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SPECIAL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
On Disability: A Pleiades special folio curated by Olivia Ellisor and Kennedy Horton
Pleiades is accepting submissions for an upcoming special folio centered around neurodivergence and disability, written for and by disabled and neurodivergent writers and poets. This folio aims to educate and celebrate what it means to navigate this neurotypical, able-bodied world, as someone outside of its perceived standards.
Disabled and neurodiverse writers and poets are encouraged to submit to this folio by October 15th, 2023. The folio will be published in Spring 2024. Writers are not required to specify their disability.
Please submit up to 5 poems or 1 piece of prose (max 5,000 words), along with a cover letter that includes a brief bio (max 500 words) to pleiadesdisabilityfolio@gmail.com. Send original, unpublished works only. Simultaneous submissions accepted, but please notify the editors immediately should the piece be accepted elsewhere.
We look forward to reading your work!
PRUFER POETRY PRIZE
Pleiades is accepting submissions for the Prufer Poetry Prize during the month of October. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in an upcoming issue of Pleiades: Literature in Context. Submissions will be open from October 1-31 at 11:59 CST. Nicky Beer will judge.
ABOUT NICKY BEER: Nicky Beer is a bi/queer writer, and the author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes (Milkweed, 2022), winner of the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry. She has received honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, the Poetry Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where she is a poetry editor for Copper Nickel.
TO PAY for your submission: Please visit this link to pay the $20 entry fee. Make note of your order number, which you will include in your submission.
TO SUBMIT: Poets may submit 1-3 poems for a $20 entry fee between October 1-31. 1-3 poems should not exceed 10 pages. Please visit pleiadessubmissions.com to submit. ***Please select “Prufer Poetry Prize” under “genre” or your submission will not be read. Please include your order number in the comments section of your submission. Please do not include any identifying information on the submission document or PDF.
REGULAR SUBMISSIONS
•Due to staffing changes and an unprecedented volume of submissions, our response time is longer than usual. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. Pleiades will open again for regular submissions in 2023 during the month of December. Unsolicited poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and book reviews should be submitted via our online submissions manager. Unfortunately, we cannot consider paper submissions and emailed submissions, and mailed manuscripts will be recycled. Submissions sent outside the submission period will not be considered. *Due to a large volume of submissions, Pleiades book review submissions are currently closed.
• Please remember to select the genre of your submission, as submissions sent with no genre marked will not be read.
• Though we attend to submissions as quickly as possible, please allow for up to six months before querying.
• We are especially interested in reading submissions from writers from historically marginalized communities as part of our commitment to a broad representation of dynamic work.
• Writers should review past issues of Pleiades to get a sense of our aesthetic and preferences. Order Pleiades here.
GENRE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
POETRY
Please send 3-5 poems. We are particularly interested in work that embraces risk and is lyrically inventive. We value work that gives voice to a range of lived experiences and employs a mastery of expression. Work of any length will be considered, and we look forward to reading your most polished poems. Please do not submit multiple packets during one submissions period. Direct questions regarding poetry to Jenny Molberg and Caitlin Cowan at pleiadespoetryeditor@gmail.com.
FICTION
Pleiades is looking for exceptional fiction, with a focus on well-developed characters, memorable language, provocatively-wrought subject matter, and immersive settings. While there are no length requirements, our journal has limited space, and manuscripts over 12,000 words will especially need to impress. Some stories may be considered for our “online exclusives” category. Please direct questions regarding fiction to Jennifer Maritza McCauley at pleiadesfictioninquiries
CREATIVE NONFICTION
While we enjoy essays and nonfiction in all forms, here at Pleiades we are particularly interested in creative nonfiction that gazes out at the world rather than into the self. This is to say nothing against memoir, only that our publishing aesthetic leans towards the exterior in order to balance what we often see as a focus on memoir and interiority in many literary journals. Essays that perform a weave of the personal with an outward gaze are very welcome. We do not only consider externally-focused creative nonfiction, but this is our taste preference. Limit creative nonfiction submissions to 6,000 words. Please direct questions regarding nonfiction to pleiades@ucmo.edu.
BOOK REVIEWS
The Pleiades Book Review is now published online. We have extended the deadline for book reviews, and will now be open for submissions indefinitely. If you are interested in submitting a book review to be considered for the PBR, please submit via our submissions portal at pleiadessubmissions.com. We prefer submissions of full reviews to emailed queries, and make sure you mark your genre as “book reviews for Pleiades.” Any mailed or emailed book review submissions will not considered. Direct any questions to Reviews Editor Kylie Gellatly at pleiadesreviews@gmail.com. Reviews should be submitted exclusively by the reviewers themselves (not by the authors of the work being reviewed). We encourage experimental reviews—reviews that borrow from creative nonfiction, adopt a unique form, compare something new to something old, etc.—and are interested in new interpretations of what a book review is and can look like. Note: Pleiades book reviews are 800-1200 words.
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• Pleiades DOES accept simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you notify us immediately if a piece is accepted elsewhere. *If you need to withdraw your work from consideration, please email the appropriate genre editor with the subject line “Withdrawal.” Please ONLY email through the links provided above.
• To have a book considered for review, send a review copy to: Pleiades Book Review • Dept of English, Martin 336 • University of Central Missouri • Warrensburg, MO 64093. Please note: not all books received will be reviewed, though we do review 40+ books in each year.