Submit to the Wave

Editor’s Note: this story was updated and significantly altered on July 19, 2026.

Fourth Wave opened our submissions process July 7, 2026, in response to requirements of the new Editor Partner Program. We like the program and want our hardworking editors MunibaKasi, Esther Uwanah Edet, Suma Narayan, and Sangeeta K to be rewarded for their hard work keeping this ship afloat.

What “open submissions” means is anyone can now submit a story or poem to Fourth Wave — no pre-approval required. Even so, if you are a NEW contributor, we’d like to know more about you, so please fill out this form to introduce yourself. Also, be aware: submission does not equal acceptance for publication.

So … should you send us your story? That depends. Fourth Wave’s mission is to lift the voices of women and girls worldwide and stamp out sexism, racism, homophobia and other supremacy-infected ideologies that suck. So if your story is related in some way to universal equality and human rights, do send it in. You don’t have to be a woman to write for us, but you do have to believe in women’s rights.

We like all kinds of stories: personal essays, political commentary, book and media reviews, and poetry. And we want voices from all over the spectrum and world. We believe that by weaving our voices together, we will be able to make real cultural change, improving the lives of women and girls worldwide, and lifting up members of other targeted groups.

When considering which stories and poems to publish on Fourth Wave, content is the most important element. But there are other elements we look at, too. Your story should:

• Cite your sources: If you are sharing information, tell us where you got it with a link. That protects your credibility, and ours.
• Credit your artwork: Because artists deserve credit for their work.
• Not use AI: We don’t accept AI-written stories or AI-created artwork. We don’t want to put human artists and writers out of work.
• Be formatted in FW Style: This speeds your story towards publication. We use traditional print magazine formatting, and like our stories to look consistent. Here is our stylesheet, for reference. If you object to our style for some reason, let us know at 4thwavesubmissions@gmail.com. Exceptions are sometimes made. Editors will copyedit your submission for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and may make suggestions for content changes, but won’t make big changes without your OK (which should be spelled “okay” or with two capital letters, btw, according to the Associated Press Stylebook, a great reference book for writers).

We are trying to build a community here at Fourth Wave, because we want to change the world. So besides writing a good story of your own, please read and respond to other stories in the publication; watch, subscribe, and let us know if you’d like to participate in our Livestreams; sign up for our Four Favorites Newsletter; consider joining our Book Club, and let us know if you’d like to volunteer. And of course, you should also follow Fourth Wave.

Our tagline says “Let’s start something,” and it seems that we already have, with more than 76,000 people following our publication, bringing more than 3,300 visitors a day who read more than 2,100 stories here. But there is so much more to be done. Join us!

Looking forward to a better tomorrow,

Patsy Fergusson
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Fourth Wave

But wait, there’s more!

You may be wondering, whatever happened to the Boost Program? It is still operating, but no longer aided by publication editors. Now curators employed by Medium are the only ones searching for excellent stories to “boost,” which results in significant increases in reads and views.

When deciding which stories make the cut, curators consider Medium’s Quality Guidelines along with the following:

1. Is the reader’s life enriched by reading the story?
2. Is it original, human-created content?
3. Does the author speak from relevant knowledge and experience?
4. Is the story well-crafted?
5. Does the story have impact?

Are you a visual learner?

If so, you can watch the video below (instead of readng the stylesheet) to learn how to get your story ready for publication in Fourth Wave. If your submission is accepted, having already formatted it in Fourth Wave style will speed publication.

BTW, the error made most frequently by new contributors is misuse of the quote formatting tools. Here’s a story that explains how those tools were designed to be used, which is how we use them on Fourth Wave.

In addition to formatting to match our traditional print style, please include one or more of our topics so that your story will place in the right section on our home page and populate our subpages. This benefits you by making your story easier to find. Our topics are: World, Women, Health, Media (for reviews of books, movies, shows, and music), and Writing (for poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction or memoir; also stories about writing). If you don’t include one of those topics, our editors will choose one for you.

If you have questions, send an email to 4thwavesubmissions@gmail.com. If you want more information, see our more detailed Submission Guidelines.

Best of luck. We hope to see your work here soon!

Backstory: what does the name “Fourth Wave” mean?

Fourth wave is a feminist term. The banner at the top of our publication is a visual representation of the four waves of the feminist movement.

First Wave: Suffragettes created the first wave of feminism which earned American women the right to vote in 1920 and focused on overturning legal barriers to gender inequality.

Second Wave: The second wave came in the 1960s and ’70s and broadened the movement to include issues of sexuality, family, the workplace, and reproductive rights. It’s represented by Gloria Steinem and a poster promoting the ERA (the Equal Rights Amendment, which never passed) in our banner.

Third Wave: The third wave appeared in the 1990s, provoked by Anita Hill’s testimony to the U.S. Congress about sexual harassment in the workplace by Clarence Thomas. After he was confirmed as a justice on the Supreme Court despite Hill’s brave and credible testimony, women across the U.S. felt betrayed. The start of the third wave is credited to Rebecca Walker (daughter of Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker) who used the term in a piece about the hearings that was published in Steinem’s Ms. Magazine. That’s why both Hill and a portion of Walker’s piece represent the third wave on our banner. Here’s part of what she said:

“So I write this as a plea to all women, especially women of my generation: Let Thomas’ confirmation serve to remind you, as it did me, that the fight is far from over. Let this dismissal of a woman’s experience move you to anger. Turn that outrage into political power. Do not vote for them unless they work for us. Do not have sex with them, do not break bread with them, do not nurture them if they don’t prioritize our freedom to control our bodies and our lives. I am not a post-feminism feminist. I am the Third Wave.”
— Rebecca Walker

In addition to expressing righteous anger at a system that ignored women’s right not to be sexually harassed, the third wave sought to redefine the term feminist, arguing for more diversity and individuality.

Fourth Wave: The fourth wave of feminism is the era we are in today. It started around 2012 and focuses on empowering women using internet tools. But the fourth wave isn’t just about gender. It builds on the concept of “intersectionality” introduced in the third wave, which recognizes that most women are oppressed by more than gender. For example, if you are Black and a woman, you are oppressed by both those aspects of your identity. If you are gay, Black, and a woman, you have three intersections of oppression. If you are poor, Black, gay, and a woman, you have four, etc.

The work of the fourth wave is to expand the feminist movement beyond a White middle class woman’s perspective to advocate for equality for ALL types of women, and all types of people, because as Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.”

As Martin Luther King said,“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.”

That’s why the fourth wave is represented in our banner by a Mexican woman holding up a sign during a protest against police mistreatment of women in that country. Written in Spanish, her sign says, “They don’t protect me. They rape me.” These are the kinds of issues we want to discuss in this publication.

Please join us in pushing the world in a positive direction. Help us realize the dream of equal rights for all. Submit a story and/or follow Fourth Wave.

Let’s start something!