Seattle-based Crab Creek Review is a woman-run journal publishing new voices, as well as emerging and established writers. Discover your new favorite poet by subscribing today!
The general reading period is open from September 15 through October 15, or when our 300 Submittable Cap is hit. The editors seek original, unpublished poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction via Submittable. Submissions are free, and payment is in contributor copies. We look forward to reading your work, and encourage early submissions.
If you do not see a submission category, that means it has reached its submission cap.
The entry period for the 2026 Crab Creek Review Poetry Contest begins on February 15th with entries accepted until May 15, 2026. A $500 prize will be awarded for the winning poem. All entries considered for publication. Winner and finalists will appear in Crab Creek Review.
The entry fee is $16 per submission. Multiple submissions are allowed, but each batch must be submitted separately, with its own entry fee. This submission fee funds the print production of each issue.
About the Judge Born in New Delhi, India, Vandana Khanna is a writer, educator, and editor. Her recent collection of poetry,Burning Like Her Own Planet, was published by Alice James Books. Her previous books have won the Crab Orchard Review First Book Prize, The Miller Williams Poetry Prize, and the Diode Editions Chapbook Competition. Her work has appeared in publications such as Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, The New Republic,Guernica, New England Review and The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry.
Submission Guidelines:
- Please do not include your name in your submission. All submissions should be kept anonymous.
- Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered. This includes website or social media. We do not accept works generated by AI.
- Include a cover letter in the provided space in the Submittable form (not in the document). Include your mailing address, social media handle, email and phone number, a 50-word bio, and the titles of the pieces you are submitting.
- Should you submit something that is under simultaneous consideration, please indicate this in your cover letter and notify us immediately by adding a note to your Submittable account if the piece is accepted elsewhere.
- Send your work as a SINGLE attachment (.doc; .docx; .rtf; PDF); docx preferred.
- Please submit no more than up to four (4) poems in a submission.
- The entry fee is $16 per submission. Multiple submissions are allowed, but each batch must be submitted separately, with its own entry fee.
- Semifinalists will be notified by early July. The winner and finalists will be announced by the end of July.
Order your copy of Crab Creek Review's 2023 Spring/Summer issue here!
From cathedrals to dance floors to climate change, this issue tackles our loftiest questions while celebrating the most personal. It shifts from deep meditations to startling crystallizations as each work takes on a new form and shape. With this latest issue, you'll find writing from Jory Mickelson, Jared Beloff, Rebecca Martin, Rodrigo Toscano, Julia Mallory, Shilo Niziolek, Sarah Dalton, Forester McClatchey, Shannon K. Winston, David J. Bauman, Melody Wilson, Stephanie L Harper, Benjamid D. Carson, Carolyn Oliver, Jane Zwart, Jude Dexter, Lauren Camp among so, so many others. And we can't wait to share them all with you.
Subscribe to Crab Creek Review, a Seattle-based literary journal featuring poets and writers from the Pacific Northwest and all around the globe. Crab Creek Review has been bringing brilliant, original poetry and prose to Seattle and the rest of the world since 1983. We appreciate your support!