We Welcome Your Submission
Persimmon Tree’s mission is to bring the creativity and talent of women over sixty to a wide audience of readers of all ages. We are looking for work that reveals rich experience and a variety of perspectives. Each issue of the magazine will include several fiction and nonfiction pieces, poetry by one or more poets, and the work of one or more visual artists. The magazine is published quarterly.
Please click on the appropriate header here to read the instructions for submitting Fiction and Nonfiction – Short Takes – Poetry – Art and Illustrations – and Forum Comments.
Persimmon Tree sends a promotional email to its subscribers approximately once a week. By publishing in Persimmon Tree you agree that your work may also appear in Persimmon Tree emails.
© 2025 Persimmon Tree Inc. Persimmon Tree Inc. reserves all rights to everything published in www.persimmontree.org. We support our contributors who succeed in being published elsewhere, and hereby give permission to any contributor to reprint her work in another venue, provided that the reprint, whether on the internet or in hard copy, includes an acknowledgement that the work was originally published in Persimmon Tree.
Please click on the appropriate header here to read the instructions for submitting Fiction and Nonfiction – Short Takes – Poetry – Art and Illustrations – and Forum Comments.
Persimmon Tree sends a promotional email to its subscribers approximately once a week. By publishing in Persimmon Tree you agree that your work may also appear in Persimmon Tree emails.
© 2025 Persimmon Tree Inc. Persimmon Tree Inc. reserves all rights to everything published in www.persimmontree.org. We support our contributors who succeed in being published elsewhere, and hereby give permission to any contributor to reprint her work in another venue, provided that the reprint, whether on the internet or in hard copy, includes an acknowledgement that the work was originally published in Persimmon Tree.
IMPORTANT SUBMISSIONS REQUIREMENT:
For your work to be considered by Persimmon Tree, you must be a subscriber. Subscriptions are free. Sign up for your subscription here.
Fiction and Nonfiction
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. We regret that we cannot accept any submission that does not follow the guidelines as to what should be sent, when it should be sent, and to whom it should be sent.
We welcome previously unpublished pieces under 3,500 words, written by women over sixty. Submissions may be sent to us any time during the year. Multiple submissions are accepted. If you want to send more than one piece, put them in separate emails.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please inform us immediately if any item in your submission is accepted elsewhere.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Submissions should be in Word, double-spaced, with 12-point type and numbered pages. At the top of the first page please enter author’s name, address, telephone number, and email address.
Please send your submission as an attachment to us at: editor@persimmontree.org. Type the title of the piece, labeled fiction or nonfiction, in the subject line. Include a brief biographical statement (less than 50 words) and a headshot in your email.
We welcome previously unpublished pieces under 3,500 words, written by women over sixty. Submissions may be sent to us any time during the year. Multiple submissions are accepted. If you want to send more than one piece, put them in separate emails.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please inform us immediately if any item in your submission is accepted elsewhere.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Submissions should be in Word, double-spaced, with 12-point type and numbered pages. At the top of the first page please enter author’s name, address, telephone number, and email address.
Please send your submission as an attachment to us at: editor@persimmontree.org. Type the title of the piece, labeled fiction or nonfiction, in the subject line. Include a brief biographical statement (less than 50 words) and a headshot in your email.
Short Takes
Short Takes are usually short prose pieces, fiction or non-fiction (250-500 words), but can also be topical poetry, sometimes even drawings or photography. We’re especially interested in hearing about your experiences, but you can include your thoughts, dreams, ideas and opinions. Humor and irony are always appreciated!
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. We regret that we cannot accept any submission that does not follow these guidelines. In particular, make sure that the address on your email is correct.
The Writer and the Engineer is both a love story and an examination of what it takes to be a writer. A fictional biography, it is inspired by the life of mystery writer Mignon Eberhart. Today, few readers, even avid mystery readers, know of her, but in the 1930s, she was known as the “American Agatha Christie,” her books were best sellers, and deserve to be read anew.
