed, unless it is a reprint, then we ask to be the first on this go round. The work is always yours. You may reprint the material, post it on your website, etc... Archival rights means that as long as we are in publication we ask that we may use it on our website. However, the material is yours. Should you choose to have it removed from our site at any time, for any reason, we will honor the request.