Call for Submissions: Black Warrior Review

General Submissions: Print Issues

The editors of BWR read regular Poetry, Prose, and Nonfiction submissions from December 1-March 1 and June 1-September 1.

Submissions are only accepted through our online submission manager which may be found at bwr.submittable.com/submit

General Submissions Rules and Guidelines

The average response time for submissions is between 1 and 6 months. If you have not received a response after 6 months, please check on the status of your submission in Submittable; if you encounter any problems, email us at:

blackwarriorreview@gmail.com

We ask that writers wait one month after receiving a response to submit again.

We do not consider previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, if noted, and please notify us immediately if the work is accepted somewhere else. Please do not mix genres in the same submission.

We encourage you to read Black Warrior Review before submitting. Sample issues are available for $15; one-year subscriptions for $25. 

Past contributors, please wait three years from the date of your publication to resubmit work. Contest submissions are included in this policy.

We offer a limited number of fee waivers for writers whom the submission fee would present financial hardship, and we offer free submissions for incarcerated writers. Please email:

feewaiver.bwr@gmail.com

to request a fee waiver.

Prose

For BWR fiction, we are looking for stories that are very aware of the worlds outside of here. Here could mean the physical space of a country or this physical plane of existence. We just want to get out of these small, contained spaces for a bit. There are many excuses to become insulated, but stories should never be a space for the insular.

So we want stories of the spirits and the magic, the international and the extraterrestrial; really we just want writers to think about other worlds and other lives and other realities and other belief systems that would be considered atypical of the traditional Western literary imagination.

We welcome stories from all sources, from writers of all races, all cultures and nationalities, all sexual orientations and gender identities, and themes that navigate these complexities.

Send a single piece of fiction up to 7000 words, or up to 3 pieces of flash each less than 1000 words.

Poetry

BWR seeks to publish poems that make us sit back and think, Wait, what even is a poem? We want poems that make the strange feel natural, and the natural feel strange. Poems that showcase underrepresented voices and contemporary issues; that dismantle conventional ways of understanding the world. We want your pop culture-obsessed poems and your folktale-inspired poems and your so-silly-it’s-serious poems. We want your poems that revel in kitsch and in play and in wonder; that recognize the subversive power of joy.

Submit up to 3 poems with a maximum of 10 pages in one document.

Please include a short cover letter and a 3rd-person bio.

Nonfiction

In today’s economy, writing creative nonfiction is risky, frisky business. At the BWR nonfiction desk this year, we’re seeking experimental work with high stakes, on and off the page. Out: neat/tidy braids; linear thinking; making concessions; colonial structures and forms. In: hot takes & flyaways; literary messiness; RAGE; the erotics of doom. Rip a page out of your diary. Screenshot your texts. Reconstruct receipts. Tell the truth—just tell it slant 😉

A note: we are very open to submissions of all kinds, from writers of all races, nationalities, cultures, sexual orientations, and classes; that said, we are especially welcoming of work with themes of BIPOC, queer, disabled, non-Western, and/or class struggle & liberation.

Submit 1 work of “creative nonfiction” up to [6000 words]; [or, up to 3 flash pieces < 1000 words].

Graphic Prose

While our standard practice involves soliciting a single artist to be featured in each issue, we encourage submissions of innovative works that blend the visual power of graphic art with the narrative depth of prose. Feel free to submit one or two graphic prose essays for our upcoming issue, and we’ll review them for potential inclusion. When submitting for this category, please kindly use .jpg, .tiff, or .pdf formats. We publish all graphic writing in grayscale.

Payment

BWR pays a nominal lump-sum fee for all works published, and contributors receive the issue in which they appear.

Publication rights notice: All rights reserved. Rights revert to author upon publication.