We accept fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, and book reviews year-round. Graphic fiction/non-fiction is also welcome, but it must fit on a postcard. We publish only one (1!) piece in print form each month– we publish 1-4 pieces in our online issue.
We accept work three times a year: from January 1st to March 1st, June 1st to August 1st, and October 1st to November 27th –you can expect to hear from us within a month to six months if we’re on schedule, which we are about 50% of the time. Even though it may take us a spell to get back to you, we offer personal feedback – especially upon request. Please email us directly with questions or concerns
ALL PROSE: <150 words. We’re not going to count them, but…we mean it.
ALL POETRY: <10 lines (if it’s more, be open to “creative reformatting”), but still <150 words. Remember, it has to fit on a postcard!
BOOK REVIEWS: These will be published online, or on the back of a postcard when possible. Still <150 words. Must be of a recently published book (within the last year). The book must be published by an independent or small press. You are welcome to query before submitting if you would like our feedback on the book you are reviewing. If you would like your book reviewed by us, please send a query letter to:
info@hootreview.com.
Only two pieces per submission, please. If your work is accepted, please wait a year until you re-submit. If your work is rejected, please wait six months to re-submit (only because we publish so few pieces). We accept reprints, but please state that the piece has been previously published in your submission. Simultaneous submissions are, of course, allowed–but please let us know if your work is placed elsewhere.
We will read all types of work. However, we especially like work that is audacious, surprising, and energetic. Furthermore, we want this postcard to be shareable. As you’re submitting, remember the Refrigerator Rule. Ask yourself: “Would someone want this hanging on their fridge?” Work that’s about the depressingness of gloomy alcohol clinking on the bottom of a shadowy glass in the gloaming after a father’s death wouldn’t work as well hanging from a fridge or tucked playfully in someone’s lunchbag.
That said, if you’ve got some melancholy work that is surprising and zesty and GOOD then we would be very excited to check it out.
See our “ISSUES” page to read samples of the work we have published in the past.
Note: We do not solicit work. Every submission we receive is given the same consideration, and is read by at least two, but up to four people, and often out loud (while we consume delicious items, like raspberry tart and/or dumplings.)
Other Stuff
You have to be okay with having your work ‘creatively’ formatted—so that it will both look cool and fit on a postcard. Which means—we might paint the words on some wood and photograph them, or photo-edit the words onto an interesting-yet-appropriate thing, like a medicine bottle label, or a paper napkin, etc. If you are submitting a poem, this sometimes means we have to change line breaks…though we try not to do this, and we always do it tastefully (at least, we think so.) Do not submit your work if you are not okay with this.
Because of how few pieces we publish, it might take a considerable amount of time (like…a long long time) to get the piece live. If you do not hear from us about an acceptance for too long a time please email us and don’t message through Submittable. Email us at:
info@hootreview.com
We are often asked about what informs our decision regarding publishing a piece on a postcard versus publishing it in our online issue. Choosing pieces for postcards vs. online is not a matter of “which ones we like best.” We love all of the pieces we publish. Factors include- what pieces we have for other months (we try to balance poems and prose, as well as keep style and content varied from postcard to postcard), appropriateness for sharing (see the Refrigerator Rule above), and illustration potential (both imagery and length of the piece factor here, as longer pieces are much harder to work with.)
In general, if you do not hear from us for a long time please email us and (again) don’t message through Submittable. Email:
info@hootreview.com
Payment: Unknown amount.
Submit your work here.
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