BECOMING – motherlore magazine

submission call for issue four of motherlore

call for submissions

issue four’s theme is BECOMING. ideas might include (peri)menopause, emergence, matrescence, metamorphosis (in the human and non-human world), identity, the mind, change, postnatal depression/psychosis, grief, growth, the seasons, creativity, community, shedding, reinvention, disruption, composting, reimagining, rebirth.

deadline: april 30th 2025, guidelines below

motherlore magazine

on care, mothering, matrescence & mother nature: a writing magazine

Terms of Publication

Thanks for your interest in Motherlore Magazine. You do not have to be a mother to submit to Motherlore, but your piece does need to be connected to mothering/motherhood/caregiving/mother nature (more info below). There is no fee for submitting to Motherlore. Please note, Motherlore is a low budget project that I curate and spend many hours on, to share mother's and carer's stories and encourage mothers and carers to write. I keep costs as low as possible so that the issues are accessible as many readers have said that the project is important and healing. Motherlore is released in both print and digitally. I would need to drastically raise prices and make it less accessible if I were to provide complimentary print copies to contributors. From issue three onwards I am providing a complimentary PDF to contributors. Thanks for your understanding.

Theme

Now accepting submissions for issue four on the theme BECOMING. Ideas might include (peri)menopause, matrescence, metamorphosis (in the human and non-human world), identity, the mind, postnatal depression/psychosis, the soul, change, grief, growth, the seasons, creativity, maiden to mother, community, shedding, reinvention, disruption, reimagining, rebirth, emergence.

Deadline: April 30th 2025

Email one file, in .doc or .docx format, containing up to five pieces (articles, poetry, prose, etc.) with clear titles and/or page breaks to: motherloremagazine@gmail.com

Please include a brief author bio (roughly 1–4 sentences) with separate website/social links.

General Guidelines

i. Motherlore only publishes writing, i.e., we do not accept artwork submissions.

ii. The themes for each issue act as a guide and are open to interpretation.

iii. Copyright remains yours. If you send me something that has been published before please inform me about where and when so that I can take this into consideration.

iv. Your connection to motherhood and caregiving is personal. This is a gathering of various records and voices of motherhood and mothering; of caring and being cared for; of mourning and loss; of trying to conceive; of infertility; of the mothering of siblings, of parents, of oneself; of foster care or fostering, adoption or surrogacy, abortion or miscarriage; of one's own mothers or grandmothers; of all those caring, nurturing, and growing life on this earth, alongside mother nature.

Content Guidelines

Our focus is creative writing, but we are absolutely open to the possibility of publishing all kinds of writing, including non-fiction/articles, as we acknowledge that your written creative output as a mother or carer may take varied and/or experimental forms.

Please keep prose to 1,500 words or under and poetry to around 100 lines (including blank lines between verses). However, work that slightly exceeds these limits will still be considered.