Mignon was barely 20 when she fell in love and married an engineer, but, while her career soared, the earnings from her popular mystery romance novels providing a lavish lifestyle, her marriage floundered. His indifference to sex set the stage for the emotional conflict that pervaded their life together. Why did she stay married to him? How did she write as the restless engineer constantly changed jobs, as they traipsed around the world? How did she turn out those intricately plotted, best-selling novels through marriage, divorce, and remarriage?
Eberhart wrote with discipline and dedication, no matter where she lived or traveled, even as she found herself in Paris, in the ambit of Stein, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. The novel explores and examines the peculiar ethos of the publishing industry that she worked in, along with the unique role of editors in the Golden Age of Mysteries.
This is a story for writers and for readers both, a window into the aspirations and inspirations of a writer, an exploration of the intertwining of her life and work, and of the milieu in which she did that work.
Available from Amazon and Bookshop.
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. We regret that we cannot accept any submission that does not follow these guidelines. In particular, make sure that the address on your email is correct.
Issue #75 – Summer 2025—Celebrating 75 issues
This summer marks the 75th issue of Persimmon Tree. It is almost 19 years old, and younger and stronger than ever. There is a lot more to celebrate than longevity—though that alone does speak both to the importance of the needs to which Persimmon Tree provides an answer and to the quality, fascination, and relevance of everything in the magazine. We invite you to celebrate with us. Send us a Short Take that is both about us and about you. You know that old joke, “So, enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you most like about me?” That’s what we’re looking for this summer: your take on us. You may write about what Persimmon Tree has meant in your art and your life. Which sections of the magazine do you read first and most? Have you found in Persimmon Tree a short story, an article, a poem perhaps, that meant something special to you, that made a difference, or that you will forever remember?
Projected publication date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Submissions will be accepted: May 7 to May 12
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email. Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Projected publication date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Submissions will be accepted: May 7 to May 12
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email. Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Issue #76–Fall 2025–Putting It All Away
There comes a time when we must put away all the stuff that has grown around us, a time for clearing the decks. Often, that means cleaning out the closet or the so-called “guest” room, or putting away last season’s clothes. It can equally refer to our lives: to freeing ourselves from the overbearing or annoying people who just make us feel bad, or the surfeit of tasks and obligations we’ve taken on (“I’m just a gal who can’t say no”). Or it can refer to our inner selves: it can mean breaking old, bad habits, or silencing the squalling inner child. January is traditionally the moment for grand resolutions promising self-improvement, but fall is a season for new beginnings, too, with summer ending (in the northern hemisphere, at least) and school starting up again. What have you put away? What should you?
Projected publication date: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Submissions will be accepted: August 11 to August 15
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Projected publication date: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Submissions will be accepted: August 11 to August 15
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Issue #77–Winter 2025/2026–Friendship and Other Gifts
This is the season of giving–and receiving. What’s on your wish list–for yourself, for those you love? What is the greatest, or most memorable, or best, or worst gift you have ever been given–or that you ever gave? The gift you’ll write about may be a thing you tie up with a bow; or it could be an intangible: Being a good friend is a gift, as is knowing how to be. Gifts can be two-edged swords: In Old Norse and in some modern Scandinavian languages as well, the word that corresponds to “gift” in English, “gjöf” (pronounced “gyuv”), can, depending on the context, also mean “potion” or “poison.” You may wish to write about the magic potion you once received–or the poison. Finally, gifts often come with strings attached. In many cultures around the globe, a gift creates for its recipient the burden of reciprocity; she must return the favor, sometimes two-fold or more. When has someone given you a something that turned out to be as much obligation as gift?
Projected publication date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Submissions will be accepted: November 17 to November 21
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Projected publication date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Submissions will be accepted: November 17 to November 21
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Issue #78–Spring 2026-The Cultures of Childhood
If you are old enough to write for this magazine, then you were a child at least 50 years ago–in a world that embraced very different cultural norms and expectations, values and beliefs, than those today. Write about your memories of that time: who were you then? what do you recall doing and thinking and saying? Write, too, about the ways in which everything and everyone around you then influenced your perception of yourself and your notions of what it means to be a woman, a mother, a worker, a person. What did it feel like to be 10 or 12 then – and do you ever feel like that now?
