Detailed Guidelines - Humor

We, at DesiLit Magazine, believe in comedy as an indispensable literary and political device. We are committed to supporting emerging and established artists and writers who are able to examine serious issues in a humorous way.

What We Want

We want to see original art and writing that uses humor and satire to challenge the status quo. We appreciate work by artists and writers who examine social and political issues, illuminate hard truths, and provide new angles on seeing our world. Oh yes, the work must be funny too.

All humorous modes are welcome: irony, satire, absurdity and black humor. All genres are welcome as well: fiction, poetry, political cartoons, articles, anecdotes, reminiscences or graphics. No subject is too sacrosanct for laughter, though we do appreciate good taste and quality.

We pay $100 for fiction, $20 for poetry and $50 for cartoons or strips.

How to Submit

We accept only email submissions at humor@desilit.org. The submissions must be pasted in the body of the email and simultaneously attached as a formatted Word document. Cartoons and graphics should be submitted as JPEGs of 300 DPIs. In the subject line please write the caption: Humor Submissions DesiLit: Article/Cartoon/ Fiction etc.

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, and the editor reserves sole right to choose publication date. Please do not submit more than four poems or cartoons at a time. Fiction should not be more than 3000 words though shorter pieces are more than welcome. Articles and reminiscences and humorous excerpts from longer works should not be more than 1500 words. We will not discourage you from simultaneous submissions provided you let us know immediately in case it is being published elsewhere. We will try to acknowledge every submission. In any case, we will get in touch with you within two months if we decide to publish your work. We also want your complete contact information with telephone number and email and your bio in no more than 100 words. If you have a publishing history, do give us the details.

For more information, please contact Sumita Sheth, Executive Editor.