Submit

General Submissions are now open through May 1st! Visit our Submittable page for full submission guidelines and to submit.

Prairie Schooner publishes short stories, poems, imaginative essays of general interest, and reviews of current books of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We read submissions from September 1st to May 1st of each year. All submissions should be typed, and all prose should be double-spaced. Use standard fonts and formatting, including margins of at least one inch, and include your name on each page of the manuscript. We do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, including online publications, and we do not read simultaneous submissions.

For poetry, send a selection of 5-7 poems contained within a single document. For fiction, essays, and reviews, send only one selection at a time (though book reviews may consider two or three books in conversation). All unsolicited manuscripts must be submitted through Submittable or regular mail in hard copy; e-mailed manuscripts will not be read. Please allow 3-4 months for a reply.

We prefer electronic submissions via Submittable, but we also accept hard copy submissions. Hard copy submissions should follow the above guidelines, and should be printed single-sided. A self-addressed, stamped envelope, must accompany the submission, which may be sent to the attention of the editor at:

Prairie Schooner
110 Andrews Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0334

We encourage you to read Prairie Schooner before you submit. Why not subscribe? Or, consider purchasing back issues, sample copies, or the current issue.

Authors whose work is accepted for publication grant Prairie Schooner first North American serial rights, and in return, contributors receive three copies each of the issue in which their work appears, in token payment.

Prairie Schooner Book Prize Contest:

For information on submitting a book-length manuscript to our Book Series competition, which runs January 15 to March 15 each year, please click here.

Annual Prairie Schooner Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest:

Each year from May 1 to August 1, Prairie Schooner accepts submissions to the Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest, open to all types of creative nonfiction essays, up to 5,000 words. The entry fee is $18. Winner receives $250 and publication in the following Spring issue. Entries include a cover letter with the submission's title and your contact information, your name and contact info shouldn't appear anywhere on the manuscript, and, finally, multiple submissions are encouraged, but an entry fee must be paid for each submission.