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Submit to Open Writer's Lab: The Love Project

Open Writers Lab: The Love Project

Call for Submissions (Thursday, July 23 - Friday, September 25, 2026 at 11:59pm central)

Love comes in many flavors. It can be tender and joyful, rich and complicated, or sharp enough to leave a lasting sting.

Gemini Ink’s Open Writers Lab invites writers to submit original work for Open Writers Lab: The Love Project, a community anthology exploring love through three categories:

Sweet

Love at its warmest, most hopeful, or most tender. These pieces may explore romance, friendship, family, devotion, belonging, self-love, reconciliation, or moments of joy and connection.

Savory

Love with depth, complexity, and substance. These pieces may examine long-term relationships, desire, sacrifice, loyalty, compromise, unconventional connections, or the complicated realities of caring for another person.

Sour

Love that disappoints, wounds, transforms, or ends. These pieces may explore heartbreak, grief, betrayal, obsession, jealousy, estrangement, regret, or the difficult lessons love can leave behind.

Writers are encouraged to interpret these categories broadly and creatively.

What We Are Seeking

We welcome:

  • Poetry in any form or style
  • Short fiction
  • Creative nonfiction or memoir
  • Personal essays

Each writer may submit up to three works total. Writers may submit all three pieces to one category or divide them among Sweet, Savory, and Sour.

Prose submissions should not exceed 1,500 words per piece.

Submissions are open to Open Writers Lab participants, members of the Gemini Ink community, recipients of Gemini Ink communications, and other interested writers. Submission does not guarantee publication. All work will be reviewed for possible inclusion in the anthology.

Submission Guidelines

Please place all submitted works into one PDF document.

Prose, Essays, Short Stories, and Memoir

  • Use 12-point Times New Roman, Arial, or another clean, readable font.
  • Double-space the manuscript.
  • Use one-inch margins.
  • Include page numbers.

Poetry

  • Use a clear, readable font, preferably 12 point.
  • Formatting may vary according to the needs of the poem.
  • Submit as a PDF to preserve line breaks, spacing, and intentional placement.

General Requirements

  • Identify each piece as Sweet, Savory, or Sour.
  • Include the writer’s name and the title of each piece.
  • Begin each work on a separate page.
  • Avoid unusually small fonts, excessive formatting, or hard-to-read layouts.
  • Clearly label the file with the writer’s name, such as:  LastName_FirstName_LoveProject.pdf

How to Submit

Submit your manuscript through Gemini Ink’s Submittable page:

[INSERT SUBMITTABLE LINK]

Submission deadline: [INSERT DEADLINE]

There is no submission fee.

Publication

Selected works are intended for publication in Open Writers Lab: The Love Project. Final publication details and contributor information will be shared with accepted writers.

Questions may be directed to:

[INSERT CONTACT NAME AND EMAIL]

Bring us love in all its flavors—the sweet, the savory, and the sour.

Gemini Ink