Description
Please See Me is published two to three times a year, and seeks to elevate the voices and health-related stories of vulnerable populations and those who care for them. Our style can be thought of as a cross between the creative vibe of your favorite literary magazine and the healthcare-narrative focus of The Intima. Each issue will suggest a theme as a starting point for content, and we welcome creativity in your approach to that theme. We are especially looking for content that connects us, make us feel something, or helps us see illness, wellness, health, or the healthcare environment differently. If you aren’t sure if your work fits, please feel free to query us.
Look for the current Call for Submission on our website here: www.pleaseseeme.com/submissions
What We Publish
We accept previously unpublished, creative, and high-quality work in the form of: poetry, creative nonfiction/essays, fiction/short stories/flash fiction, and digital media (photography, drawings, paintings, podcasts, and short films).
What We Ask of You
Upon acceptance, Please See Me retains first-time publishing rights, and the work will be published online. We also reserve the right to publish in a print anthology for promotional purposes at a later date. All rights revert back to authors and artists 30 days after publication, and we ask that if the work is published elsewhere at a later date that Please See Me is credited as first-time publisher.
Please wait to hear back from us before resubmitting.
Compensation
We are continuosly seeking grant funding to compensate our writers and staff for their talents. At present, we are a volunteer organization and offer publication credit for your work. We have been fortunate to work with writers, poets and artists in all stages of their careers and love nothing more than to celebrate the past and future success of our Please See Me family!
General Submission Guidelines
Poetry Please submit a maximum of three poems at a time.
FictionPlease submit short stories up to 4,000 words in length, double-spaced, 12 point serif font.
Creative NonfictionPlease submit nonfiction pieces up to 4,000 words in length, double-spaced, 12 point serif font.
We will look at excepts of longer works on a case-by-case basis; please query us with a description of your project before submitting longer work.
FilmsPlease submit short films up to five minutes in length.
Other MediaWe welcome submissions of digital art of any kind, photography, podcasts, and other media. If you can create it and relate it to health and wellness, we will consider it!
We are excited to celebrate our 20th Issue in Spring of 2027!
For 8 years, Please See Me has published the stories healthcare stakeholders do not always see. For our 20th issue, our community chose the theme Unseen: the symptom no one believed, the caregiver no one checked on or asked about, the illness you can't see from across the room, the person the system looked past, and the moment someone finally saw you. Write toward it however it lands for you, literal or slant.
We are happy to play on our namesake by offering the theme of Unseen because so many of the submissions we receive speak to patients, family members, and healthcare professionals not being seen in places they most need to be. In the doctor's office, in the workplace, with a partner or spouse, a parent or a child, or with a patient in the room. Our health and well-being depend on being seen and acknowledged for who we are as individuals. We all need to feel safe showing up as ourself.
As always, the theme is a place to begin and we always welcome work that addresses mental health because our mission includes both normalizing and elevating the conversation around an aspect of health that is often not addressed.
We elevate the voices and health-related stories of vulnerable populations and those who care for them always. First-time writers are welcome. We accept:
- Previously unpublished, creative work only.
- Poetry: up to three poems in one document. Only the first three are read.
- Fiction: up to 4,000 words. Flash up to 1,000 words is encouraged. Query first for longer excerpts.
- Creative nonfiction: up to 4,000 words. Query first for longer excerpts.
- Formatting (prose): double-spaced, 12 pt Times Roman or another serif font, 1" margins.
- Film: a link to a short film up to five minutes.
- Photography, podcasts and other media: share a link to work you host; images may be attached as web-sized .jpg files.
- Free to submit to general issue.
- Simultaneous submissions are welcome; please withdraw through Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
- Rights: first serial rights for 30 days after publication, then all rights revert to the author.
- AI tools may be used to outline and edit. We do not accept work generated by AI tools.
Deadline: January 15, 2027, at 11:59 PM CT. Issue 20 publishes April 2027.
Full guidelines: https://pleaseseeme.com/submissions-2/
Whether you are a healthcare professional, patient, caregiver or advocate, family member, or witness to quiet acts of everyday heroism, we want to hear from you. As always, the theme is a place to begin. These are the stories in all forms--creative nonfiction, short stories, poetry, film, photography and digital art--we are curating for Spring 2027 Issue #20
Be sure to follow all Please See Me general Submission Guidelines, and as always, our theme is a place to start. It's your canvas!
If you're not sure if your project fits, send us a short description and we'll let you know if we're interested in taking a look at it.