Submissions Guidelines

We accept translations of:

• poetry: up to 3 poems at a time, no more than 10 pages

• prose: 1 piece at a time, up to 5000 words. This section includes short stories, excerpts from novels, short screenplays, etc.

• flash fiction: up to 3 pieces at a time, no more than 3000 words in total

• creative non-fiction: up to 2 pieces at a time, no more than 5000 words in total

We also accept:

• art: up to 6 pieces at a time (black and white or color, high resolution)

All submissions have to be accompanied by short bios (author's and translator's where applicable), and a brief cover letter.

Before submitting make sure you have secured the publishing rights from the author.

Also in line with our mission of shedding light on the translation process, we are looking forward to receiving (in English) your:

• lengthy translator’s notes

• annotated drafts

• first and last drafts of a translation (with a commentary)

• essays on translation

• manifestos

• translation diaries

or whatever form of observations and reflections on the art and craft of literary translation you want to share.

Ideally, works should be formatted according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, although we accept whatever formatting is most accessible to you.

Send everything in a single .doc or .docx file (12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing) to submit@thethirdwheel.org. The file name should consist of the author's name, followed by the translator's name and the genre, for example: author_translator_poetry.

We prefer previously unpublished works. Depending on the circumstances, however, we may consider reprints.

Simultaneous translations are welcome, as long as you notify us when a work gets accepted elsewhere.

Due to ethical considerations, The Third Wheel will not consider AI-generated pieces.

Currently, The Third Wheel is not a paying publication. Still, we believe creative work is work and that literary translators deserve more than recognition. That’s why we’re actively seeking funding opportunities to ensure we can offer payment to all our contributors in the future.

Rights & Copyright

When a submission is accepted, contributors retain full rights to their work while granting The Third Wheel a non‑exclusive right to publish it in our digital and/or PDF editions and to archive it on our website.

Contributors also grant The Third Wheel permission to use brief excerpts, cover images, or promotional graphics derived from their accepted work for marketing purposes across our social media channels. We will never alter the work’s content beyond standard excerpting or formatting for promotional use.

For digital publication, we ask for 60 days of exclusivity from the date of first appearance in The Third Wheel. After this period, authors may share or republish their work anywhere (including Substack, blogs, and personal sites), provided the original publication is acknowledged.

For print publication, no exclusivity is required. Authors may reprint their work in anthologies, collections, or other print venues at any time. We simply request that any subsequent publication include a credit line noting that the work first appeared in The Third Wheel.

We now welcome submissions for our second issue, The Forever Foreigner. Closely related to concepts (and, alas, practices) such as nativism, racial prejudice, and xenophobia—“foreigner” becomes a perpetual status, assigned to naturalized and native-born citizens alike, rendering them ad infinitum outside the national identity. It also becomes a state of mind, a precarious existence in emotional limbo. We seek creative and critical work that probes this enduring condition, as well as broader explorations of migration, displacement, expulsion, deportation, and exile, both literal and figurative.

Because our magazine focuses heavily on the craft and agency of translators, we encourage pieces whose theme touches on the act of translation itself. Translation carries its own quiet dynamics of displacement, as it crosses borders into a context where it might always be read as an outsider. We also welcome poetry, prose, essays, visual and hybrid work in which the theme surfaces in the text’s subject, the personal geography of the writer or translator, or as a metaphor for linguistic and cultural relocation.

The deadline for submissions is October 31.