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 November 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 The editors seek original, unpublished poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction via Submittable.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.
General Submission Guidelines
- Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered. This includes personal websites and social media.
- For poetry, send up to four poems. For fiction, send stories of up to 3,000 words. For creative nonfiction, send essays of up to 1,000 words.
- Title your document with your name and the genre. (i.e.: GwendolynBrooks_Poetry; Adrienne Rich_Nonfiction.)
- Include a cover letter in the provided space in the Submittable form (not in the document). Include your mailing address, email and phone number, a 50-word bio, social handles, 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 one batch of poems or one prose piece per reading period.
- We aim for a response time of 8 weeks, but please do not query your submission status unless 4 months have passed.
The entry period for the 2024 Crab Creek Review Poetry Contest begins on February 15th with entries accepted until May 15, 2025. 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
Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and, most recently, as a judge for the 2024 National Book Award. She is the editor of the anthologyI Sing the Salmon Home, which won the 2024 Washington State Book Award. Priest’s other honors include an American Book Award, an Allied Arts Professional Poets Award, and residencies and fellowships from Hedgebrook, Storyknife, Indigenous Nations Poets, the Academy of American Poets, the Vadon Foundation, and the University of Washington Libraries. Her work appears widely online and in print. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College (2008) and lives in Bellingham, Washington. Learn more at renapriest.com
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 in 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!