Call for Submissions: Shenandoah

We will be open for CREATIVE NONFICTION and NOVEL EXCERPTS starting on August 15 through August 31, 2021. 

CREATIVE NONFICTION (essays, memoir, etc.) should be under 8,000 words. Editor Beth Staples loves writing that stretches her imagination and way of thinking, surprises, makes her laugh, moves her, is formally interesting or challenging, defies genre, explores the confusing or uncomfortable, introduces her to new writers, thinks globally, has a distinctive voice, cares about the world, and does not assume white people are literature’s default characters.

NOVEL EXCERPTS under 8,000 words will be considered with great enthusiasm. Beth plans to publish an excerpt from a novel-in-progress during each issue of Shenandoah, with a note from the author about their process and what it’s like to be in the middle of a big project. She knows writers at this stage need support, and would like Shenandoah to be a place where they can get some. These excerpts need not function like a short story. We’ve found the best novel excerpts give some sense of the overall scope of the book and whet the reader’s appetite without leaving us dangling too far off of a cliff.

We believe your work has incredible value. We pay our contributors at the rate of $100 per poem, $100 per 1000 words of prose up to $500, and $50 per page of comics up to $500. 

We buy first North American Serial Rights, and rights to the work revert to the author after publication. As a courtesy, we ask writers to note Shenandoah as the first place of publication when the work is anthologized, reprinted, or otherwise made public through another format.

Complete information and submission portal here.