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Get Published: Submit to Instant Noodles Literary Magazine 2026

Published on January 1, 2026December 19, 2025 by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

by Nadja Maril, a founding member of Old Scratch Press Collective

Happy New Year to readers and writers around the world. May your New Year 2026 be happy, safe, and productive. If one of your New Year’s Resolutions is “get more writing done” you’ve come to the right place. In our Old Scratch Press blog we will continue to discuss different kinds of short form writing, provide instruction and prompts, and share publishing opportunities.

First up is to tell you about our own publication Instant Noodles Literary Magazine. A member of CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses), we nominate for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

Planes, Boats, Cars, Trains is our theme for the Spring Issue 2026 of Instant Noodles Literary Magazine.

Maybe you love to travel or maybe you like to stay at home, but when you venture out— what kind of transportation takes you on your journey? Are you invigorated by the open water, frantic following road signs, anonymous on a plane, or comforted by the train station whistle? In the process of getting to your destination, how did the vehicle you’re traveling in affect the outcome?

We’re looking for flash prose (up to 500 words) fiction and nonfiction, as well as poetry, drama, visual art, and multi-media submissions. Deadline: March 15^th.

When you send in your submission, as you should with any submission, the piece should be polished and complete with no grammar mistakes and no misspellings.

Also included should be a brief cover letter. The remainder of this blog I’m going to talk about what I think is the appropriate cover letter for a Literary Magazine. (Each magazine is slightly different so always read their guidelines).

Editors at Literary Magazines generally use the cover letter that contains a very brief biography ( 50 to 75 words) as the same biography they use in the publication, if you are lucky enough to have your story or poem accepted. Thus, even if writing is a new found love or second career, you want to keep it “professional.”

Rather than listing everywhere you’ve been published, pick no more than three places. (ex. They’ve been published in Dawn Magazine, Sunshine Press, Dark Days and many other publications.) If you have never been published, that’s okay. Magazines are always looking for NEW TALENT.

In your cover letter, DO NOT SUMMARIZE the work you are submitting. Editors want to read it without preconceived notions. If it needs to be “explained” this is a red flag. DO NOT excessively brag about what a wonderful writer you are or exaggerate your accomplishments.

IF you have one interesting personal fact ( ex. They’re a champion parachutist.) you’d like to include, it can enhance a cover letter, but to tell the story of your life is not recommended. Too long a cover letter can be a turn off.

Links to a book you’ve published and/or your website or blog is always a good idea. If a reader wants to read more of your work it is helpful.

Always be polite and kind in your dealings with other writers and editors. Everyone is working hard and many are volunteering their time because they love the art of writing.

Never give up, if you think you’ve written something good. Often pieces, particularly in a theme call, are rejected because they are not a good fit for a particular issue. Always work to improve unpublished work by revisiting it and revising it, when appropriate. Read and submit to multiple magazines.

HAVE A GREAT WRITING YEAR and keep perfecting your craft. LEARNING is part of the journey.

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Nadja Maril is an award winning writer and poet who has been published in dozens of online and print literary journals and anthologies including: Lunch Ticket, Invisible City Literary Review, and The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts. She is the author of Recipes From My Garden, published by Old Scratch Press (September 2024), a Midwest Review California Book Watch Reviewer's Choice. An Anne Arundel County Arts Council Literary Arts Award winner, her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net. She has an MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast at USM.

Check out Nadja's chapbook of flash memoir and poetry below.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/recipes-from-my-garden-nadja-maril/1145598579

Calls for Submissions: Instant Noodles Literary Review 2025

Published on January 1, 2025December 18, 2024 by Nadja Maril1 Comment

Nadja Maril, author of RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN, is one of the founders of Old Scratch Press

The Editors of Instant Noodles Literary Review, published three times a year, have announced the themes for 2025: Current, Sanctuary and Gravy.

Edited by members of the Old Scratch Short Form Collective who have volunteered their time, submissions are free. The Instant Noodles submission box which you can access through Duotrope is filling up fast.

While artists and writers selected for publication receive no financial renumeration, the publishers and editors do their utmost to promote the work in each issue. Instant Noodles nominates for industry prizes, Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. One of the magazine’s promotions is a zoom reading, giving contributors around the world a chance to meet.

Published three times a year, the magazine is posted online for everyone to read. One of the biggest reasons work gets rejected, is that writers don’t follow submission guidelines and familiarize themselves with the publication.

In addition to Visual Art and Multimedia Creations, the magazine publishes Prose & Poetry

Instant Noodles focuses on SHORT pieces. Short work 500 and 750 words in length can be powerful. If you are submitting prose, whether is it hybrid, nonfiction, or fiction, the word limit is 1000 words or less.

All work must be original and must belong to the author. Works that have been previously published will not be considered. Stories must be complete and self-contained (i.e., do not submit chapters of a larger work).

NOTE: Accepted works will be published as submitted without editing; as such, in addition to the originality of the work itself, we are looking for manuscripts that are clean and press ready. Be sure to review your grammar, spelling, tenses, proper punctuation, and other general rules of the written word before hitting “Send.” Work should be submitted through Duotrope as a Microsoft Word file (when it is poetry, drama, NF or fiction) as 12-point New Times Roman, double-spaced (single-spaced for poetry submissions). All other types of work have details as to their file types on the Duotrope page.

Connect to the Theme

The Editors request that submissions should have a connection to one of the themes for which they were submitted: Current, Sanctuary and Gravy—and labelled as such.

They are looking for more submissions in the categories of creative nonfiction, drama, multimedia and visual art.

“When I’m reading poetry submissions for Instant Noodles,” Says contributing Poetry Editor Gabby Gilliam, “I’m looking for poems that concisely fit our theme and resonate. I want lines that linger in my mind long after I’m finished reading.

As a contributing editor, I suggest it is never too early to start contemplating ideas associated with our spring theme, current, as well as the subsequent themes that follow. What ideas does the word current evoke for you? Are you thinking about being hip, cool and up on “current” events or are you traveling on an air “current.” Where does the word take you?

Try writing a story about yourself, something you observed, or something entirely imaginary. Create a video, a picture, combine two mediums.

Work should be publication ready

Do not submit until your piece is ready. Have you read your piece out loud and checked for misspellings and grammar mistakes? Does it fit the theme and are you ready to share it with the world?

The deadline for the spring issue with the theme Current is March 16^th. We look forward to reading your work!

Nadja Maril is the author of Recipes from my Garden, Old Scratch Press, September 2024.

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