Submission Guidelines

Lunch Ticket is a biannual journal published by the MFA community of Antioch University of Los Angeles, a program that is devoted to the education of literary artists, community engagement, and the pursuit of social justice.

Although the editors of Lunch Ticket share the MFA program’s mission and values, our commitment is to publish the best literary writing, regardless of subject matter or theme.

While we accept submissions all year long, we read submissions for the June issue from March 1 through April 30, and for the December issue from September 1 through October 31, so our response times may vary widely.

We are soliciting fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, writing for young people and visual art. We accept simultaneous submissions. We only ask that you please contact us if your piece is published somewhere else so we might free up room for other authors.

We do not accept previously published literary work.

We accept visual art in any medium, including painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation, performance, and video. Visual art may not be reproduced in another contemporary literary journal, but may be reproduced elsewhere, such as on the artist’s own website, a gallery website, or in an art journal alongside a review of the artist’s work.

  • Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and Writing for Young People:  Please submit work in .doc or .docx format, up to 5,000 words maximum. All manuscripts should be in 12-point type. Please number your pages as well. You may submit pieces individually or as one document. For flash fiction or nonfiction, you may submit multiple pieces not exceeding 5,000 words collectively.
  • Poetry: Please submit 3-5 poems in .doc or .docx format. All manuscripts should be in 12-point type. Please number your pages as well. You may submit pieces individually or as one document.
  • Visual Art: Please submit 3-8 images in JPEG, PDF, TIFF, GIF or PNG format. Please number each image, and if possible, name each image this way: 1_yourlastname_title. If you’d like to submit a short artist’s statement; a list of submitted images (with image number, name, title, dimensions, medium, and date), and a biographical blurb about yourself, please do. We’d love to know more about you. If your work is accepted for publication, we will ask you for this information.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to view your work.