Interested in submitting to the Roanoke Review?

Great! We want to read your stuff! We're open to anything that’s well-written, vivid, and/or thought-provoking. Nearly every meeting we’re surprised by a genre or form or approach that we hadn’t anticipated—and almost always this leads to an “accept.”

Send us anything that you think is good, engaging, and carefully-crafted on the sentence level. That said, if you’re interested in getting a better sense of what we’re looking for, feel free to browse both our current issue and our archives—everything is open access and free, so you’re welcome to it. 

The nitty gritty: 

  • We accept submissions from September 1 through January 1. Issues are published on a rolling basis throughout the calendar year, generally starting on New Year's Day.
  •  We accept fiction and non-fiction submissions up to 5,000 words and poetry submissions up to 100 lines.
  •  We will read up to 5 poems and 1 short story per submission; please wait to hear from us before submitting additional work. 
  • We encourage the submission of visual poetry and photo essays. You may email those to us at review@roanoke.edu or via Submittable (link below). 
  • We publish artwork only by artists from or living in southwestern Virginia. If you’re interested in having us look at your work, please send an e-mail to review@roanoke.edu that includes a link to your gallery or another online display of your work. Please, no fantasy art or graphic representations of a sexual nature.
  • Please include your contact information on the top of the first page and a header with your name on all subsequent pages. For prose pieces, please number your pages.
  • Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please withdraw your piece if it is accepted elsewhere. (And if we accept you first and you accept our acceptance, please honor that.)
  • We do not accept reprints. 
  • For those who do not use Submittable, a hardcopy with a SASE can be mailed to Roanoke Review, 221 College Lane, Salem, VA 24153. 
  • We accept only 200 submissions per month via Submittable. If that limit is hit, submissions will reopen on the first of the next month. 
  • There are no charges or reading fees. 
  • We are not able to offer payment to authors, but we frequently nominate work for national prizes. 
  • We reserve the right to pull work from the journal at any point and for any reason. In 50+ years of publication, we've never had a reason to do so, but we're reserving the right, all the same. 
  • We do not accept submissions from current Roanoke College students. Graduates, however, are welcome to send work. 

The Roanoke Review is a proud member of the Roanoke College community in Salem, Virginia.