Publication date: To be announced
Submissions will be accepted: To be announced
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Publication date: To be announced
Submissions will be accepted: To be announced
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Issue #79–Summer 2026–Mending the Breach–or Not
There are so many ways in which relationships–friendships, marriages, partnerships, loves, families–fall apart. Time itself can do it, or distance. We’ve all had arguments that left us not wanting to be the first to call or text, and sometimes those rifts have lasted for decades. The political divisions of the past few years have also created gulfs we either can’t or prefer not to cross. Write about one such severed relationship. It can be current or far in the past. You can write about why you don’t want to repair it–or why you’d like to but can’t–or, in the best of all possible worlds, how the relationship has been repaired. Try not to be judgmental–of yourself or anyone else.
Publication date: To be announced
Submissions will be accepted: To be announced
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Publication date: To be announced
Submissions will be accepted: To be announced
(Please do not submit earlier or later than those dates.)
Your submission must be under 500 words. Submit it to us as a Word document; be sure your name, address, phone number, and email address are all in the Word document. Send us the document by an email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org, and type “Short Take” in the subject line of the email.
Include a headshot and short bio (no more than 50 words) in the email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Poetry
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. We regret that we cannot accept any submission that does not follow the guidelines as to what should be sent, when it should be sent, and to whom it should be sent.
Twice each year, Persimmon Tree publishes collections of poems by our readers and other older women poets. Our summer 2025 issue, which will be published in mid-June, will feature the work of poets who are currently living outside the United States. If you are a woman poet 60 years old and older, and are currently living outside the United States, you are invited to submit.
The submissions window opens March 20, and closes on Tuesday, April 15. Work submitted earlier or later than those dates will not be considered.
Your poems may be on any topic, but preferably no longer than one page each. You may submit up to three poems, all of which must be unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please inform us immediately if any poems in your submission are accepted elsewhere.
Your submission should be in a Word document, single-spaced (double-spaced only if that is how you wish the poem to appear), in 12-point type. Please include your name, address, telephone number, and email address at the top of each page of the document.
Attach your submission to an email and send it to poetry@persimmontree.org. The subject line of the email should read “Poetry Submission Summer 2025.” Also include in the email a headshot and a short (no more than 50 words) bio. We regret that the volume of entries makes it impossible for us to acknowledge receipt of your email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe.
The Guest Poetry Editor (who will coordinate with Cynthia Hogue, our Poetry Editor, in selecting and introducing the poetry for this special section) is the award-winning poet and director of the Writing Center at Bucknell University, Deirdre O’Connor.
The regional rotation is as follows:
Twice each year, Persimmon Tree publishes collections of poems by our readers and other older women poets. Our summer 2025 issue, which will be published in mid-June, will feature the work of poets who are currently living outside the United States. If you are a woman poet 60 years old and older, and are currently living outside the United States, you are invited to submit.
The submissions window opens March 20, and closes on Tuesday, April 15. Work submitted earlier or later than those dates will not be considered.
Your poems may be on any topic, but preferably no longer than one page each. You may submit up to three poems, all of which must be unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please inform us immediately if any poems in your submission are accepted elsewhere.
Your submission should be in a Word document, single-spaced (double-spaced only if that is how you wish the poem to appear), in 12-point type. Please include your name, address, telephone number, and email address at the top of each page of the document.
Attach your submission to an email and send it to poetry@persimmontree.org. The subject line of the email should read “Poetry Submission Summer 2025.” Also include in the email a headshot and a short (no more than 50 words) bio. We regret that the volume of entries makes it impossible for us to acknowledge receipt of your email.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe.
The Guest Poetry Editor (who will coordinate with Cynthia Hogue, our Poetry Editor, in selecting and introducing the poetry for this special section) is the award-winning poet and director of the Writing Center at Bucknell University, Deirdre O’Connor.
