Tips for Submitting to Third Estate Art’s Decapitate

We believe every submission is a gift, and we are humbled by the amount of talent we see in our inbox every day. Because we love transparency and we want you to succeed, we’ve put together this list of extra information and tips to help your submission stand out with our committee. 

1. Evaluation process: The submissions committee is made up of four people who work in different disciplines. All four members will review your work and make a decision together.

2. What to send: Send us one story, OR up to three poems, OR up to five images. If you’re submitting in another medium, keep it reasonable. DO NOT send us your entire portfolio or your website to “pick from.” Because of limited volunteer time and resources, we will decline to do so.

3. Social justice themes: TEA is an art collective that seeks to create and promote connections between art and social justice. Everything we publish in Decpitate must be related to a social justice theme in some way. Think climate change, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA+ rights, feminism (intersectional or GTFO), disability rights, our descent into fascism, abolishing ICE, and so on. The possibilities are—unfortunately—endless.

Since you know your work better than anyone, you might feel like the connection to one of those themes is obvious. However, you can improve your chances of getting published by telling us in a quick sentence or two what that connection is anyway. Pretend like we’re your kindhearted grandmother who just wants to “get” you.

4. Over- and underrepresented disciplines and subjects: We get ten times as many poetry submissions as anything else, so it’s more difficult to get into Decapitate as a poet. Some submission cycles get more writing than visual submissions in general. Please don’t let that keep you from submitting, though. We just want you to know—sometimes it’s not you, it’s us.

On the other hand, some disciplines are under-represented. You’ll improve your odds by sending us something we don’t get a lot of! We’d love to see more video content, sculpture, comics, music, comedy, activism, and otherwise quirky submissions in general. Send us a video of you in your living room giving an artist talk about what’s on your wall. We’re here for it.

4.5 Always a no: It’s worth mentioning (for our own sake) that we get an alarming number of writing submissions that fall into the category of what we call “tragedy porn.” If the whole point of your story or poem is to describe—in horrific detail—a long list of sexual or childhood abuses, we’re gonna pass. Honestly, we won’t even read until the end. Also, we always pass on evangelical writing and poetry with end rhymes.

5. Send clear emails: It’s cool if you’re not a professional, but do make it easy for us to know who you are and what your work is about. Tell us your name so we know who we’re responding to. Say hi at the beginning so we know you’re not a bot and your attachment won’t give us a virus. Proofread your writing submission so our site editor knows she can vote yes without committing to an additional hour of unpaid copy editing labor.

6. Be open to possibilities: The sad truth of this business is that we have to say no a lot more than we say yes. However, we have published work from folx who’ve submitted more than once, so don’t give up. There’s also a chance that if we love your work but can’t fit it into Decapitate, we’ll find some other way to work with you, especially if you are local to Chicago. You never know!

7. Response times: We review submissions in the order they’re received and send out acceptances/rejections in batches. Depending on where we are in the submission cycle, you can usually expect to receive a notice in 3-30 days. If it’s been 45+ days, send us a note and maybe call our moms to make sure we’re okay.