Call for Submissions: The Los Angeles Review

Los Angeles Review

Submission Information

Reading Period Status: With the new online format, the Los Angeles Review will be open for submissions year-round!

Submissions are open to all and are not limited to residents of Los Angeles

Submission Methods:

 

We only accept unsolicited submissions online via Submittable. Online submissions are subject to a $3.00 reading fee.

Current subscribers and former contributors may submit online free of charge by emailing their pieces directly to the appropriate editor. However, it is ultimately up to the genre editor’s discretion whether to accept submissions through email. Submit Online: Submittable Simultaneous submissions are accepted if noted in the cover letter. Please do not send multiple submissions unless an editor has invited you to do so. Response time is two to four months.

Compensation: Writers published in the print edition of the Los Angeles Review will receive one contributor copy in exchange for first North American rights. No reprints, please.

Subscription: We encourage submitters to read our journal, and if you order a copy of LAR, your submission is free. You can find ordering information here. Contact the Managing Editor for international shipping rates, information about classroom subscriptions, course adoption, and bulk discounts.

Online: Accepted submissions are eligible to be published in the new online format and will be considered for the yearly best-of print edition.

Submission Guidelines

**Please note that all submissions under all submission categories must be previously unpublished. Any already published work will not be considered for publication with the Los Angeles Review.

Fiction: We’re looking for hard-to-put-down sequences of shorts or stand-alone lengthier stories in the 1,000 – 4,000 words range. Regardless of length, we always hope to see lively, vivid, excellent literary fiction.

Flash Fiction: We’re looking for shorts under 1,000 words that we want to read again and again. We’re looking for work that is lively, vivid, and leaves us wanting more. Additionally, please note our one-story limit per submission. While authors are more than welcome to submit multiple stories to LAR, we ask that they please submit them individually.

 

Nonfiction: Please submit an essay, memoir, or commentary told as compelling, focused, sustained narrative in a distinctive voice, rich with detail. Send 1,000-4,000 words or delight us with flash nonfiction that cat-burgles our expectations.

Poetry: Please submit 3-5 poems that will surprise us, wow us, and make us wish we’d written them ourselves. We are open to form, free verse, prose poems, and experimental styles. Our only criterion is quality.

Translation: Please submit no more than 5 poems (single-spaced) or 5 pages of prose (double-spaced). Include biographical notes for both the author and the translator. Your submission must be accompanied by 1) the original text and 2) a letter from the rights holder stating that you have permission to translate and publish the work in the United States. If you cannot provide #2, we will not be able to print your work. We look forward to reading your submission.

Book Reviews: We welcome reviews of new and recent books of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and hybrid work, particularly those titles that have not received the critical attention they deserve. Please send completed drafts, no more than 1,200 words, to:

 

review@losangelesreview.org

Before submitting, please review our book review guidelines here.

Call for Submissions: Four Way Review

Four Way Review accepts poetry and fiction from both established and emerging authors. We look for work that demonstrates fine attention to craft while retaining a powerful and compelling voice. We want writing that showcases the imagination's unique ability to refine the raw materials of human experience.

We encourage submissions from diverse voices.

Unsolicited submissions are considered year-round. Before submitting, please see our latest issue and ensure your work is a good fit. Please wait to hear back from us before submitting again.

We accept .pdf (preferred), .doc, and .docx. You may also include a cover letter with your contact information and a brief bio in the "comments" box. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please note this in your cover letter and let us know immediately if a piece is accepted somewhere else. Due to a high volume of submissions, we cannot respond individually to withdrawal requests.

In order to offer our writers a small honorarium, we now charge a small submission fee of $3 for part of the year. In January, April, August and November, all submissions are fee-free. During these months, we might close submissions for one or more genres, should the submission maximum be reached. This is done to ensure that our readers are able to read and respond to each submission in a timely manner.

Poetry

— We are interested in all styles and forms of poetry.

— We ask that writers submit poetry no more than three times per year, with three to five poems in a single submission.

— Please email us to withdraw individual poems.

Fiction

— We're looking for finished stories that are both whole and surprising.

— Keep longer submissions below 6,000 words. Submit only one piece at a time and no more than three pieces a year.

— Short shorts should be under 1,000 words. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one submission.

Translation

— We are interested in all styles and forms of writing in translation.

— We ask that writers submit work no more than three times a year, adhering to our guidelines for poetry, fiction and nonfiction (i.e., no more than three to five poems in a single submission and keeping prose below 6,000 words).
— If possible, please include the original piece with your translated submission.

— Please confirm that you have obtained permission, either from author or rights holder, to publish the translation.

Creative Nonfiction

— We're looking for pieces that surprise us, pieces that push at the corners of the form.

