Sun Thief Press

[JULY 2026: SUBMISSIONS FOR FULL-LENGTH MANUSCRIPTS ARE CLOSED. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE SUN THIEF LITERARY JOURNAL WILL OPEN FROM AUGUST 1ST TO OCTOBER 1ST.]

Sun Thief Press publishes both full-length manuscripts and a biannual literary magazine. See the submission guidelines for each below!

Guidelines for Manuscripts

[SUBMISSIONS FOR MANUSCRIPTS ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED.]
Sun Thief Press accepts translation manuscript pitches a few times a year at our discretion. While we will always try to get back to translators within 6 months, Sun Thief Press only publishes 2-3 titles a year. If your work is not selected for publication this calendar year but we still really want to publish it, we’ll ask if you’d like to keep your manuscript backlogged and scheduled for publication in a future slot. Manuscript pitches are free to submit when we are calling for them.

We also call for completed, full-length manuscripts as opposed to pitches. For these, given the labor that goes into reviewing them, Sun Thief Press charges a $20 reading fee. For a doubled fee ($40), we also offer full editorial feedback, comments, and markup on manuscripts, whether accepted for publication or not. However, we do value giving all writers an opportunity for publication and money should never be an insurmountable problem in that regard! Please email us at sunthiefpress@gmail.com for a waived fee if you can’t pay the sticker price.

Watch this space — we open manuscript submissions in Fall 2026 (TBD).

General Guidelines
  • If you’ve submitted the manuscript to us in the past and it has since undergone significant revisions, by all means, try again! Please do not submit an identical manuscript.
  • We do not accept AI-generated work under any circumstances. Detection of AI-generated work will automatically remove the submission from consideration.
  • Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us immediately if your book is being published elsewhere. (congratulations btw!)
  • We are translation-forward, but not translation-exclusive. We accept original English-language poetry manuscripts. Our guidelines for these categories are slightly different; see below.
  • All work should be in Times New Roman, 12 pt, unless there is a clear stylistic reason for other font choices.
What to Submit

Your submission must be submitted as two documents: one, with a short 3rd-person bio and a brief cover letter; the other, with the manuscript itself. We accept .docx and PDF files.

The manuscript document must contain:

  1. A cover page (with no author name) incl. working title.
  2. Acknowledgements incl. where these poems and/or stories have appeared in print.
  3. Numbered pages.
  4. Table of contents (if relevant)
Translation Manuscripts (Prose/Poetry)

We accept pitches and/or commission readers’ reports for literary work from all languages, ancient and modern. We are looking for fresh, experimental translations which approach the text in inventive and imaginative ways. We are especially interested in work which challenges and investigates the nature of writing/translating itself.

All publishing rights must be secured by the translator (if you are unsure how to secure publishing rights, please contact us). If your pitch is accepted, we will request a small excerpt of the text and go from there.

English-Language Manuscripts (Poetry)

Please submit a completed manuscript of 40+ pgs. Practically speaking, there isn’t an upper limit to the length of manuscripts we publish, but we reserve the right to stop reading if you send us something we determine early on isn’t right for us in style, tone, and sensibility.

We strongly encourage a cover letter for original poetry manuscripts, especially since we don’t emphasize them. As a translation-forward press, we want to hear why you think Sun Thief is the right press for you and ensure that our visions align.

Manuscripts over 200 pgs will be subject to a doubled reading fee. We’re just a couple little guys and we value our time and labor!

If accepted

Congratulations! 🙌 We will publish your work with a cover designed by our in-house illustrator, and a promotional run where our small but dedicated marketing team will work singularly to distribute and promote your work. We make sure we don’t have more than one or two titles on our plate at a time so that full attention can be focused on servicing your work as best we can.

If your work has been accepted by Sun Thief, know that we have spent serious time reading through, discussing, and coming to understand your work. Know that we have intimately discussed its themes, ideas, style, and vision with our tight-knit team and we highly esteem your work. We thank you for trusting us with it; we will honor it with attention and care.

Guidelines for Sun Thief Journal

[SUBMISSIONS FOR THE SUN THIEF LITERARY JOURNAL WILL OPEN FROM AUGUST 1ST 2026 TO OCTOBER 1ST 2026.]

We accept submissions to The Sun Thief Journal for the Winter issue from August 1st to October 1st. Our submission review periods last for three weeks, and you will usually hear back from us on the week of the 1st the following month. Please follow the guidelines below!

General Guidelines
  • We accept short-form poetry (no longer than a page) original and translated, short stories (3,000-5,000 words) original and translated, critical essays (of any length), and visual art (including, but not limited to, photography, illustration, painting, and collage).
  • We only accept previously unpublished work. Worldwide first serial rights will revert back to the author following the issue’s publication.
  • Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please notify us immediately if you’ve been accepted elsewhere.
  • We accept .docx and PDF files. Please include a cover letter with a short 3rd-person bio with your submission. This will be removed during the submissions review process to ensure anonymity.
  • For poetry and visual art, we accept up to 5 pieces per submission. For prose, both essays and fiction, we accept 1 piece per submission. 
  • We do not accept or consider AI-generated or AI-assisted work. No grey area, no exceptions. If we suspect AI had a role in your work, it will be rejected out of hand.
  • Sun Thief Journal pays! For poetry, we pay $20/poem. For prose, we pay $0.10/word
  • There is no reading fee for journal submissions. Send us what you’ve got!
What do we mean when we say we publish “difficult” and “well-crafted” literature?

Difficult: We believe that experimental work is inherently playful, self-conscious, and unafraid of contradicting itself. But we worry that sometimes people read the word “experimental” and associate it with throwing paint at a wall to see what sticks; or they read the word and associate it with a kind of self-indulgent shock value and daring. So we use the word “difficult” as well, to denote a polished experimentality that takes itself seriously, one that proposes a creative angle and tests its approach. We don’t want work that is experimental for experimentation’s sake, but work that stakes a claim, works through a problem, or shines a new light in its risk-taking. 

Well-crafted: We like to be reasonably well-assured that each creative decision in the text has been made with intention and deliberate control. For us, well-crafted writing is attention to detail and commitment to aesthetic choices. If the work has kinetic energy, we want the sense that this energy is under pressure, in tension with the writer/translator. If the work is more meditative, we want the sense that there is still movement, deep currents beneath the text. We don’t want work that feels overwrought, endlessly warped, and tinkered with, but literature that feels like a stone worn by the writer/translator’s hand.