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Thinking of submitting to New England Review?
Our submissions period has changed. We will be open for submissions in all genres from September 1 through November 30, and March 1 to May 31.
What we’re looking for.
We welcome fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama, translation, creative writing for the web site (NER Digital), cover art, and art for our website. For translations, please confirm that translation rights are available. We only accept writing that has not been published previously, whether in print or on the web. Please send only one submission at a time per genre.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted in all genres, but please be sure to withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Send only one submission at a time per genre. We attempt to respond to submissions within twelve weeks.
We welcome and encourage submissions from writers of every nationality, race, religion, and gender, including writers who have never been affiliated with an MFA program and whose perspectives are often underrepresented in the literary world.
What you get.
Payment for work published in the journal is $20 per page ($50 minimum), $100 for cover art, plus two copies of the issue in which the work appears and a one-year subscription.
For online publication in NER Digital, payment is $50 and a one-year subscription to the magazine.
Your cover letter—just the facts.
Your cover letter should provide contact information and state the genre and title of the submission, as well as any salient information about you—e.g., previous publications, never before published—or about your piece.
Online submissions.
Please submit your work through Submittable, our online submissions portal. The small fee we charge for online submissions ($3 prose, $2 poetry, $2 NER Digital) helps to support New England Review in its mission to publish writers at all stages of their careers. Fees are waived for current subscribers to the magazine.
Please see the Submittable link for more details on how to submit online.
You can check on the status of an existing submission on Submittable. If it says “in progress,” that means we have not yet made a decision about the piece. If you have other submission queries, send us an e-mail and we will respond as soon as possible.
Paper submissions.
We strongly discourage paper submissions, because paper is impractical for our far-flung editorial staff, but we will allow them for writers who for any reason are unable to use Submittable. Please do not send your only copy, as we cannot be responsible for lost or damaged manuscripts, and include a letter-size self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for our reply only.
Categories
Fiction: We are looking for short stories, short shorts, novellas, novel excerpts (if they can stand alone), and translations. The word limit is 20,000. Please send only one piece at a time, unless the pieces are very short (under 1,000 words), in which case send up to three.
Poetry: We are looking for long and short poems, including translations. Please send no more than six poems at once, and upload them as a single file. If you need to withdraw part of your submission, please simply add a note to your submission in Submittable.
Nonfiction & Other: We are looking for a broad range of nonfiction, as well as screenplays, dramatic works, and works in translation. Among the types of nonfiction NER publishes are interpretive and personal essays, critical reassessments, cultural criticism (art, film, etc.), “Letters from Abroad,” and “Letters from American Places.” The word limit is 20,000.
NER Digital: NER Digital is New England Review’s online project dedicated to original nonfiction writing for the web. Our current series—“Confluences”—presents writers’ encounters with other works of art in any media. We are seeking brief essays, 500 to 1000 words, in response to a book, play, poem, film, painting, sculpture, building, or other work of art. Put yourself in the picture and fashion your essay around an actual autobiographical encounter with this work of art. Along with your submission, include a one-line writers’ bio and your current mailing address. Please also submit an image of or link to the artwork you are discussing. (Please note that the artwork will only be reproduced on our website if we are able to secure permission from the copyright holder.)
Cover Art: We are looking for striking artwork in any genre (painting, photo, sculpture, etc.) that will reproduce well as cover art. We strongly favor abstraction. The cover will be printed in full-color, full bleed, with the magazine’s logo in overprint and will be reproduced on the magazine’s website and electronic publications. The size of the printed cover is 6.75 inches wide by 9.75 inches tall, so the image may need to be adjusted to fit the trim size. If your work is selected for use on our cover, we will ask you to grant us one-time use of your image. You will also need to provide a high-resolution scan of the artwork (300 dpi), at least 7 by 10 inches, for print-quality reproduction.
When submitting images, please include a cover letter that states the title, date, size, and materials used in the image. Feel free to provide any other information about your artwork as well. Low-res images are acceptable for submissions, as long as high-res images can be provided when necessary.
Artwork for the Website: We are seeking digital images of artwork to accompany content that we post online from the print magazine, as well as from our NER Digital series. We favor abstraction over illustration, but we are interested in artwork from all media that will reproduce well online. The image may be used in its entirety, or a detail may be selected.
If your work is chosen we will ask you to grant us the right to post the image on our website, as well as in social media promotions. We will acknowledge your name and title of the work when it is posted, and if appropriate include a link for further information about your work.