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We accept previously unpublished, creative, and high-quality work in the form of: poetry, creative nonfiction/essays, fiction/short stories/flash fiction, and digital media (photography,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 photography, podcasts, and other media. If you can create it and relate it to health and wellness, we will consider it!
In September of 2024, I attended the Patients for Patient Safety World Patient Safety Day in Washington DC. This dedicated group of patient advocates and activists are working hard to push policy and change forward that protects patients and providers in our US healthcare system. The organization created a short video entitled What if? (see our site) capturing personal stories highlighting about how their health outcomes and lives were affected by healthcare systems that failed to deliver the appropriate care and which inspires the theme for our Spring 2025 Issue #16.
What is your “What if?” or “If only…” related to your health-related stories. What if you had asked the next question of your provider even as their back was turned and walking out the door? What if you had taken the extra moment with a patient and not missed that diagnosis? What if you had asked for help in your third year of medical school? In residency? What if you had spoken up when you witnessed bullying or inappropriate leadership? What if you had told your partner you loved them before they left for work? What if you shared the joy you experienced when care did go as planned?
As always, the canvas here is wide and deep and the theme is a jumping off point. Paint with the words and images that ring true to you! 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!
These are the stories in all forms--creative nonfiction, short stories, poetry, film, photography and digital art--we are curating for our Spring Issue #16.
Follow all Please See Me general Submission Guidelines.
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.