— Keep longer submissions below 6,000 words. Submit only one piece at a time and no more than three pieces a year.

— We do accept flash nonfiction. These should be under 1,000 words. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one submission.

All submissions must be previously unpublished. We request first North America serial rights for any work that we accept. All rights revert to the author upon publication, though we ask that you acknowledge Four Way Review if the work is published elsewhere.

You can withdraw your work using our submissions manager. To withdraw part of a submission, email us at:

fourwayreview (at) gmail [dot] com (Change (at) to @ and [dot] to . )

We try to respond within 90 days. Please note that our submissions manager is separate from the manager for Four Way Books. We will not respond to manuscript submissions.

We accept submissions through our online submissions manager. Unsolicited email submissions will be discarded unread.

THE BASICS

Submit through our Submissions Manager

Up to 5 poems or 6,000 words

We'll respond within 90 days

Call for Submissions from Writers Age 13-22: Blue Marble Review

Blue Marble Review 

Submissions open from April 1st to May 1st.

Thanks for your interest in Blue Marble Review. We welcome submissions from students ages 13-22. Please take a look at our submission guidelines, and fill out the form below. Please use a personal, or parent email (or gmail) but not a school email. School email filters will often block our responses. We look forward to reading your work.

What to Send:

Blue Marble Review is published four times a year and accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, essays, opinion pieces, travel writing, photography and art on a rolling basis. We are looking for new work that hasn’t been published anywhere else either online or in print.

Fiction:

Send us your stories! Flash, short stories, hybrid forms—all in 1500 words or less. A maximum of three pieces per submission.

Non-Fiction:

We accept memoir, personal essays, travel adventures, and have been known to publish the occasional research paper and book review. One to two pieces per submission please.(1500 word limit)

Poetry:

Up to three poems per submission.

Art:

Four pieces of artwork (scanned, jpeg format) or four photographs per submission.

Payment:

Contributors published online in Blue Marble Review will receive $30 per published piece, $75 for cover art. 

When you submit to Blue Marble Review you are allowing us First Serial Rights as well as the right to archive your work on our site. Copyrights of all work published in Blue Marble Review remain with the author.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Apus

Apus

Genres: Fiction, poetry, interviews, nonfiction, and visual art.

Word Count: Prose submissions are recommended to be no longer than 15,000 words. Poetry should not exceed 200 lines.

Pay:
- Prose: $10 USD per 1,000 words
- Poetry: $1 USD per line
- Visual art: Payment will be determined based on the format and quantity of the submitted work. 

Submit: via Email:

submit@apuslit.com or Duotrope 

Deadline: June 30, 2025

Writing Competition: The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant

The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant

The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant supports emerging and established writers who write about contemporary visual art. Ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 in three categories—articles, books, and short-form writing—the grants support projects addressing both general and specialized art audiences, from short reviews for magazines and newspapers to in-depth scholarly studies. We also support art writing that engages criticism through interdisciplinary methods and experiments with literary styles. As long as a writer meets the eligibility and publishing requirements, they can apply.

Writers are invited to apply in one of the following categories:

• Article
• Books
• Short-Form Writing

The program is excited to announce the launch of the Arts Writers Translation Grant for book projects about contemporary visual art from other languages into English. For guidelines and eligibility criteria for this grant, click here.

Due to legal constraints we can only fund U.S. citizens, permanent residents of the United States, and holders of O-1 visas. For guidelines and additional eligibility requirements, click here.

The 2025 application is now open.

The application deadline is May 7 at 11:59pm ET.

We have an open application process; all writers who meet the eligibility requirements can apply. The general eligibility requirements are listed below. For eligibility requirements and writing sample instructions for each project type, click here.

We recommend that you read through the Application Guide, available for download on the right-hand sidebar, before filling out the online application. To view the application questions click here.

To access the SlideRoom application, click here.

The program now offers a translation grant for book projects about contemporary visual art from other languages into English. For guidelines and eligibility criteria for this grant, click here.

To be eligible for this grant, an arts writer must be an individual;

• applying for a project about contemporary visual art;

• an art historian, artist, critic, curator, journalist, or a writer in an outside field who is strongly engaged with the contemporary visual arts;

• a U.S. citizen, permanent resident of the United States, or holder of an O-1 visa (if your application advances to the final round, you will need to submit current documentation);

• at least twenty-five years old by Oct 1 in the application year;

• a published author (specific publication requirements vary depending on grant category; see the project-specific eligibility requirements).

By “contemporary visual art,” we mean visual art made since World War II. Projects on post-WWII work in adjacent fields—architecture, dance, film, media, music, performance, sound, etc.—will only be considered if they directly and significantly engage the discourses and concerns of contemporary visual art.

