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.
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We accept previously unpublished, creative, and high-quality work in the form of: poetry, creative nonfiction/essays, fiction/short stories/flash fiction, and digital media (photography,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 currently 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.
Fiction
Please submit short stories up to 4,000 words in length, double-spaced, 12 point serif font.
Creative Nonfiction
Please 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.
Films
Please submit short films up to five minutes in length.
Other Media
We 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!
What does it mean to you to be truly Free--to live your best life no matter your health or caregiving challenges?
- To be free of a diagnosis or illness because you have healed or overcome the worst of it?
- To come to place of resolve or acceptance with any diagnosis or illness--yours or that of a loved one?
- To have found a way to share caregiving responsibilities?
What does it look like for you when you do not feel free?
- To be tethered to illness and what that diagnosis requires of you
- To be a caregiver
- When life, relationships, or health make you feel anything but free?
Our PSM Issue #17 theme provides an opportunity to reflect on how health -- mind, body, and spirit -- limit, challenge, define or inspire our ability to feel free.
For providers: What does it mean to feel free to provide the care you believe is necessary? To care for not only your patients, but those you love? What does free healthcare mean to you?
These are the stories in all forms--creative nonfiction, short stories, poetry, film, photography and digital art--we are curating for Fall Issue #17.
As always - our theme is a place to start. Be sure to follow all Please See Me general Submission Guidelines, and consider entering our Mental Health Awareness Writing Contest!
We are once again hosting a Writing Contest in our continued effort to destigmatize mental illness by raising awareness and empathy through stories in all forms. We will offer an award in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Your contest entry can use Issue #17 theme of Free, but you are welcome to send what you have been working on related to mental health and feel is contest ready.
As always — the canvas is yours to paint with the words that ring true to you! Follow all Please See Me general Submission Guidelines with your contest entries.
We look forward to seeing what our audience of writers, patients, physicians, psychologists, patient advocates, artists, and healthcare consumers have to say! Every one of your stories matter to us. We are listening!
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.