Submission Guidelines
Who Can Submit?
Contributing authors must be
- AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE
and
- CURRENT OR FORMER RESIDENTS OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA
What Can I Submit?
- Materials will be considered in the genres of poetry,
short fiction, and memoir (personal narrative
non-fiction) with any setting and on any subject,
traditional or contemporary.
- We do
not accept previously published works or simultaneous
submissions.
How Much Can I Submit?
- Please submit no more than 3-5 poems and/or no more than
one
piece each in the prose genres per year
- Poems should be a maximum of
40 lines.
- Prose submissions should be a maximum of 2000 words.
How Do I Submit?
- ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE BY E-MAIL to
CMR@sw.edu
as an
ATTACHMENT saved in Microsoft Word format
or,
in Rich
Text Format (RTF) (Please put all poems into one
document.)
- Include
your name,
your e-mail address, and your current place of residence with
mailing address and zip code. (If you are a former resident,
also include your previous place of
residence in Southwestern Virginia.)
- Include in the MESSAGE PORTION
of the e-mail 1) your name, 2) the title(s)
of the work(s) submitted, and 3) a statement that all
the work submitted is eligible according to these guidelines.
- Do not submit anything on paper. Submissions on paper or in any form other than that described
above cannot be considered for publication and will be discarded.
- Please note: All prose works will be considered to be
fiction unless designated "Memoir" or "Nonfiction" on the
attached work itself (not in the message portion of the
email).
When Can I Submit?Unsolicited submissions will be considered only if received
BETWEEN JANUARY 15 and APRIL 15. Notification will be by e-mail in early summer.
Publication will be in the Fall.
What do I get if I have something published?
Payment is one copy of the issue in which your work appears.
Who retains the rights to something that is published?
All rights revert to the author after publication in The
Clinch Mountain Review.
What will increase my chances of acceptance?
- Be real. Ground your writing in particular times and
places.
- ESPECIALLY FOR POETS
- Condense; don't gush.
- Avoid rhymes unless you are a widely published
poet. The chief malady which causes rejection of poems by
CMR is the "rhyme at any price" syndrome. (If you
don't know what this means, your rhymed poems probably suffer
from it.)
- ESPECIALLY FOR FICTION WRITERS:
- Create character by focusing on decisions
(small and large) that people make.
- Let character determine plot, not vice versa.
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