October 2, 2022 Update:

All submissions should have received a decision. Contracts for selected submissions will go out in the next 10 days.

Some writers used the wrong email address; therefore, their work wasn’t considered. If you did not receive a response to your submission, one of the following may apply:

• you sent it to the wrong email
• it wasn’t formatted in accordance with our submission guidelines
• you didn’t submit it to us (Did you get a confirmation email from me? If not, either we never received it, or you used an email that required registration to accept correspondence. We will not register to correspond with anyone.)

Thanks to those that submitted. Next submission window is February 15, but it is invitation only. Pending review of invited submissions, we’ll determine if/when our next open submission call will occur.

Best,

Sandra

September 4, 2022 Update:

All valid submissions should have received a response at this time. I’m still reviewing the shortlist selections, and those writers have been notified.

I have received several messages and emails from people querying about the status of their submission. In almost all cases, I have a copy of the rejection sent. There were a handful of emails that, for some reason, got locked up in the outbox and went late. Those were addressed when discovered.

At this time, if you have not been contacted about your story being shortlisted for the final review, your story has been rejected.

An update will be posted here when final selections are made.

Again, I thank you for your patience.

Best,
Sandra

PS: There were some writers who had their email permissions restricted, so I received failure to deliver notices when attempting to confirm I’d received their submissions. Those submissions were not processed and, obviously, the writers weren’t informed because I couldn’t email them.

I apologize for the delays. I understand it’s frustrating to wait for responses, and given the volume of submissions, there will be a lot more rejections heading out than acceptances. However, another part of the reason for the delay is overall submission quality. You aren’t making this easy, and if DD doesn’t take your story, it’s only a matter of time before it finds a home.