Call for Submissions: Bellingham Review

Bellingham Review is a nonprofit literary arts magazine affiliated with Western Washington University and its Creative Writing MFA Program. Our yearly print edition is published in the spring; our online edition is published in the fall.

The editors welcome submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, author interviews, and black-and-white photography. There are no limitations on form or subject matter. Prose must be under 6,000 words (Please indicate the approximate word count on prose pieces.) For submissions longer than 6,000 words, please send a query with a brief description of the work. Novel excerpts are acceptable but must be able to stand alone. The editors prefer poetry submissions of up to three poems per submission.

Bellingham Review’s submission period runs from September 15th through December 1st. We now accept online submissions only, via Submittable. We will no longer accept mailed submissions. Please see the online contest guidelines for the dates of our annual literary contests.

All electronic submissions should follow the directions available on Submittable and should be titled with the name of the work. Authors will receive confirmation of receipt of their work, as well as our final decision, through email.

Please do not submit additional work until you hear back from the editors on work currently under consideration. Reporting time normally varies from one to six months.

Simultaneous submissions are considered, as long as Bellingham Review is notified immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. Please withdraw all electronic submission through Submittable. All submissions must be previously unpublished in North America.

If you are a current student at WWU, or have been a student within the last 2 years, please do not submit to Bellingham Review. You may enter your work 2 years after your last year of attendance at WWU.

For contest winners, we pay a small honorarium upon publication, as funds permit, though we cannot guarantee cash payment. All contributors receive one copy of the issue in which their work appears, along with a gift subscription for a friend or family member. A discount rate on further copies will be available for contributors.