The Gotham Guillotine

Submission Guidelines for Issue #2: The People’s Magazine

Ask yourself one question before reading any further: Am I a socialist?

We created The Gotham Guillotine because contemporary socialist artists need a platform to share their work.

So are you a socialist? If so, read on! If not, may I introduce you to the Marxist Internet Archive?

Before submitting anything, check out Issue #1: Comrades to get an idea of what we’re looking for. 

Submission Guidelines

Submissions will be open from March 8, 2026 to May 8, 2026. 

The submission deadline is subject to change based on how many submissions we get so don’t hold off on submitting until the last moment.

Issue #2: The People’s Magazine will most likely appear in July 2026. 

You don’t need to be based in New York to be published in The Gotham Guillotine.

Make sure to follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, and/or X for updates!

Formatting 

Times New Roman

Double-spaced

12 point font

Page numbers on the top right corner of every page.

Your name on the top left of the first page with your email address.

Word count on the top right of the first page. 

File name of your submission should be: [Title of Your Piece]_[Your Last Name]. Ex) The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793_Kropotkin

PDF only!

Bio

In the submission form, you’ll need to submit a 2-4 line bio that will appear with your piece. 

If you don’t have other publication credits or a website or social media handles or educational experience, just write “So-and-so is a playwright. This is their first publication.” 

We are cool with pen names because, you know, Lenin. But we internally need to know your real name to prove you aren’t a bot or a Nazi or a Nazi bot.

Our Vibe

We love all genres. Our first issue ranges from comedy to tragedy, sci-fi to literary. Just make sure your submission is socialistic, okay? 🙂

If you think your story needs a content warning, please include one. 

Please don’t send us bigoted and sexually violent work.

Short Stories

1,500-5,000 words.

Flash Fiction

6 words to 1,499 words.

Novel Excerpt

1,500-5,000 words. 

Your excerpt has to be the first chapter. You can also submit the second, third, etc chapters if they fit in the above word count. 

Please send us novel excerpts that would make good serializations.

One Act Plays

20 pages MAX.

Comics

15 pages MAX. Submit as a PDF, not JPGs. 

Poetry

Please submit up to 5 poems in one PDF. Your poems collectively should not exceed 10 pages. 

Arts Criticism

500 to 5,000 words.

We want socialist critiques of art, not artistic critiques of socialism. We don’t want abstract political manifestos. We also don’t want essays that are only socialist in the last paragraph.

Send us film, book, music reviews. It doesn’t matter if the piece of media is old. We wanna read about it. Please don’t libel anyone. 

Art

We love art and need some for our magazine. If you’re a graphic artist or a painter or a whatever, send us 1 piece of your socialist art. It may appear in our next issue! JPG/JPEG only! 300dpi too!

If we like what we see, we may ask for more. But for now, please just send us 1 piece.

Editing

Please copyedit your pieces. Variant spellings are fine. Misspellings aren’t.

Payment

The Gotham Guillotine is a labor of love. When we can afford to pay people, we will. 

Republished Work

The work you submit must be your own and must not be published anywhere else. If the source it was published in no longer exists and the piece is no longer available online, please mention this in the comments section of the submission form. 

AI

We will know if you used AI. It’s very, extremely—obvious. Please don’t. If you do, you’ll be banned from submitting for life.

Multiple and Simultaneous Submissions

Please submit to one genre per submission cycle.

Simultaneous submissions are great! Just send us a message using the contact form if your piece has been accepted anywhere else. Congratulations! See you next time!

Response Time

We will be responding to submissions around a month after the final deadline. This is subject to change if we get a ton of submissions.

If you don’t hear back from us a month after the final deadline, please send us a message using the contact form. 

Rights

Your words are yours. We ask that if you publish something in The Gotham Guillotine that you wait six months before republishing it elsewhere. If you do republish it, please let us know. If your work is anthologized or collected, please credit us and let us know so we can congratulate you!

Publication Schedule

Currently we are an online only publication. We will be publishing submissions on our website, our Medium, and our Substack. By submitting to us, you agree to be published on all three platforms.

We are assembling the print edition of Issue #1: Comrades right now. Issue #2: The People’s Magazine will appear in print too. Stay tuned!

Ready to Submit?

Submit using this google form.