We're working a bit more slowly than usual. To those of you with outstanding submissions, we appreciate your patience!
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 prefer to read simultaneous submissions, except in the case of contest submissions, and submissions must be received between September 1 and May 1. We do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, including online publications. We read as quickly as we can, but please allow 4 -5 months for a reply. (We know, we're a little behind, and we appreciate your patience!)
In principle, the Schooner has no objections to the use of pseudonyms, but we require disclosure of their use to the editor before publication.
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
Looking for the African Poetry Book Fund's Sillerman First Book Prize? It's also entirely separate, and it opens September 15 to submissions of book-length manuscripts by African poets who have not yet published a full-length collection. Read more: https://africanpoetrybookfund.submittable.com/submit
We're interested in reading imaginative essays of general interest. Scholarly articles requiring footnote references should be submitted to journals of literary scholarship.
Send one essay at a time. Essays should be double-spaced and formatted using a standard font.
Please note: we do not consider submissions simultaneously under consideration elsewhere.
Send one story at a time. Stories should be double-spaced and formatted using a standard font.
Please note: we do not consider submissions simultaneously under consideration elsewhere.
Send a single document containing a selection of 5-7 poems. Poems may be single-spaced but should use a standard font.
Please note: we do not consider submissions simultaneously under consideration elsewhere. If you need to withdraw a single poem from your submission, please withdraw the entire submission and resubmit with work that is available and not currently out elsewhere.
We seek engaging reviews that articulate in a clear voice 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--though we do, ultimately, want to see some kind of judgement.
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 in each issue--and in reviews of authors' first books or recent translations. Books should be no more than eighteen months old by the time of publication (note that with our publication cycle, we are often reading to fill issues for two-three seasons from the time of submission). Reviews may consider a single book or take up two or three books together.
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 no longer than 1,000 words, 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]
Now in our 95th 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 and will begin with the next issue. Select a two- or three-year subscription for an even better rate!
Featuring a portfolio of Black British Writing edited by Karen McCarthy Woolf, this issue includes work by Maithili Aldabaran, Jenny Browne, Brett Beach, Nancy Welch, Adrienne Su, Heidi Lasher, Dujie Tahat, Brian Weinstein, Nona Caspers, Lauren Camp, Jayson Iwen, Noel Quiñones, Ted Kooser, Scott John Murray, John Kinsella, Momtaza Mehri, Jay Bernard, Elontra Hall, Nick Makoha, Jason Allen-Paisant, Dean Atta, Anthony Joseph, Inua Ellams, Dzifa Benson, Raymond Antrobus, Louisa Adjoa Parker, Jacob Ross, Yomi Ṣode, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Zakia Carpenter-Hall, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Roger Robinson, Adam Lowe, Belinda Zhawi, Caleb Femi, Kandace Siobhan Walker, malakaï sargeant, Samatar Elmi, Warsan Shire, Malika Booker, Ae Hee Lee, and Lynn DeTurk.
Now in our 95th 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.
If you're looking to buy a specific back issue, please indicate which one you want in the form. Otherwise, we'll just pick out one of our favorite recent issues and send it your way.
Our readers' loyal support and enthusiasm for what we do is why we're able to keep producing one of the oldest literary magazines in the country.
Consider making a donation to support our ongoing mission to bring great work from around the world out into the world.