Call for Submissions: The Cincinnati Review

When: We accept submissions for the print journal generally during three time periods: September, December, and May. Those reading periods will open on the first day of the month and close once we hit the submissions cap for that period. It’s possible that we might have additional short reading periods if needed, which would open on the first of the month as well. Visit this site and our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) to stay informed.

miCRo submissions are open nearly year-round, except while we’re accepting entries for the Robert and Adele Schiff Awards during the early summer, or if we experience a backlog in that category.

Where: Our online submission manager. (Those who have disabilities or are incarcerated can submit through the postal service; see our contact page for the address.)

Who: The Cincinnati Review welcomes submissions from writers at any point in their careers. Current and former students, faculty, and staff of the University of Cincinnati or their families are ineligible to submit unless they are more than two years removed from their affiliation with the university. We also ask contributors to wait a year after their appearance in any particular medium (print magazine or miCRo series) before submitting again.

What: We cannot consider previously published works, including those posted online, but we do accept simultaneous submissions (please contact us if individual poems are accepted elsewhere; please withdraw any prose pieces taken by another journal).

Our typical response time is six months, though we may take longer on occasion. Please don’t query until after a year: our submission manager system keeps the process reliable, so if your piece is listed as “received,” it’s still under consideration.

Please note: If we accept a piece, we prefer to work with the essay, poem, or story as submitted to us, not with later revisions, though we may suggest changes during the copyediting process.

We recommend that you read our mission statement and either work from the online series or copies of the print magazine before submitting your work. We also have some statements from our genre editors about the kinds of work they’re looking for available for your review.

How: The Cincinnati Review acquires first North American serial rights, including electronic rights; all rights revert to author upon publication. We pay $25/page for prose and $30/page for poetry in the print journal and $25 for miCRo posts or special features.