Spring Call For Submissions
Submit a personal essay, review, book excerpt, or other writing to Midstory
We want your writing….
What We Publish
Midstory is an online magazine for midlife women who are in the thick of it—the reinvention, the reckoning, the mess and possibility of the middle years. We publish essays, reviews, articles, and excerpts (900-2,500 words) that capture what it means to be a woman at midlife (or beyond), and to start over, to refuse to shrink, to finally speak up, or to burn it all down and begin again.
We’re interested in the stories midlife women actually live. We want the complicated, the contradictory, the unfinished business of your life right now.
In terms of defining what “midlife” is and which chronological ages are eligible to submit writing, we view midlife as more of a mindset, a feeling that you are, indeed, “midstory,” or in the middle of your story. Do you feel like you’re in the messy middle of your life — whether you’re 35, 55, or 75?
Submissions are now open for paid subscribers of Midstory. Submissions will then be open to all subscribers — free and paid — on April 20th. The first published essay will be chosen from those submitted by paid subscribers.
What We’re Looking For
Original, unpublished personal essays by midlife women that explore:
The transformations of midlife: not just the “I found myself” narratives, but the messy, ongoing process of becoming someone new while still being yourself. Show us what it actually feels like to reinvent your life at 45, 52, 63. What did you have to let go of? What surprised you? What scared you? What made you feel alive for the first time in years?
The reckonings: the moments when you finally confront what you’ve been avoiding, denying, or running from. The marriage that isn’t working. The career that’s draining you. The relationship with your mother you’ve never examined. The choices you made twenty years ago that you’re still living with. We want essays that wrestle with hard truths, that show you in the process of facing something you’ve kept hidden, from others or from yourself.
The resistance: the ways you’re pushing back against invisibility, ageism, diminishment, or the cultural narratives about what midlife women should be and want. How are you taking up space? Speaking uncomfortable truths? Refusing to apologize? Challenging expectations? What does it cost you, and what do you gain?
The discoveries: the passions, friendships, creative pursuits, hobbies, or parts of yourself you’re finding (or rediscovering) at midlife. The surprising plot twists. The late-blooming relationships, creative awakenings, or radical changes in how you see yourself. Show us what it’s like to experience something new when you thought you knew who you were.
The daily texture of midlife: the unglamorous, often invisible realities of life in the middle. Caring for aging parents while raising teenagers. Bodies changing in ways that surprise or unsettle you. Friendships shifting or ending. Marriages evolving or unraveling. Money worries. The sandwich years. The empty nest. Menopause. Grief. We want the details, the moments that capture what your days actually look and feel like.
What We Don’t Want
Generic reflections on aging or getting older.
Essays about someone else’s experience.
Advice pieces disguised as essays.
AI-generated content. We only publish work written by midlife women, for midlife women.
We Also Publish
Book, film, and TV reviews (900-2,000 words) that examine how midlife women are portrayed in culture, or that review work by and about midlife women through a sharp, personal lens. We’re not interested in only plot summaries; we want your analysis, your perspective, your argument about what this work gets right or wrong about our lives.
Book excerpts (1,000-2,500 words) from memoirs or essay collections by midlife women. If you have a book coming out or recently published, query us with a compelling excerpt that can stand alone as an essay.
Interviews (900-2,500 words) with midlife women writers, artists, entrepreneurs, or creators who are doing interesting work or living unconventional lives. We’re looking for conversations that go deeper than standard Q&As.
