General Submissions
GENRES
Fiction and Nonfiction:
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Word max is 5,000 words (though most of our published prose is in the range of 2,000-4,000 words)
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Fiction: We seek character-driven fiction with original voices and strong settings. We do not publish genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, horror). We have only occasionally published flash fiction. While we are always interested in creative explorations in style, we do lean toward classic short stories.
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Nonfiction: We are looking for essays that reach beyond the standard ‘illness narrative’ to develop a topic in an engaging and original manner. (Please, no academic discourses or works with footnotes.)
Poetry:
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You may submit up to three poems as one submission. Each poem should be on a separate page within a single document. Poems can be of any length, though shorter poems allow us to include more poets in our pages.
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We encourage poems that are accessible to a wide audience. Characteristics we look for are vivid writing, compelling voice, and rendering the familiar new.
ELIGIBILITY
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All submissions must be previously unpublished. For BLR, “published work” means published in print in North America, or published on the Internet in electronic journals, e-zines, academic websites, and other “public” or “official” websites. Works posted on personal blogs or websites will be considered on a case-by-case basis. We ask that authors be honest about web postings. If a work is discovered to have been posted or published elsewhere—and not openly acknowledged by the author in advance—we will remove it from consideration.
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We happily consider simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
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We strive to evaluate each submission on its own terms; kindly omit identifying information on your manuscript.
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By submitting, authors affirm that the work submitted is their own original writing, has not been previously published, and was not created or materially shaped by generative artificial intelligence tools,(i.e., using AI tools to draft, generate, or revise the work).
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BLR acquires First North American rights, and the right to reprint in anthologies and online. After publication, all other rights revert to the author and the work may be reprinted as long as appropriate acknowledgement to BLR is made.
DATES & DEADLINES
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BLR has two reading periods: Spring (March 1 to July 1) and Fall (September 1 to December 31). During both periods, we accept general submissions.
The annual BLR Prizes are open during the Spring reading period (please click here for more info on the prizes).
During the Fall reading period, we often have a call for submissions on a specific theme, while continuing to accept submissions for our general themes of health, illness, and healing.
We strive to provide several reviewers for each manuscript and kindly ask your patience in this necessarily slow process. But if you have not heard from us within five months, feel free to inquire about your manuscript by emailing info@BLReview.org.