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How to Submit to SHR

Southern Humanities Review takes submissions through our Submittable.

Please take the time to read our submission guidelines below before submitting work.

Southern Humanities Review offers 100 free submissions in each genre for historically underrepresented writers each submission period.

Poetry and fiction submissions will be open in the fall from August 1 until October 15 and in the spring from January 15 until March 14. Nonfiction submissions are always open.

Poetry and fiction are both capped at 250 general submissions for each submission period.

We are not currently open for general poetry submissions. For now, we are only open to historically underrepresented poets and will close after 100 free submissions are reached.

Please note: SHR does not take submissions through the mail or through email, only through our Submittable.


Submission Guidelines

When Southern Humanities Review first began, our founding editors called for work which was “thoughtfully conceived to enrich the mind and stir the heart.” More than fifty years later, this call remains relevant. While we are located in the American South, we are interested in work from all human communities and variety of perspectives, geographic and otherwise. We are also interested in writers in various stages of their careers, and especially in work from historically underrepresented voices.

We publish works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry on a quarterly basis. Please address submissions to “The Editors.” We accept simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you inform us immediately should your work be accepted elsewhere.

Payment for print publication will begin with issue 56.2. We are able to offer contributors a small honorarium of $50 per prose piece or $25 per poem. Contributors will also receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears. Payment for our online features is a year-long subscription to the print journal. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication.

POETRY (PRINT)

Please submit up to three poems at a time. Wait until you have received a response regarding your submission before submitting more work to SHR. Translations are welcome, if they include PDF scans of the original as well as written permission from the copyright holder (if applicable).



FICTION (PRINT)

Please send only one story per submission. Manuscripts should be no longer than 8,000 words, double-spaced. Wait until you have received a response regarding your submission before submitting more work to SHR. Translations are welcome, if they include PDF scans of the original as well as written permission from the copyright holder (if applicable).



NONFICTION (PRINT)

We invite you to submit all forms of literary essays, and sub-genres of creative nonfiction including memoirs, personal essays, lyric essays, flash, research-based essays, literary journalism, travelogues, and other literary nonfiction. Send only one essay per submission and wait until you have received a response regarding your submission before submitting more work to SHR. While we are open to submissions of any length, the essays that get published in our journal are generally no more than 12,000 words.

We honor SHR’s legacy by also considering scholarly essays. We seek essays that are directed to a general humanities audience (and avoid specialized jargon). Translations are welcome, if they include PDF scans of the original and written permission from the copyright holder (if applicable).



FICTION FEATURES (ONLINE)

SHR features short stories in our online Features section. Please send only one story per submission. Manuscripts should be no longer than 2,000 words and no shorter than 500 words, double-spaced. Wait until you have received a response regarding your submission before submitting more work to SHR.



PLEASE NOTE:

We accept submissions via Submittable. Submissions received in the mail will not be considered and will be recycled. For our print magazine, Southern Humanities Review charges a reading fee of $3 in order to maintain our online submission platform. However, submitters to the magazine have the opportunity to use this submission fee as a discount toward a year-long subscription or the latest issue of the magazine. SHR also offers 100 free submissions to historically underrepresented writers each submission period.

Inquiries regarding the status of your submission should be sent through Submittable. Before reaching out to us, please know that our small, devoted staff receives an overwhelming amount of submissions. We work hard to consider each submission carefully and so ask that you wait at least 6 months to query.

Poets may withdraw portions of their submissions by querying through Submittable or emailing us at [email protected].

Prose writers may withdraw their submissions through Submittable.

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BOOK REVIEWS

SHR book reviews are published online. To submit a pitch to write a book review for SHR, please email us at [email protected].

To make a title available to our stable of book reviewers, please send a review copy to:


Emma Brousseau  |  Managing Editor
Southern Humanities Review
9088 Haley Center
Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849

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