## Background One Story is a nonprofit literary magazine founded in 2002 by Hannah Tinti and Maribeth Batcha, built around a distinctive format: each issue is a small, single-story booklet mailed to subscribers roughly every three weeks, rather than a traditional anthology-style journal with multiple pieces per issue. The stripped-down format puts the full spotlight on one writer per issue, and the magazine has built a strong reputation for discovering new literary fiction talent — many contributors have gone on to publish acclaimed novels and story collections, and a One Story credit is well regarded among agents and editors as a mark of a promising, story-driven writer. It's considered a highly credible but more approachable target than the very top-tier quarterlies, with a specific, well-defined taste for tightly crafted short fiction. ## Submissions - Genre: literary fiction only, stories between 3,000 and 8,000 words, any style or subject as long as the writing is strong. - Two submission periods per year via Submittable; free to submit. - Each period is capped at 2,000 submissions. - Upload as PDF with story title and contact info on the first page. - Previously unpublished material only (a story published in print outside North America may be considered; anything previously published online will not be). - Pays $500 plus 25 contributor copies for First Serial North American rights; rights revert to the author after publication. - Response time: around 3 months. Full guidelines: [one-story.com/write/submit-a-story](https://one-story.com/write/submit-a-story/) FAQ: [one-story.com/about/faq](https://one-story.com/about/faq/) Submission manager: [one-story.submittable.com/submit](https://one-story.submittable.com/submit)