Announcing our next submission window — w. a poem

Details on our submission window for the Fall issue follow


THE RANSOM NOTE or Big Score Lit: An Abstraction Manifesto

We’re called Big Score, like the ransacking of a safe,
Like we use a surgeon’s most delicate tools to strike
Imperial metal until monoliths crack, and outpours
Mouthfuls of searing, screaming gold light.
We are the original sort of sort— if it tastes like
It went the long way back in the dead of night: chances are
We’re listening. If you wrestle to keep your soul encased
In your own body: hit our line. If the animals keep
Poking their antlers through your skylight— hold your
Breath, walk slow, and try to yank something up
For us to use: we’re starving. It can be quiet
As a violin in a locked-up room or we could have you
Kidnap a holler and deliver it by parachute.
We believe in: More and Sooner, later has long since arrived.
We want to: sack the joint and hand you the blueprints that say:
Walk one foot and collect your winnings— the bravery was
Just in coming. But, for god’s sake: keep your mask on.
We are well trained in recognizing a comrade
By how they vanish into the moment…
And, above all, we want to look good for the paper.
Call us sentimentalists or a low-level mob hitman
Who doesn’t want to face the epoch’s ending, but we still think
there is healthy rage in this world.


– Andres Cordoba, Poetry Editor for Big Score


We will be opening for submissions again, both poetry and prose, at midnight on May 24_^th, 2026, and will remain open until June 1_^st, 2026, or once we reach ~200 submissions.

Big Score No. 3 is slated to publish in October 2026.

For our specific submission guidelines/how to, read here.