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AUTHORS must submit via e-mail: editor@snreview.org. Label the e-mail: SUB: Name of Story. In the case of poetry, put “SUB: Poetry” in the subject line. You may include a cover letter, but it is unnecessary. Do not include attachments (we will not open them). If your e-mail service will not allocate enough space for an entire story (many services will not transmit e-mail with more than 5000 words), break the story into two parts and send part one and part two in two separate e-mails. You will hear from us within eight weeks. We will respond to your e-mail address. (Therefore use an email address at which we can locate you three months from the day you send it.) Should we accept your submission, we will ask for a biography of less than 200 words, which should include the citations of previous published works. GUIDELINES are simple: Short stories should be less than 7000 words. Be original. Catch our attention with your characters, plot, theme, style of writing, imagery, and point of view. No romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, or horror genre fiction. Not interested in short stories that start or end with a scene that includes an alarm clock ringing. Here's the best description we can offer. It comes from C. Michael Curtis, the fiction editor of The Atlantic Monthly: “What most editors look for, in addition to a respect for the conventional strengths of orderly composition, is a sentence or two sufficiently complex in structure and idea to signify a serious mind at work. Editors look for an engaging sensibility, a writer with wit, imagination, and an appreciation for the benefits of a well-constructed sentence.” And a piece of advice I heard from novelist/playwright Sarah Schulman: Stop trying so hard. Make sure the words are yours, yours from the heart, not a strained rhetoric (vocabulary, sentence, paragraph) that you presume writers use. Be true to thyself. Poets should submit no more than three poems at a time. Length of poetry is restricted to 200-word poems. Catch our attention with your voice, theme, and imagery. Essays and creative non-fiction should be less than 7000 words. Catch our attention with your theme, style of writing, and imagery. In the case of creative non-fiction, follow the same advice provided for short story writers. |
