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 The editors seek original, unpublished poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction via Submittable.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- Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered.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.
Submission Guidelines Crab Creek Review is hosting a Creative Nonfiction-only Fast Lane reading period from November 18–November 22. Payment is one contributor copy of the issue in which the work appears.
What we're looking for:
- Essays of up to 1,500 words.
- Essays in narrative, lyric, and hybrid forms, including experimental works.
- Essays that go beyond the retelling of a memory or past event.
- Essays that explore, examine, and question what it means to be human.
- Essays that interweave inquiry and research with engaging creative analysis to serve a larger purpose.
- Essays that open at the close; rather than conclude, their endings are both surprising yet inevitable.
Manuscript guidelines:
- One essay of up to 1,500 words.
- Send your work as a SINGLE attachment (.doc; .docx; .PDF); docx preferred. 12pt standard font.
- Please submit no more than once; if you've already submitted your writing during the Fall open period, do not send additional work. If you are a previous contributor, we’d love to hear from you if it’s been two years since the date of your last publication with us.
- Title your document with title and name (i.e: ESSAYTITLE_Adrienne Rich).
- Include a cover letter in the provided space in the Submittable form (not in the document). Include your email address, a 50-word bio, and the title of the piece you are submitting.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed (please indicate in your cover letter), however if the piece is accepted elsewhere, notify us immediately by withdrawing your submission.
- Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered. This includes personal websites and social media.
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!