Open for submissions
A Million Little Delights is a lifestyle magazine for inquisitive women building cozy, creative lives.
We publish short fiction, poetry, personal and literary essays, intimate interviews, cultural criticisms and reflections, thoughtful travel stories, literary/book/film essays, seasonal recipes, photo essays, creative-living pieces, cozy homemaking, delightfully niche lists, and other work that makes ordinary life feel a little more interesting.
Above all, we’re interested in work that leaves a reader wanting to read something, go somewhere, make something, notice something, or experience her own life a little more fully. We love writing that is curious, intimate, specific, observant, warm, surprising, and full of personality. We’re drawn to writers who pay attention—to books and rooms, friendships and rituals, places and people, tiny pleasures and complicated feelings, the things we make, and the lives we are making for ourselves.
Length & Payment
A Million Little Delights pays $0.08 per word for accepted submissions, based on the final edited word count.
Per-word pieces must be 500–1,000 words.
Original recipes, photo essays, and short poems under 400 words are paid at a flat rate of $30 per accepted submission. Flat-rate submissions may be no longer than 400 words and have no minimum word count.
Payment is issued upon publication. Our rates are the same for everyone, regardless of publication history or experience.
What We’re Looking For
To give you a sense of what catches our attention, here’s a peek at a few pieces already on our editorial calendar. Please don’t pitch these exact ideas—think of them as examples of the specificity, curiosity, and personality we love.
Personal Essays
Intimate, specific stories grounded in lived experience.I Started Taking Myself Out to Breakfast — On learning to enjoy your own company through a Saturday-morning ritual.
Literary & Cultural Writing
Books, film, art, girlhood, womanhood, rituals, objects, trends, and the culture around us—explored through a distinct point of view.Am I Sula? — A personal reckoning with the uncomfortable parts of oneself reflected in Toni Morrison’s Sula.
Whatever Happened to the Mall? — Teenage girlhood, third places, Auntie Anne’s, dressing rooms, and Saturdays spent wandering the mall.
Features & Interviews
Interesting people, unusual pursuits, creative lives, communities, and ideas worth lingering over.The Women Who Actually Went After the Dream — Conversations with women who left established careers to pursue creative callings.
Travel
Stories that give us more than an itinerary—the people, discoveries, mishaps, moods, and tiny moments that made a place memorable.A Solo Train Through Scotland — Conversations with strangers and traveling without an itinerary built around “must-sees.”
Book Criticism
Writing that moves beyond the traditional review and uses literature to explore a larger question.The Problem With the “Strong Female Character” — On contemporary fiction, female complexity, and what we mistake for strength.
Creative Living & Homemaking
Trying things, making things, collecting things, learning things, and finding imaginative ways to inhabit your life and home.I Signed Up for a Stand-Up Comedy Class Because I’ve Never Made a Whole Room Laugh
I’m on a Mission to Make My Texas Apartment Feel Like an NYC Flat
Short Fiction & Poetry
Vivid, emotionally resonant work with memorable language, voice, imagery, and perspective.Nectar & Noose — A story about racism, Black womanhood, and remaining soft in a world that hardens.
Seasonal Recipes
Original recipes rooted in memory, ritual, place, personality, or the pleasures of the season.The First Cold Sunday of the Year Calls for Chicken & Dumplings! — A recipe accompanied by a personal reflection.
Photo Essays
Visual stories that make us look more closely at a place, person, ritual, community, or ordinary day.An Ordinary Tuesday in New Orleans — Morning coffee, laundry on a balcony, the bus ride, corner stores, afternoon light.
Delightfully Niche Lists
Specific, spirited lists born from genuine fascination. The more particular the premise, the better.17 Movie Kitchens I Would Happily Move Into — A serious consideration of movie kitchens based on coziness, windows, countertops, dinner-party potential, and morning-coffee appeal.
Something we haven’t thought of yet — if it belongs in the world of A Million Little Delights, we’re happy to be surprised.
Before You Submit
Please send us work that feels finished and ready for editorial consideration. Proofread your submission and make sure your name and contact information are included where requested in the submission form.
By submitting, you should be prepared to work with an editor if your piece is accepted. Editing may include changes to structure, length, clarity, grammar, style, or other elements of the piece. Any payment calculated by word count will be based on the final edited word count.
Please read the individual submission fields carefully and provide all requested information. Incomplete submissions may be more difficult for us to consider.
One Last Thing
You don’t need to guess what sounds “literary enough” or “magazine enough” for us.
Send us the strange little idea you can’t stop thinking about. Send us the essay hiding inside a ritual you’ve performed a hundred times. Send us somewhere we’ve never been—or show us somewhere familiar from an angle we haven’t noticed. Tell us about the book you argued with, the room you’re slowly transforming, the meal that means October has arrived, the creative risk you finally took, the ordinary afternoon you suddenly realized wasn’t so ordinary.
Give us something to notice! Ready to submit?