Open Call for Submissions

If you are working class, you are eligible to write for the Bee. We are open to anyone living in the UK over the age of 18 who has a working-class background. 

The open call will open on Monday 14th July and will close on Monday 11th August at 4pm. Please note that the Bee will open again for submissions in early 2026, so if you’re not sure what you’d like to write about yet, we encourage you to have a think and submit during our next submissions period.

For our current submissions period, we are interested in ideas for pieces of fiction, non-fiction and journalism that capture something about being working class in Britain in 2025. That could be a feeling, or something you observe, or an experience. We’re particularly interested in stories about joy, community and hope. If you are proposing fiction, we are open to any genre.

Your piece can be any length from 500 to 3,000 words. It could be anything from a description of something, to a full short story or article. We encourage you to look at the pieces currently on the Bee website to see the kinds of work we publish. Please read the site to make sure we haven’t already published a story that’s the same as your idea.

We are not currently open to poetry submissions, but will be accepting poetry in future submissions periods. Future submissions periods will also open to different themes, so if you’re not sure what to write for this theme, we encourage you to keep an eye out for future submissions periods.

A pitch up to a maximum of 300 words describing what you would like to write about for the Bee, and why you think it would be right for us (more guidance on this below).

A 500-word writing sample of writing you’ve done before, so we can see what your work is like. This doesn’t have to have been published anywhere, and doesn’t need to be the same style or topic as your idea for the Bee.

A brief biography of yourself (maximum 100 words), mentioning any previous writing experience. Please note that this won’t be read by our initial team of readers so as to ensure that the work is being assessed anonymously. 

A pitch is a brief summary (max 300 words in this case) of the idea you want to write. It doesn't need to be a polished piece of writing – a list covering the points below is fine. It should include the following:

• A sentence or two giving an overview of what you want to write about (examples could be: “I want to write a non-fiction article about my experiences working in hospitality”; “I’d like to write about how young people who are working class are held back by not having family connections”; “I’d like to write about the way people I know use language, and how it marks them out as working class.”). Please note that we’ll consider any subject if you can make it interesting, from politics to crisps to TV shows.
• Two or three sentences about what you'll talk about in your story. This could be things that happen, things you observe, or the ideas and feelings you have about your subject.
• Why you think this piece is right for the Bee, and why you are the person to write this piece. You might talk about how it connects with our themes and already published pieces, and/or how it draws from your experiences of being working class.
• The estimated length of the piece (it should be between 500 and 3,000 words).

You might want to take a look at Journoresources, which has some helpful resources on pitching, including a library of successful pitches.

A biography might include information about who you are, what you do, what you like to write about, if you have been published anywhere before or won/been shortlisted/been longlisted for any writing competitions. You won’t be assessed based on your biography, and the initial team of readers won’t have access to it.

Please don’t put your name in your pitch or your sample writing. You can include your name in your biography, which won’t be read by our readers. 

Please submit your application via our Airtable form. You don’t need an account to do this. There are textboxes where you can input your pitch, writing sample and biography. We recommend typing these up elsewhere (e.g. Google Docs) and copying them into the text boxes, so you don’t lose your work if there are any technical issues while submitting.

We ask that you only submit one piece per submissions period. If you submit more than one piece, we will only consider the most recent submission and will not assess any earlier submissions. You are welcome to submit again when we open for submissions again in 2026.

We won’t be accepting anything that has been formally published elsewhere and for which you have been paid. However, if you have self-published something, for example, on your blog, we would be willing to consider a pitch that builds on that idea.

Yes. However, we ask that you contact us as soon as possible if you hear that your work is accepted so that you can withdraw your piece from consideration by the Bee.

No, you don’t need to have been published anywhere before to submit to the Bee. You can be at any stage of your writing career. 

As we all know, this can be complicated. The most common technical definition of “working class” is people whose parents did the following kinds of work:

• Lower supervisory and technical occupations, such as car mechanics.
• Semi-routine occupations, like cooks, bus drivers, and sales assistants.
• Routine occupations, including waiters, cleaners, and labourers.
• It can also include people who have never worked or are long-term unemployed.

These groups come from the Office of National Statistics classification. If you would like to read more about them, see section 7 here.

We recognise this ONS definition. However, we also recognise that people can move class circumstances, and may still wish to write about their working-class experience. We accept proposals like that.

We also understand that defining people by their parents' jobs means some people are left out, such as people who grew up in care. Generally speaking, if you define yourself as working class, we'd like to hear from you. 

We know that there are a diverse range of working-class experiences across the UK and we are keen to hear from all working-class identities. We welcome submissions from writers who are underrepresented in the writing industries due to their ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender identity, age and religious beliefs.

To understand more fully what we mean by working class, and why a magazine of working-class writing is needed, read Dave O’Brien’s essay Publishing’s Class Problem.

All applications will be read by a team of readers. The team of readers will identify a shortlist from which we will choose the pieces to be published. 

All applicants will hear back by Friday 7th November 2025.

You will be contacted by our editor, Richard Benson, who will work with you on developing your piece. We anticipate that the pieces will be developed between November 2025 and January 2026 inclusive, and will be published in January and February 2026.

Yes, you will be paid according to our pay rates, outlined here. We will send you a letter of agreement that outlines your pay rate, and will ask you to submit an invoice so we can pay you.

If you are shortlisted, we will send you some feedback on your submission. We are unable to provide all submissions with feedback.

As part of the application process, we ask demographic questions to help us understand who we are reaching. These questions are optional, and you can choose not to answer any of the questions by selecting “Prefer not to say”. 

Please note the answers to these questions are for monitoring purposes only. They will have no impact on your application, and the people assessing your work will have no access to your answers. Your responses will remain confidential and use of your responses will adhere to our Privacy Policy which can be found here.

We are keen to learn and are open to suggestions on how we understand and collect demographic data. If you have any feedback on how we ask these questions, please contact us at: submissions@thebeemagazine.com.

By submitting work to the Bee, you are agreeing to it being read by our team of assessors. The copyright of your work stays with you during the assessment process and the Bee does not exert or ask for any rights over your work at any point in the assessment process.

If your work is accepted, New Writing North (on behalf of the Bee) will have the first publication rights on work produced as part of this commission, and then the non-exclusive right to use the work online and in print, in perpetuity.

You will receive future correspondence from the Bee and/or New Writing North only if you have specifically signed up to receive our email newsletters as part of the submission process. This is not mandatory and once you have signed up you can unsubscribe at any time. We do not share your data or personal information with any other businesses or organisations and we abide by all data protection legislation. You can read our privacy policy here.