Fatal Flaw is an international online magazine publishing unexpected, topical writing and visual art that considers the world through a cracked lens. Show us the fatal flaw and the beauty inherent within it.

We welcome submissions from writers of all backgrounds – from the emerging and unpublished to the established – and especially encourage submissions from those who identify as persons of color, multiracial, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and anyone belonging to a community of underrepresented voices. 

GENERAL SUBMISSIONS FOR VOL. 13 ARE NOW OPEN! 

Submission period: June 13th to September 12th

Theme: TRASH

What’s worth keeping—and what do we throw away?
What’s tossed aside, but still clings to meaning? What gleams beneath the grime? What rot reveals something raw and real?

For Fatal Flaw Volume 13, we’re rummaging through the discarded, the dirty, the overlooked. We seek submissions with the theme: TRASH.

Send us stories that dig through the landfill of memory. Poems that salvage the sacred from the scraps. We want essays that wade into the messy middle—what society casts off, what people erase, what culture deems disposable. Show us the clutter, the chaos, the compost heap of human experience.

We want art that celebrates the beauty in broken things. Work that interrogates what we devalue—and why. Is it refuse or relic? Waste or warning?

Unpack what’s been buried. Reclaim what’s been trashed. We’re looking for work that’s raw, visceral, and unafraid to get its hands dirty.

We eagerly await your beautifully ruined work.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
For an idea of the type of work we usually gravitate toward, check out our past issues or learn more about us on our About page.