Call for Submissions: Awakening (Spring 2027 100-year anniversary issue)
Submissions will open February 1 for the themed Awakening issue and close February 15 or when submission caps are met.
Please only submit once per genre. If a category is not available below after February 1, we have met our cap and are closed to that genre.
The Schooner’s intention is to publish the best and most interesting writing available, both from beginning and established writers. We publish short stories, poems, imaginative essays of general interest, and reviews of current books of poetry and fiction. Scholarly articles requiring footnote references should be submitted to journals of literary scholarship. We particularly welcome work by writers of color and writers who come from disenfranchised or previously disenfranchised backgrounds.
We do not consider work that has been previously published, including work that has appeared online, and while we do consider work that has been simultaneously submitted to other journals, we request that you withdraw the piece immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We do consider translations of work that have not been published prior in English.
For poetry, send a selection of up to seven poems contained within a single document. For fiction and essays, send only one selection at a time. To withdraw an individual poem from consideration, please send us a message through Submittable. To withdraw an essay or short story, please withdraw the full manuscript.
We encourage you to read the Schooner before you submit. Sample copies are available below for just $9.00. There's never a fee to submit to our general reading period, and we're grateful for the support we receive through donations and orders.
Looking for the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize contest? For the sake of confidentiality, it's totally separate from normal submissions. Open annually from January 15 to March 15, for collections of short fiction and poetry, the fee to submit is $25, and the prize is $3,000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press. Read more: https://prairieschoonerbookprizeseries.submittable.com/submit
Call for Submissions: Awakening (Spring 2027)
The Spring 2027 issue will mark the 100th anniversary of the first issue of Prairie Schooner, so we are seeking work on the theme of Awakening. Awakening, awareness, revival, rebirth. Our centenary coincides with overwhelming challenges to our freedoms, our cultures, our progress, our expression, and the next 100 years will be informed by the wisdom and invention of writers and thinkers, by strong voices, creative vision. We seek inspiring work that will carry us forward, or reflect on the past, work that will pose questions, or suggest answers. We want work that will invigorate with new understanding or break our hearts with it—all with insight and perspective, whether lyric or bold, quiet or insistent.
Essay Guidelines
Send one essay at a time. Essays should be double-spaced and formatted using a standard font.
We're interested in reading imaginative essays of general interest. Scholarly articles requiring footnote references should be submitted to journals of literary scholarship.
Call for Submissions: Awakening (Spring 2027)
The Spring 2027 issue will mark the 100th anniversary of the first issue of Prairie Schooner, so we are seeking work on the theme of Awakening. Awakening, awareness, revival, rebirth. Our centenary coincides with overwhelming challenges to our freedoms, our cultures, our progress, our expression, and the next 100 years will be informed by the wisdom and invention of writers and thinkers, by strong voices, creative vision. We seek inspiring work that will carry us forward, or reflect on the past, work that will pose questions, or suggest answers. We want work that will invigorate with new understanding or break our hearts with it—all with insight and perspective, whether lyric or bold, quiet or insistent.
Fiction Guidelines
Send one story at a time. Stories should be double-spaced and formatted using a standard font.
Call for Submissions: Awakening (Spring 2027)
The Spring 2027 issue will mark the 100th anniversary of the first issue of Prairie Schooner, so we are seeking work on the theme of Awakening. Awakening, awareness, revival, rebirth. Our centenary coincides with overwhelming challenges to our freedoms, our cultures, our progress, our expression, and the next 100 years will be informed by the wisdom and invention of writers and thinkers, by strong voices, creative vision. We seek inspiring work that will carry us forward, or reflect on the past, work that will pose questions, or suggest answers. We want work that will invigorate with new understanding or break our hearts with it—all with insight and perspective, whether lyric or bold, quiet or insistent.
Poetry Guidelines
Send a single document containing up to 7 poems.
Book Reviews
We consider book reviews year-round for both our print journal and our online blog. In general, we seek engaging reviews that articulate ideas of craft but also of literary context and/or place the work in our sociopolitical present. We appreciate reviews that begin by establishing a context the work can be understood within, and we appreciate when the reviewer can step out of the way so that the review is dominated by a discussion of the book, and not a discussion of opinions and impressions. We are particularly interested in reviews of books that can fairly be called diverse—we aim to publish a range of reviewers on a range of authors—and in reviews of authors' first books or recent translations.
No previously published work, please. If you'd like to pitch us before writing the review, you're welcome to do so through this form, but please note that even if the pitch interests us, we can't offer publication until we've seen the full review.
Formatting:
Reviews should be double-spaced and formatted using a standard font. Please include the following information at the top of the review:
[Writer's Name]. [Title of book being reviewed]. [Press Name]. Reviewed by [Reviewer's Name]
Online only: We consider book reviews for the Schooner Blog of up to 1,000 words in length. Books should be no more than eighteen months old by the time of submission. Reviews may consider a single book or take up two or three books together.
Print Journal: We consider book reviews for print editions of the journal of up to 2,500 words in length. These pieces might focus on recent publications, or they might take a critical look at older books—we’re particularly interested in hidden gems that maybe have not received the attention they deserved. Reviews may consider a single book or take up two or three books together.
Interviews
We consider interviews for the Schooner Blog, and we might occasionally offer publication within the print journal to an interview we really love. We are interested in interviews with a wide range of authors, including emerging and established writers.
No previously published work, please. If you'd like to pitch us before conducting the interview, you're welcome to do so through this form, but please note that even if the pitch interests us, we can't offer publication until we've seen the full interview.
New subscriptions begin with the Spring 2026 issue, coming this March.
Now in our 99th year of continuous publication, the Schooner seeks to publish the most interesting work in contemporary poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and reviews.
A one-year subscription includes 4 issues of the journal. Select a two- or three-year subscription for an even better rate!
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Volume 99, Issue 3, Fall 2025
Featuring a portfolio of New Trans Writing, this issue includes work by: Cynthia Carr, Terese Marie Mailhot, Alissa Nutting, Leslie Zemeckis, Jai Dulani, Ell Peck, Ilana Masad, Skyler Melnick, Luca van der Heide, Ben Freedman, Fayssal Bensalah, Lane Michael Stanley, Migwi Mwangi, Sharon Olds, David Calogero Centorbi, David Hopson, Elizabeth Metzger, Ted Kooser, Mag Gabbert, Christian Bancroft, John Surowiecki, Thomas Kneeland, Aishwarya Sahi, Rebecca Griswold, Timothy Schaffert, Oliver Evans, Apollo Chastain, Oliver Brooks, Zoe Tuck, அவ்ரீனா AVRINA, James Brunton, Ava N. Winter, Joan Tate, and Alyson Favilla.
Volume 99, Issue 4, Winter 2025
Featuring a portfolio on The Long Short Story, this issue includes work by: Kasey Peters, Brad Bigelow, Priyam Goel, Micah Dean Hicks, Kate Shannon Jenkins, Dominic Russ-Combs, Eric C. Wat, Virginia Kane, Hilda Raz, Antoine Cassar, Charlie Clark, Jacquelyn Hinze, Diane Glancy, Robert Hedin, and Lolita Stewart-White.
Now in our 99th year of continuous publication, Prairie Schooner seeks to publish the best in contemporary poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and reviews.
We've got years of great issues full of excellent writing, and buying a sample copy is a great way to grab a taste of what we're all about.
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