WINTER 2025 — ISSUE #22 
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Theme: Safety

Sub­mis­sions open for the Winter 2025 Issue (#22) on August 1.

Final dead­line is  11:59 p.m. on Sep­tem­ber 30 2024.

We support the Stonecoast com­mu­ni­ty’s goal to promote inclu­siv­i­ty, equity, and social justice through writing.

 

PLEASE READ BEFORE SUBMITTING

Genres Accept­ed: We solicit fiction, pop (genre) fiction, cre­ative non­fic­tion, poetry, dra­mat­ic works, exper­i­men­tal lit­er­a­ture, and visual art. We can’t wait to see your best pieces! Stonecoast Review offers feed­back on select­ed submissions.

Issue Format: Begin­ning with Issue 21, released in June 2024, Stonecoast Review assumed the form of a print/online hybrid journal. The print form now con­sists of a 48-page chap­book, with full color art through­out, as well as a QR code that directs readers to more new content on StonecoastReview.org. As such, all pieces select­ed for pub­li­ca­tion will be fea­tured online but, due to page lim­i­ta­tions, only a select number of pieces will be able to be fea­tured in the print Issue. Please see below for new guide­lines regard­ing word count lim­i­ta­tions for each type of publication.

Rights: Stonecoast Review acquires First Serial Rights and First Elec­tron­ic Rights for all work pub­lished in the journal. Rights revert to the author upon pub­li­ca­tion. Con­trib­u­tors select­ed for print pub­li­ca­tion will receive a com­pli­men­ta­ry copy of the Issue in which their work appears. 

 

Our staff: We are a vol­un­teer group of Stonecoast MFA Program alumni and current stu­dents. Most of us have expe­ri­ence working on numer­ous Stonecoast Review issues or other lit­er­ary jour­nals. Any Stonecoast alumni and current stu­dents cur­rent­ly working on the current Issue of Stonecoast Review are inel­i­gi­ble to submit.

Con­sid­er sup­port­ing us! We rely upon dona­tions to cover adver­tis­ing, website, and print­ing costs. To support Stonecoast Review, click on the “Donate” found on our website.

Buy an issue: Visit “Where to Buy Stonecoast Review” here.

More about our Theme

What do you think of when you hear the word “safety”? What does it mean to feel safe? What does it mean to be safe?

The word con­notes dif­fer­ent def­i­n­i­tions and bears dif­fer­ent weights for each of us. It man­i­fests itself in unex­pect­ed ways and set­tings, and remains absent or silenced in so many others. For all its idio­syn­crasies, a uni­ver­sal acknowl­edge­ment exists within this concept. Or does it?

We want to read lit­er­a­ture and take in media that explore, provoke, chal­lenge, recon­sid­er, evoke, or explode that concept for you.

Submission Guidelines

• Send sub­mis­sions via Sub­mit­table only.

• Please include a short cover letter and bio (50- and 100-word max., respectively).

• We accept one prose sub­mis­sion, one poetry sub­mis­sion (of up to three poems), or five pieces of visual art per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle. Sub­mis­sions that do not abide by these rules will not be con­sid­ered for publication.

• Your work must be pre­vi­ous­ly unpub­lished. (Stonecoast alumni may submit already pub­lished work for con­sid­er­a­tion as reprints.)

• We encour­age simul­ta­ne­ous sub­mis­sions. However, please with­draw your sub­mis­sion imme­di­ate­ly if it’s accept­ed else­where. If you submit mul­ti­ple poems and one is accept­ed at another pub­li­ca­tion, please attach a note on Sub­mit­table iden­ti­fy­ing which poem is no longer available.

• Please adhere to stan­dard man­u­script format: Double spaced, 12 pt., Times New Roman font. Poetry may be single spaced. (If you tell us that diverg­ing from these rules is inte­gral to your piece, we will con­sid­er it.)

• While we love to rep­re­sent stories with raw, emo­tion­al truth, we ask that you refrain from sub­mit­ting pieces fea­tur­ing exces­sive sex, vio­lence, assaults, or suicide.

• We will reject pieces deter­mined to be written by the use of AI soft­ware.

Genre Guide­lines

As a reminder, all pieces select­ed for pub­li­ca­tion will be fea­tured online in January 2025. Due to page con­straints, only a few of these select­ed pieces will be fea­tured in both the print and online Winter 2025 Issue. Please see below for word count lim­i­ta­tions based on con­sid­er­a­tion for either Hybrid (Print + Online) or General (Online-only) pub­li­ca­tion formats.

 

Fiction. In accor­dance with the theme of safety, the fiction editors are looking for stories that invite the reader to think about what it means to be safe, how it feels when that safety is taken from us, and what it means to write bravely rather than safely. We are looking for stories that push the bound­aries of tra­di­tion­al fiction with regard to form and content. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for Hybrid Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 2,500 words or fewer. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for General Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 5,000 words or fewer. One sub­mis­sion per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle.

 

Popular/Genre Fiction. We are open to work that will make us rethink what “safety” means. We would love to see a piece of fantasy, sci-fi, spec­u­la­tive fiction, decolo­nial science fiction by POC (Afro­fu­tur­ism, as one example), or other genres that is fun, but invites us to ques­tion our set beliefs. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for Hybrid Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 2,500 words or fewer. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for General Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 5,000 words or fewer. One sub­mis­sion per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle.

 

Cre­ative Non­fic­tion. We are looking for a diverse array of Cre­ative Non­fic­tion works that engage with our mission and chal­lenge the bound­aries of con­ven­tion­al sto­ry­telling. We are inter­est­ed in how writers explore safety across spaces and trans­for­ma­tions, as well as pieces that engage with nar­ra­tives and world­views outside of (or exam­in­ing) main­stream dis­cours­es. We encour­age exper­i­men­ta­tion with hybrid forms of essay and memoir and are par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in works that are both rel­e­vant and per­son­al. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for Hybrid Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 2,500 words or fewer. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for General Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 5,000 words or fewer. One sub­mis­sion per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle.

 

Poetry. The staff values atten­tive­ness to lan­guage, form, and craft. We want poems that make us gasp and wonder and take us beyond our­selves. Send us your best work. 

Limit sub­mis­sions to 3 poems, with no more than 50 lines each. One sub­mis­sion per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle, of up to three poems.

 

Dra­mat­ic Works. We are seeking short dra­mat­ic works of all types. Plays, screen­plays, and hybrid works includ­ing mono­logues, one-minute scripts, ten-minute scripts, and exper­i­men­tal works are all welcome. Excerpts from longer dra­mat­ic works are welcome if they stand on their own. We are inter­est­ed in pieces that explore a diverse range of per­spec­tives, struc­tures, and voices sur­round­ing our theme of safety. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for Hybrid Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 5 or fewer pages. 

For con­sid­er­a­tion for General Pub­li­ca­tion: limit sub­mis­sions to 12 or fewer pages. One sub­mis­sion per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle.

 

Visual Art. We seek visual images for the cover and select­ed inside pages. We welcome exper­i­men­tal and unusual art forms. We accept 2D digital images of pho­tog­ra­phy, sculp­ture, paint­ing, and mixed media. Please send high-res digital images (300 dpi or higher) in JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, or RAW file format. 

Limit sub­mis­sions to five pieces.One sub­mis­sion per author, per sub­mis­sion cycle, of up to five pieces.