## Background Hippocampus Magazine was founded in 2010 as a magazine dedicated specifically to creative nonfiction, with an explicit focus on building literary community around the genre both online and off, rather than functioning purely as a submission portal. It has grown into a well-regarded, dedicated home for memoir and personal essay, publishing personal essays, memoir excerpts, and flash creative nonfiction, and pays contributors an honorarium — notable for a journal of its size and independence. In 2016 it launched Books by Hippocampus, a small press print division that extends the magazine's mission into book-length memoir and nonfiction publishing. Because the magazine is dedicated entirely to nonfiction and memoir rather than treating it as one genre among several, it's a natural, well-curated target for a writer focused specifically on personal essay and memoir excerpts, with realistic response times and a modest, transparent fee-waiver option for writers who can't afford the standard submission fee. ## Submissions - Accepts: personal essays/memoir excerpts (up to 4,000 words) and flash creative nonfiction (up to 800 words). - Submission periods: March 1 – May 31, and September 1 – November 30. - Formatting: double-spaced, 12-point standard font (Times, Arial, Calibri, or Georgia); no identifying information in the document or filename. - $3 submission fee, with a Submission Fund available for writers who can't cover it. - Pays a $40 honorarium for published memoir/personal essay and flash nonfiction pieces. - Response time: around 4 months for flash pieces, up to 6 months for full essays. Full guidelines: [hippocampusmagazine.com/submissions](https://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/submissions/) Submission manager: [hippocampusmagazine.submittable.com/submit](https://hippocampusmagazine.submittable.com/submit)