The regional rotation is as follows:
- Summer 2025: International (for poets living outside the US or in a US Territory),
- Winter 2025/2026: East (the coastal states from Maine to Florida, and also Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Alabama),
- Summer 2026: West (the coastal states, and Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico).
- Winter 2026/2027: Central (the Midwest, the Great Plains, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri)
Art and Illustrations
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. We regret that we cannot accept any submission that does not follow the guidelines as to what should be sent, when it should be sent, and to whom it should be sent.
Although the artists who are featured on our dedicated art page are chosen by our art editor, we welcome submissions of work in all media for display and illustration throughout the rest of the magazine. You are invited to send up to five samples of your work (in jpg format, 72 dpi) by email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org. Include in the email, the title and medium of each work, a headshot, your name, postal address, phone number, email address, and a short biographical statement (less than 50 words). Submissions may be sent at any time during the year.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Although the artists who are featured on our dedicated art page are chosen by our art editor, we welcome submissions of work in all media for display and illustration throughout the rest of the magazine. You are invited to send up to five samples of your work (in jpg format, 72 dpi) by email addressed to publisher@persimmontree.org. Include in the email, the title and medium of each work, a headshot, your name, postal address, phone number, email address, and a short biographical statement (less than 50 words). Submissions may be sent at any time during the year.
You must be subscribed to submit; click here to subscribe. Submissions and subscriptions are free.
Forum
Please read and follow these instructions carefully. We regret that we cannot accept any submission that does not follow the guidelines as to what should be sent, when it should be sent, and to whom it should be sent.
Readers will be asked to contribute to each issue of the magazine their views on questions of moment to the Persimmon Tree community of older women writers and artists. Please do not submit anything at this time. We will let you know when the submissions window opens for the next issue, and what the topic will be.
Readers will be asked to contribute to each issue of the magazine their views on questions of moment to the Persimmon Tree community of older women writers and artists. Please do not submit anything at this time. We will let you know when the submissions window opens for the next issue, and what the topic will be.
The Writer and the Engineer
by Niomi Rohn Phillips
The Writer and the Engineer is both a love story and an examination of what it takes to be a writer. A fictional biography, it is inspired by the life of mystery writer Mignon Eberhart. Today, few readers, even avid mystery readers, know of her, but in the 1930s, she was known as the “American Agatha Christie,” her books were best sellers, and deserve to be read anew.
Mignon was barely 20 when she fell in love and married an engineer, but, while her career soared, the earnings from her popular mystery romance novels providing a lavish lifestyle, her marriage floundered. His indifference to sex set the stage for the emotional conflict that pervaded their life together. Why did she stay married to him? How did she write as the restless engineer constantly changed jobs, as they traipsed around the world? How did she turn out those intricately plotted, best-selling novels through marriage, divorce, and remarriage?
Eberhart wrote with discipline and dedication, no matter where she lived or traveled, even as she found herself in Paris, in the ambit of Stein, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. The novel explores and examines the peculiar ethos of the publishing industry that she worked in, along with the unique role of editors in the Golden Age of Mysteries.
This is a story for writers and for readers both, a window into the aspirations and inspirations of a writer, an exploration of the intertwining of her life and work, and of the milieu in which she did that work.
Available from Amazon and Bookshop.Bio
Judy Ireland’s poems have appeared in Hotel Amerika, Calyx, Saranac Review, Eclipse, Cold Mountain, Coe Review, and other journals, as well as in two anthologies, the Best Indie Lit New England anthology, and the Voices from the Fierce Intangible World anthology. Her book, Cement Shoes, won the 2013 Sinclair Poetry Prize, and was published in 2014 by Evening Street Press. In addition to being a writer, she is also an amateur photographer. She currently serves as Co-Director for the Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches, as Senior Poetry Editor & Reading Series Producer for the South Florida Poetry Journal, and she teaches at Palm Beach State College.