The Southeast Review publishes poetry, literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and art in each biannual issue as well as on SER Online, in addition to online book reviews and interviews. We pride ourselves on presenting emerging writers alongside well-established ones.
We’re proud to nominate our contributors to Best American Essays, Best of the Net, Best New Poets, Best Small Fictions, Best American Mystery and Suspense, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology.
We accept submissions for publication consideration in the fall and spring through Submittable. Our modest reading fee of $3 helps us meet the cost of this service, and all proceeds are directed to our contributor’s fund. Every submission is considered for both biannual and online publication.
To determine what we’re looking for, please read the works we’ve published. Click here to order a single biannual issue, here to become a subscriber, and here to read the latest from SER Online.
Please see our Contests page for information on our annual poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art contests.
We look forward to reading your work!
GENERALSUBMISSIONS
Overall Guidelines
We try to respond to submissions within 6 months, but it may take longer. If you haven’t heard from us after 6 months, you may query the appropriate section editor.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your piece via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere.
Please wait until you receive a reply regarding a submission before you submit a new piece. Unfortunately we do not open submissions to edits on Submittable.
We do not publish work that has been previously published elsewhere.
We acquire First North American serial rights, and payment is in the form of an honorarium from our contributor's fund. Contributors accepted for print publication will also receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their work will appear.
Current students and recent graduates of Florida State University, contest judges, and SER readers and masthead members are not eligible to submit. FSU graduates become eligible to submit once 5 years have passed since graduation.
Genre-Specific Guidelines
Poetry
Please submit no more than 5 single-spaced poems at a time, with a maximum of 15 pages per total submission. Place all poems in one document.
Only withdraw your entire submission if none of your submitted poems remain available. To withdraw a single poem, please send a message via Submittable with the title you would like to remove from consideration. (Please notify us via Submittable only, not email.)
Fiction
Please submit one double-spaced short story of up to 7500 words.
We rarely publish short-shorts outside of our World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. If you do plan to submit short-shorts, however, please send no more than five per submission. We don’t publish novellas and will only consider novel excerpts if they work as stand-alone stories.
Nonfiction
Please submit one double-spaced creative nonfiction piece of up to 5000 words. We’re open to a variety of forms, including memoir, travel writing, and personal essay. We don’t, however, publish academic or research writing.
Interviews
We’re interested in interviews that balance an intimate portrayal of the writer with their work. Explore the personal, ask about the nonliterary, evoke a mood. Create context for the work under discussion, then give us a sense of how the writer identifies with a particular tradition or is trying to break from it. We encourage making connections with political and historical events so that your conversation opens to broader audiences.
Please send us a complete interview for consideration. We particularly welcome interviewers and writers from historically marginalized groups.
Book Reviews
When we are open for book review submissions, please submit current (published within the past year), single-book reviews of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction of 800-1200 words. We prefer reviews of books by emerging writers and small presses.
We encourage publicists to send us catalogues and review copies of forthcoming titles. Please email the Book Reviews Editor concerning additional reviews inquiries.
Art
When we are open for art submissions, we are particularly interested in innovative, original black-and-white images for our covers. We also consider art in any medium to feature within each biannual issue and on SER Online.
At present, please query the Art Editor before sending us your work.
Free BIPOC Submissions
We offer free general submissions for writers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the fall and spring. To submit please direct your submission to the "Free BIPOC Submissions" category that pertains to your genre on Submittable. Please note that these submissions do have a cap, in the event that we receive more free submissions than Submittable allows us to offer.
Submissions for Currently or Formerly Incarcerated Writers
If you are a currently or formerly incarcerated writer, or if you are submitting on behalf of one, you may submit your work for free via mail (see address below), or via the Submittable link above under the currently or formerly incarcerated persons category.
Address
Southeast Review
Department of English
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306