The Hopper
We will open for submissions to our Spring 2026 issue on November 1. The first two weeks of the reading period (November 1 - 14) is our fee-free reading period; from November 15 through January 31, submissions will be $3 to cover our essential operating costs. We look forward to reading your work!
The Hopper is an environmental literary magazine. We publish interviews, stories, essays, poetry, and art. We're interested in work that:
- Offers new and different articulations of the human experience in nature. Specifically, nature writing that is psychologically honest about the environmental crisis and the impacts of mechanical modernity.
- Explores place as both the cultural and physical landscapes of an author’s region.
- Uses language to gain new insights into the natural world.
- Uses the natural world to gain new insights into language.
- Questions the division between nature and culture, wilderness and civilization.
- Interrupts the purely human narrative with non-human actors and speakers.
- Includes digital consciousness in the experience of the physical world.
- Investigates environmental injustice and how race, place, and space are all subject to policing.
- Interrogates and/or repurposes cliches for the needs of today.
- Elevates voices that were previously not often heard from in this sub-genre.
- Seeks to question instead of proclaim.
- Is well written and deeply considered as well as feisty and brisk on occasion.
Please only submit once per category per submission window.
We ask for first digital and archival rights. We accept simultaneous submissions; please just let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.
We encourage submissions from BIPOC, people in the LBGTQ+ community, people with disabilities, immigrants, the incarcerated, women, non-binary people, and people of other marginalized groups.
If you haven't already, please visit the website of The Hopper, follow us on Instagram at @hopper_mag, and sign up for our monthly newsletter.
Poetry submissions should include no more than five (5) unpublished poems in one (1) Word document (.doc, .docx), beginning each poem on a new page.
Please submit your short story or flash fiction as one Word document (.doc, .docx) totaling no more than 4,000 words.
Please note that we only publish fiction with environmental/nature themes.
Please submit your nonfiction (essay, memoir, journalism, experimental nonfiction) as one Word document (.doc, .docx) totaling no more than 4,000 words.
Please note that we only publish nonfiction with environmental/nature themes.
The Hopper accepts photographs, drawings, paintings, collages, and images of other forms of artwork (sculpture, landscaping, architecture) with environmental/nature themes. We usually publish artwork in a series of 5-8 images, along with an artist statement.
Your donation helps us continue putting art and literature out into the world.
We are a small independent literary magazine staffed entirely by volunteers.
Every donation helps and goes directly toward our core operating costs, so that we can continue amplifying the creative work of diverse authors on issues of nature and the environment -- available free of charge for all.
Thank you so much for your generosity and support!
Please note: This form does not accept manuscript submissions.