Thank you for your interest in The Iowa Review.
We accept fiction and poetry submissions from August 1 through October 1 and nonfiction and visual literature submissions from August 1 through November 1. Guidelines can be found here: https://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines
If your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry has a visual component (graphic novel/memoir, drawings, collage, etc.), please upload a PDF here. If selected, we will request a print-quality file. Maximum number of pages: 10. We pay $40/page for visual literature.
Guest edited by Meenakshi Gigi Durham
“when i’m asked to disrobe
and talk about my body
you see
everyone travels through
some sort of prison atsomepoint,” writes the poet Omotara James.
Bodies can be prisons, and they can be imprisoned. Bodies are socially defined, surveilled, regulated, contoured; and the mechanisms of these embodied actions are legal, medical, educational, environmental, familial, religious, cultural, political — above all, political. In recent years, we have watched Black bodies being assaulted by police and by vigilantes, women’s bodies being denied their autonomy, bodies on borders being beaten back, bodies collapsing incruel heatwaves, bodies denied medical care when they challenge gender norms. The precarity and vulnerability of the body are markers of the current moment.
But bodies are also resistant and rebellious: they push physical limits for the sheer thrill of it, joyfully couple across boundaries of race and gender, risk harm in activism for social justice, extend healing touches and caring gestures.
In this special issue of The Iowa Review, “Bodies in and out of control,” we seek submissions that engage with the body/embodiment, its management and governance as well as its multiplicity, its mysteries, and its vitality. Poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and other artforms are welcome.
As submissions are read anonymously, please do not include your name on the submission document itself. Your name, email, address, and bio can be included in the cover letter.
Work must be previously unpublished in print or online, and, if accepted, must not be published anywhere else before it is published in The Iowa Review (the lead time between acceptance and publication is about a year). Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided you contact us immediately to withdraw your work if it is accepted for publication elsewhere. We typically respond in one to six months.
The page limit for prose is 25 pages and for poetry is 8 pages (query by e-mail if you have a longer poem). Prose submissions should be double-spaced.
Please include a sentence or two in your cover letter about how your submission fits our theme. Submissions that do not include this sentence will be automatically rejected.
Current University of Iowa students are ineligible to submit.
We pay $1.50 per line for poetry ($100 minimum) and $0.08 per word for prose ($100 minimum).
Translations should be submitted according to the guidelines of the original work's genre and addressed to that genre's editor. Translators should have permission from the copyright holder and should include a copy of the original work with their submission.
For more information, visit:
https://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines
The page limit for nonfiction is 25 pages, double-spaced. A submission can be one or multiple essays. We pay $0.08 per word ($100 minimum).
As submissions are read blind, please do not include your name on the submission document itself. Your name, email, address, and bio can be included in the cover letter.
Please read our full guidelines for further details: https://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines
Let us know how we're doing! The Iowa Review wants to hear from you! Please fill out our new survey to help us better understand our audience and how to serve you. We value your feedback!
This category is reserved for subscribers; all submissions will be checked against our subscriber list. Subscribers are welcome to submit one fee-free manuscript during our submission period (August through November).
The page limit for nonfiction is 25 pages, double-spaced. A submission can be one or multiple essays. We pay $0.08 per word ($100 minimum).
As submissions are read blind, please do not include your name on the submission document itself. Your name, email, address, and bio can be included in the cover letter.
Please read our full guidelines for further details: https://iowareview.org/content/writers-guidelines
Let us know how we're doing! The Iowa Review wants to hear from you! Please fill out our new survey to help us better understand our audience and how to serve you. We value your feedback!