Reservoir Road Literary Review/ How To Submit (Prize : $5)

The reservoir road literary review has announced that submissions are open for its 2022 contest.

Submissions open at the start of the first month of each quarter and close at the end or when a category reaches its submission cap—whichever comes first.

 Submission Guidelines for the Reservoir Road Literary Review

• They seek photography, poetry, and short stories that are literary fiction and lyrical creative nonfiction.
• The reservoir road literary review are generally disinterested in pandemic stories. They also do not generally take coming-of-age stories, pieces that center on YA age groups, or historical pieces.
• Does your story dig into a difficult theme? Does it cover something heavy or hard to parse? Does it shed light on a typically disliked sort of character? They do not seeking general stories; The organizers don’t want your comedy, satire, romance, day-in-the-life stories. They don’t want your characters who face a difficult choice and always do the right thing.
• There is no word limit for fiction, but anything pushing 8,000 words may become unwieldy.
• They consider anything 1000 words or less (give or take) to be flash.
• Please do not submit book excerpts.
• Please do not submit genre fiction.
• For poetry, they accept poems with both fictional and nonfictional inspirations. There is no word limit, though they will not typically accept poems above 500 words. Please do not submit song lyrics.
• For creative nonfiction, they accept lyrical flash pieces at 1000 words or less, give or take.
• Please do not submit essays or book reviews.
• For photography, please do not submit collages, traditional portraits, headshots, or other typical photographs of people; bright, colorful shots; typical sunsets or sunrises; or birds over water.
• Reservoir road literary review seek photographs that inspire tension and questions; desolate landscapes; bleakness and sparseness; ambient moods. Please note we do not accept vertical (portrait-oriented) photographs. We prefer horizontal (landscape-oriented) photographs but may consider squares.
• Do not, under any circumstances, submit graphic depictions of rape or sexual violence.
• Issues come out on the last Tuesday of March, June, September, and December. Submissions open at the beginning of January, April, July, and October and close at the end or when the submission cap is reached. You will hear back before the following issue is published (within 60 days). If you have not heard back within 60 days, please query.
• Submit your work through Submittable. (Please submit to the correct category. If you do not see the correct category, that means we’ve reached our submission cap, so that category is closed. Any submissions to the incorrect category will be rejected unread.)
• Include your title.
• Include your prose or poetry submission as a Word doc or PDF.
• For photography, send a private link or image attachment. Please do not submit work that is publicly available.
• Include a cover letter with a short third-person bio. We publish work from emerging and established writers and artists alike; please do not fret if you have yet to be published.
• Include the title of your story and, for prose, page numbers in your manuscript.
• For prose, format your manuscripts in double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman font.
• Only submit unpublished works that are solely written by you and that you have the authority to publish.
• Submit simultaneously. Please withdraw your story immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.
• When submitting, please don’t:
• Submit anything other than what is defined in the general submissions guidelines.
• Submit translations.
• Submit more than one story. Please wait until you have heard back before submitting a second story.
• Submit anything racist, bigoted, or excessively profane or hateful. We will make exceptions for stories that examine a character who falls into these categories, as long as the work clearly demonstrates the problematic nature of that character.

Prize

Reservoir Road Literary Review currently pays a nominal rate of $5 per accepted submission.