• An arts writer is NOT eligible for this grant if they are applying on behalf of an organization;

• applying for a project in which their primary involvement will be as an editor;

• a full-time student in a degree-granting program (with the exception of those students who are simultaneously maintaining professional careers as arts writers);

• an artist, writer, or curator writing an interpretive essay on their own practice;

• applying for a project that is primarily fiction, poetry (including ekphrasis), or memoir;

• applying for a project based on a PhD dissertation or MA thesis;

• applying to conduct a Q&A interview (or series of Q&A interviews);

• applying to assemble an archive or database;

• applying for a project on Andy Warhol;

• applying for a project that will be published by a commercial gallery;

• applying for a Creative Capital Award for any project in the same grant year (including as a collaborator);

• applying with the same project for which they have received a Creative Capital Award (including as a collaborator);

• applying with the same project for which they have received a curatorial research fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (including as a collaborator);

• a grantee of The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant;

• a recent juror of the program (evaluators are eligible to apply after one grant cycle; panelists are eligible after two grant cycles);

• a current employee, consultant, board member, or funder of Creative Capital or The Andy Warhol Foundation, or an immediate family member of such a person.

Call for Submissions: Merganser Magazine

Merganser Magazine is a free online literary magazine, featuring a variety of prose and poetry.

Debuting in winter 2024, we aim to publish many writers and artists whose work transcends disciplines and genres.

We are now accepting submissions - we encourage you to submit!

Submissions

Please submit prose (fiction or creative non-fiction) and poetry by email to Jake Ott at:

editor@mergansermagazine.com

Include submission files as attachments.

Include as many stories and/or poems as you like. We'll consider every piece you submit, although we prefer not to publish more than one piece from the same author within a 6 month period.

Standard formats (e.g. standard manuscript format) are preferred, but not strictly required.

No hard editorial guidelines. We're eager to find strong, well-written pieces across a wide range of material. That said, our business model prioritizes shorter works, as well as those which are suitable for online reading (avoid long paragraphs). Anything longer than 2,000 words is likely a hard sell.

We allow simultaneous submissions. Email:

editor@mergansermagazine

if your submission is accepted elsewhere.

No reprints.

For prose, we pay the SFWA pro rate of $0.08 USD per word. For poetry, we pay $1 USD per line.

We aim to respond to all submissions within 1 month of submission. If you have not heard from us after 1 month, please reach out for an update.

Works translated, written, or developed by AI tools are strictly not allowed.

If your submission has been accepted, please wait 6 months before submitting again. This will ensure your next submission receives full consideration.

To increase chances of acceptance, read the magazine! You will see what has been accepted before. Typically, we publish what we feel were the most tightly written and creative pieces we received.

Writing Competition: Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant

Click here to view the online application form. Application guidelines are below.

The 2025 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant of $40,000 will be awarded to as many as ten writers in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general adult readership. It is intended for multiyear book projects requiring large amounts of deep and focused research, thinking, and writing at a crucial point mid-process, after significant work has been accomplished but when an extra infusion of support can make a difference in the ultimate shape and quality of the work.

Whiting welcomes applications for works of history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, science, philosophy, criticism, graphic nonfiction, and personal essays, among other categories. Again, the work should be intended for a general, not academic, adult reader. Self-help titles, historical fiction, textbooks, books primarily for a scholarly audience, and books for young readers are not eligible. Examples of the wide range of previous grantees can be found here.

Projects must be under contract with a publisher in Canada, the UK, or the US by April 23 to be eligible. Contracts with self-publishing companies are not eligible.

Writers must submit the materials listed below via the online application form by 11:59pm ET on Wednesday, April 23. The application form includes detailed instructions for each requested item.

• The original proposal that led to the contract with your publisher

• Up to 25,000 words from your draft. Please submit full-length draft chapters, rather than short excerpts from across your book, to the extent the word count allows

• A statement of work yet to be completed

• A plan for use of funds

• A signed and dated contract (please note that to be eligible, books must be under contract with a Canadian, UK, or US publisher – unfortunately, we can make no exceptions to this requirement)

• A current resume

• A list of grants, fellowships, or other funding received for the book

• A letter of support from your publisher or editor

Each project under submission will have two first-round readers who will evaluate for substance and execution (while understanding that they are reading a work in progress). Finalists will be considered by a separate panel of judges who will evaluate for need in addition to substance and execution. Readers and judges will consist of experts in the field from Canada, the UK, and the US, and they will serve anonymously to shield them from any external pressures. The grantees will be announced in December.

The Foundation hosted two online information sessions to answer questions and offer guidance on applying for the grant. You can watch a recording of an info session here.

If you have any questions about the eligibility of your project or the application process, please contact us at:

nonfiction@whiting.org