## Background The Sun is an independent, ad-free monthly magazine that has been publishing for more than fifty years, built around personal, character-driven writing rather than genre or literary trend-chasing. It runs personal essays, short fiction, poetry, interviews, and black-and-white photography, with a consistent editorial voice that favors intimate, emotionally honest, human-scale storytelling over formal experimentation. Because it is reader-supported and ad-free, it has a reputation for editorial independence and a distinct, values-driven readership. A notable and long-running feature is "Readers Write," a recurring section (running since 1978) where readers contribute short pieces of their own writing on a monthly prompt/topic — a lower-barrier way for writers to appear in the magazine's pages alongside the main essay, fiction, and poetry sections. The Sun is also known for paying well relative to its size and independence, which makes it a genuinely competitive but achievable target for writers with some experience, particularly in personal essay and literary nonfiction. ## Submissions - Accepts personal essays, short stories, poems, and black-and-white photography. - Submitted online via Submittable; monthly caps apply per genre (essays, fiction, poetry). - Simultaneous submissions are discouraged. - Pay rates: nonfiction $300–$2,000; fiction $300–$2,000; poetry $100–$250. - "Readers Write" is a separate, topic-based submission category for shorter reader-contributed pieces. Full guidelines: [thesunmagazine.org/submit](https://www.thesunmagazine.org/submit) FAQ: [thesunmagazine.org/faq](https://www.thesunmagazine.org/faq) Submission manager: [thesunmagazine.submittable.com/submit](https://thesunmagazine.submittable.com/submit)