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.

Submission Guidelines

Open reading period September 15–October 15, or until Submittable cap is met. Looking for originality, risk-taking, and consummate craftsmanship in in poetry. Simultaneous submissions welcome. No fee. Payment is one contributor copy of the issue in which the work appears.

We welcome your best work, and have no restrictions on form or content except that we will not consider work that is discriminatory, defamatory, or work that promotes intolerance or hatred. 

General Manuscript Guidelines:

• Send up to four poems, no more than eight pages total. 
• Send your work as a SINGLE attachment (.doc; .docx; .rtf; PDF); docx preferred. 12pt standard font.
• Please submit no more than one batch of poems per reading period. 
• Title your document with title and name (i.e: TITLE_Jericho Brown).  
• 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.
• Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered. This includes personal websites and social media.
• 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.
• If you need to update us on the status of your simultaneous submission, please do so by adding a note to your submission, in Submittable.​
   

Our  current payment is in the form of one copy of the issue for which your  work has been accepted. We buy first rights as well as the rights to  use your name and the accepted work (in whole or part) on our website.  Beyond this use, and following publication, rights revert to the  author.  We ask that Crab Creek Review be acknowledged in any subsequent  publication of the work.

We have a limited allotment of submissions each month (300), so please do not submit more than once in a reading period, and do not withdraw and resubmit your work. If you are concerned about a submitting error, you may leave a message in Submittable to bring it to our attention.
 

Send one piece of fiction up to 5,000 words. Stories must be one file, with your work double-spaced, 12pt standard font. One submission per reading period. Revisions may be made upon acceptance; do not withdraw and resubmit your work due to revision concerns. Pieces accepted will be published in the spring issue of Crab Creek Review.
We look forward to reading your authentic, narratively engaging, and well-crafted fiction.
 

Guidelines

• Send one piece up to 5,000 words or up to three pieces of flash fiction/lyric prose fiction. 
• Send one file, with your work double-spaced, 12pt standard font. 
• Files should be a single attachment; docx preferred (.doc, .rtf, .PDF also accepted)
• Title your document with the title and your name (i.e: TITLE_Aimee Bender). 
• One submission per reading period. 
• Include a cover letter in the provided space (not in the document). Include your mailing address, email, and social media handles (where relevant), a 50-word bio, and the title 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 if the piece is accepted elsewhere. 
• Only original, human-made and previously unpublished work will be considered. Work generated by AI will not be considered.

Creative Nonfiction Guidelines

Send one piece of up to 1,500 words per submission period. We are looking for well-crafted prose that exhibits emotional depth and nuance, a clear voice, and personal philosophical reflection that goes beyond the telling of a past event. If you write craft-driven essays with a broader consciousness, we want to read them!  We welcome narrative nonfiction and are enchanted by hybrid, lyric, and experimental essays, as well as poetic forms, such as haibuns and zuihitsu. (We do not publish literary criticism, scholarly articles, or straight reportage.) Revisions may be made upon acceptance; do not withdraw and resubmit your work due to revision concerns. If we have published your work in print or online, please wait two years before you submit additional writing.

Manuscript Guidelines

• One (1) essay of up to 1,500 words. If submitting flash, send us two (2) pieces of up to 500 words. 
• Send your work as a single attachment (.doc; .docx; PDF), double-spaced, 12pt standard font. Include your name and email address in the submission.
• Title your document with title and name (i.e: TITLE_Adrienne Rich).
• Include a cover letter in the provided space in the Submittable form (not in the document) with your email address, a 50-word bio, and the title of the piece you are submitting.
• Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered. This includes personal websites and social media.
• We do not consider or review AI-generated work. Submissions utilizing AI tools will be declined.
• Simultaneous submissions OK. Please indicate this in your cover letter and, if your piece is accepted elsewhere, notify us immediately by withdrawing your submission in Submittable.