Dear Past Me
If you could write a letter to your past self, what would you say to that person? What advice would you give? What would you tell your younger self to do or not do? In our Dear Past Me series, we’re asking for your letters to the younger you.
The Rules:
All stories must be true and about you.
Stories must follow the theme in some way, interpretations can be wide. For this theme, all essays must be in letter form.
Stories must stay between 500–3,000 words.
Documents should be double spaced, 12Pt font with 1 inch margins.
Submissions must be in .doc or .docx form—we do not accept PDFs.
Please do not put your name on your manuscript. We realize in personal essays, the author’s name often comes up, so just use your best discretion.
Please include a third person bio. Cover letters are fine, but not necessary (we don’t read them, we’re more interested in what you’ve written).
Please submit only once per theme.
We do not accept previously published stories.
HerStry centers the experiences of women identifying persons. We’re looking for work from bigender/polygender persons, cisgender women, intergender persons/intersex persons, nonbinary persons/gender non-conforming persons, transgender women/transfeminine persons, two spirit. In other words, if you are a cis man, please refrain from submitting.
Stories due June 1, 2022
Want Personalized Feedback?
You can now receive helpful feedback by selecting the “personalized critique” option on our submissions page. While getting your work critiqued does not guarantee publication, we can help make it great for your next submissions, whether it’s to us or someone else.
$3 submission fee goes toward keeping HerStry sustainable. All accepted pieces receive $20 payment.
