Submissions FAQ
Q: What do you publish?
We publish art, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and experimental pieces. If it can be reproduced on a page, we will look at it.
Click here to see our full submission guidelines and to submit.
Q: Who do you publish?
We publish anyone who has first-hand lived experience of madness, mental health challenges, mental illness, and/or neurodiversity. We recognize that different people have different experiences, and therefore use different language to describe those experiences.
We recognize the ongoing discrimination and oppression many of our contributors face—because of colonization, racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, classism, sanism, anti-fatness, ageism, capitalism, etc.—and the ways these and other injustices impact people’s (un)wellness. We welcome people belonging to oppressed communities to submit to OMQ, and we work to prioritize voices that are currently under- or misrepresented.
We do NOT publish pieces written about other people’s experiences or that focus on an experience the author has not had had themselves.
Q: Do submitters have to be Canadian/do you publish international work?
We publish work from all around the world.
Q: Do submitters have to have a diagnosis?
The only requirement is self-identifying as having lived experience. You do not have to have a diagnosis and you don’t have to “prove” it. You can share as little or as much detail about your experiences as you like in your bio.
Q: How many submissions do you get each issue?
We currently receive an average of 200 submissions per issue, some of which contain multiple pieces. We have occasionally received over 300 submissions for some issues. We can only publish around 20 pieces per issue, so unfortunately, our acceptance rate is around 10%.
Q: How do you decide what to publish?
Deciding what to publish is a difficult process that involves our editor reviewing all of the submissions, getting input from assistant editors (who have a balance of reading and writing expertise and lived-experience themselves), and then balancing several different factors including:
• Relevance to theme (when applicable) and madness/mental health
• Literary value (we take into consideration that sometimes the literary value is a piece’s rawness/disregard of rules and “norms”)
• Intersecting identities/sources of oppression
• Whether the contributor lives with more stigmatized experiences/diagnoses
• Variety: we want to publish a range of experiences. If something stands out as being unique or original, it’s more likely to be published.
Q: How long until I hear back about my piece?
We aim to review everything within two months after the submission period closes (depending when during the submission period you made your submission it could take from two to five months), but it can sometimes take longer. We are a very small team, with our own lived experience and competing responsibilities, that can sometimes delay review. If it has been more than two months since the submission period closed and you haven’t heard from us, you may contact us to find out the status of the current issue and your submission.
Shipping FAQ
Q: Why can’t I see “Local Pickup” as an option?
If you live in Sudbury or the surrounding area and want to pick up your order at NISA, make sure you’ve still entered your address fully (including your postal code) under both the billing and shipping. If “Local Pickup” still isn’t showing up, please get in touch with us by email: [email protected]
Q: How soon will my item ship?
We aim to ship items out the same week they’re ordered. Our turnaround is usually a couple days, unless you’ve ordered on the weekend.
If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to be in touch: [email protected]