Skip to main content

Submission Guidelines


Submissions to Dear Reader are open on a rolling basis. If submissions are closed it will be formally announced here, and on the Dear Reader social media channels.

Please note: We acknowledge that submission guidelines can be a tricky beast to tame. However, please do read the outlined suggestions carefully, as adhering to them can make the submission/response process that bit easier for everyone. Thank you.

If you have a question that hasn't been answered here, you may be able to find what you're looking for on our FAQ page. 

From September 1, 2021, Dear Reader now accepts submissions of flash fiction and prose poetry. Alongside this, we will also be accepting reviews of poetry chapbooks and collections. Below you will find guidelines that are suited to each genre, to help you through the submission process.

All submissions should be emailed to Charley and Talis at dearreadersubmissions@gmail.com.

General tips to submit:

  • Please include a short bio, no more than 75 words, that will be included alongside your work should it be accepted for publication.
  • Please ensure that your work is proofread and therefore clean of typos.
  • Please do not send simultaneous submissions.
  • If your work is published by us, all we ask is that you credit us should your work be published again, but beyond that we hold no claims or rights to your original work.
  • There is no set theme or style, nor are there any topics that are 'off limits', as such. However, we do ask that you be respectful to our / your readership and to avoid topics that would be classified as hate speech, or anything similar. Hate Speech, being: 'Expressions of hatred toward someone on account of that person's colour, race, disability, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation is forbidden.'
  • We don't mind swearing but it doesn't increase (or decrease) your chances of being published, so please make sure you're swearing for the right reasons.
Poetry and prose poetry:
  • Please send 1 - 3 unpublished poems
  • Please attach your work as a doc. 
  • Please submit work of a reasonable length, i.e. work that does not exceed two A4 pages
Flash fiction:
  • Please send 1 - 3 unpublished pieces of flash fiction
  • Please attach your work as a doc.
  • Please submit works between 300 and 500 words
Reviews:

We will accept reviews of up 1000 words. However, all reviews should be pitched, via email, to the editors ahead of a formal submission. This is to avoid any "double booking" on reviews, so we don't turn down work simply due to having accepted a review of a similar nature already. 

Dear Reader is currently a two-woman band but Charley and Talis will aim to respond to all submissions within six weeks of receipt. If for any reason you do not receive a response in that time-frame, please feel free to send a gentle nudge our way via email.


We look forward to reading your work!

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Unknown4 January 2019 at 12:30

    Just had the pleasure of submitting to you - now sat with fingers crossed! This will be a great and inspirational forum!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Timothy P Stavert28 February 2019 at 15:51

    Is there a closing date Charley?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home by Jessa Forest

Home scratches at her shingles with tree branch fingers, pulls the air conditioning unit close to her grimy aluminum siding, and keens an empty song of mourning. We found her wandering the tornado snarled wild three months ago, starved and lonely. She doesn’t know how to take care of herself, you see? We fed her shards of dining room tables, kindling for the fireplace, and cast iron bathtubs clawed feet first. She was slow to recover so we gutted her plumbing, ripped out her nerves, and rewired the electricity. She let the water in every time it rained so we put a new roof on her and let her out for regular walks around the wolf pen. Let her mingle with the vultures, I said, let her feel useful and clean up the dead but no one wanted to listen. We found rot an mold in her corners, infused her insulation with antibiotics, and quarantined her for two weeks while she belched ladderback chairs, sofa cushions, wind chimes, and broken bookcases. She still has her bad days. After feeding time
88 comments
Read more

“Are You So Tired Then, Stranger?” by Ace Boggess

  —Dick Allen, “B&B”    Wind exhausts with its icy fists. Knives of rain wear me down, & leaves in their helicopter swirls like leaflets dropped from a plane. October depletes me, & November. They’ve too much busyness. They send me spinning, dancing, lonely with the rake, the broom. I surrender, collapsing like an old barn, debris of me piling in a chair with clear view of the television.  News is on. It spends me. Talk of politics, also. I’d like  to shut up the voices that fatigue. They hum like a B-flat in the pipes. They bicker & scold, condemn. They expend me like carrying  groceries up a flight of stairs  until I’m too drained to care  which side they’re on. --- Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, including  Escape Envy  (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2021),  I Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So , and  The Prisoners . His writing has appeared in  Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review,  and other journals. An ex-c
1 comment
Read more

Why Men's Judgements of New Clothes Shouldn't Be Trusted by Simon Williams

I join four men outside the fitting room, while women try on size 14 with 16 in reserve. We’re trying to look in place and failing. It’s important not to let your eyes settle on any racked garment for over 30 seconds or any racked customer for over five. This is especially true if the fitting room in anywhere near lingerie. Nobody is interested in our slight discomfort; five expressionless faces keen to compress time, urgent to breathe less material air. People want to read Big Thoughts on how we were misused as boys, how we were louts on bikes. But it has come to this; such a longing for a brief appearance from the cubicle, a show-off of prospective wear that all clothes look wonderful on you. --- Simon Williams  has eight published collections, his latest being a co-authored pamphlet with Susan Taylor,  The Weather House , published in 2017 by Indigo Dreams. Simon was elected The Bard of Exeter in 2013, founded the large-format magazine,  The Broadsheet  a
27 comments
Read more