The Sun Magazine

"We publish essays, interviews, fiction, and poetry. We tend to favor personal writing, but we're also looking for thoughtful, well-written essays on political, cultural, and philosophical themes. Please, no journalistic features, academic works, or opinion pieces. Other than that, we're open to just about anything. Surprise us; we often don't know what we'll like until we read it."

Poetry Rejections

Standard

2018 2023

Dear —,

Thanks for sending us "—." We're sorry to say that this submission isn't right for The Sun.

This isn't a reflection on your writing. The selection process is highly subjective, something of a mystery even to us. There's no telling what we'll fall in love with, what we'll let get away.

Writing is hard work, and writers merit some acknowledgment. This note doesn't speak to that need. Please know, however, that we've read your work and appreciate your interest in the magazine.

We wish you the best in placing your writing elsewhere.

The Editors The Sun thesunmagazine.org

2017

Dear —,

Thanks for sending us "—." We're sorry to say that it's not right for The Sun.

This isn't a reflection on your writing. We pick perhaps one out of a hundred submissions, and the selection process is highly subjective, something of a mystery even to us. There's no telling what we'll fall in love with, what we'll let get away.

We rarely respond personally to submissions, as the number of manuscripts we receive makes this difficult. We're aware that writing is hard work, and that writers merit some acknowledgment. This note doesn't speak to that need. Please know, however, that we've read your work and appreciate your interest in the magazine.

We wish you the best in placing your writing elsewhere.

The Editors The Sun thesunmagazine.org

Prose Rejections

Standard

Dear Writer,

We're sorry to say that this submission is not right for us.

This isn't a reflection on your writing. We pick one out of a hundred submissions, and the selection process is highly subjective, something of a mystery even to us. There's not telling what we'll fall in love with, what we'll let get away.

We rarely respond personally to submissions, as the number of manuscripts we receive makes that difficult. We're aware that writing is hard work, and that writers deserve some acknowledgement. A form letter doesn't speak to that need. Please know, however, that we've read your work and appreciate your interest in the magazine.

We wish you the best in placing your writing elsewhere.

The Editors

P.S. We've returned your work if sufficient postage was included. If not, we assumed we could recycle it.

Alternate Version

Same text as Standard, but ends with: Sy Safransky (sometimes with a handwritten "Sy") Editor, The Sun

Colleen Donfield, Manuscript Reader

Higher Tier

2021

Dear —,

Thank you for sending us "—." While we're sorry to say that this submission isn't right for The Sun, we would love to see more of your work in the future.

The selection process is highly subjective, something of a mystery even to us. There's no telling what we'll fall in love with, what we'll let get away.

Writing is hard work, and writers merit some acknowledgment. This note doesn't speak to that need. Please know, however, that we've read your work and appreciate your interest in the magazine.

We wish you the best in placing your writing elsewhere.

The Editors The Sun thesunmagazine.org