We’re Open for Submissions!

We’re Open for Submissions!

(Please note that our reading periods have been updated!)

Shenandoah  is now open for submissions under new editor Beth Staples, and will remain open until October 31, 2018 for the fall 2018 issue. We will be open again from January 1, 2019 through March 15, 2019 for the spring 2019 issue. Shenandoah is excited to consider short stories, essays, excerpts of novels in progress, poems, comics, and translations of all the above. Details about all of the genres are available below and on Submittable, which is where you should go, you guessed it, to submit. Please note that we no longer accept submissions by mail, with apologies to the U.S. Postal Service. 

What We’re Looking For

The editor loves writing that stretches her imagination and way of thinking, surprises, makes her laugh, moves her, is formally interesting or challenging, defies genre, explores the confusing or uncomfortable, introduces her to new writers, thinks globally, has a distinctive voice, cares about the world, and does not assume white people are literature’s default characters.  

Shenandoah under this new editorship aims to showcase a wide variety of voices and perspectives in terms of gender identity, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, nationality, regionality, sexuality, and educational background (MFAs are not necessary here). 

SHORT STORIES and CREATIVE NONFICTION (essays, memoir, etc.) should generally be under 8,000 words, but send Beth a query at shenandoah@wlu.edu if you have something longer. 

NOVEL EXCERPTS will be considered with great enthusiasm. Beth plans to publish an excerpt from a novel-in-progress during each issue of Shenandoah, with a note from the author about their process and what it’s like to be in the middle of a big project. She knows writers at this stage need support, and would like Shenandoah to be a place where they can get some. 

POETRY submissions should contain up to five poems. If individual poems need to be withdrawn, please put a note in Submittable. 

COMICS can be in black in white or color and should be submitted as PDFs. 

TRANSLATIONS are strongly encouraged. In your cover letter, please include the language you’re translating from and whether you’ve been in contact with the original author. 

Some Logistics

We’ll only consider one submission per author at a time–that’s per author, not per genre. Submit ONE total submission. Please decide what you’d like us to read most, submit that, and wait for a response before submitting additional work. If you submit multiple submissions, we will delete them without reading them. Submitted work should be previously unpublished in English. Work simultaneously submitted elsewhere will be considered, but we ask that you withdraw the work immediately if it is accepted (and congratulations, by the way).  

We pay our contributors as much as we can depending on available funds. We believe your work has incredible value. 

Beth is not yet sure of her average response time, but she promises she’s working hard to get back to you. Queries to shenandoah@wlu.edu will be answered politely after twelve weeks.