Submission Guidelines for Soundings Review

We read all year, so we have no deadlines except that to be considered for a particular issue, the material must arrive 6 – 8 weeks before that issue comes out. Issues are published in September and March (beginning in 2010).

Soundings Review welcomes submissions of high quality, accessible poetry, fiction and other genres of prose including essays and interviews. Children’s literature is included although severely limited as this is not a magazine aimed specifically at children; however, a good children’s story that has appeal for adults, too, will be well received. We are open to different styles and voices, but we are passionate about accessibility and depth. By this, we mean that work should, on the first read, create a connection with a reader; on additional readings, spurred on by that connection, readers should continue to find increased understanding and pleasure in reading the work.

Connection to readers requires a strong opening, a clear story, interesting characters, fresh language and images. Poems, whether traditional or free form, should demonstrate a passion for and knowledge of language, image and subject. Essays include all subgenres: memoir, nature, personal, etc. For interviews or other forms of prose not mentioned, we suggest you send a short query letter, though it isn’t required. Our only taboo: hate literature, which includes all the "isms" that stereotype or disrespect others including pornography or gratuitous violence.

For each submission

Fiction: we prefer shorter work, up to 3,000 words for contests; we have no word limit for submissions to Soundings Review, but items that take up a lot of space have to be outstanding. Submissions should be double-spaced, 12 point Times Roman font; this is kinder to editors’ eyes. Include an SASE for the type of response you want (large, with sufficient postage for return of manuscript or small business size for our response only). Any material without an SASE will be recycled. Please submit only one story at a time if more than 500 words and wait for our response before sending more work; two short-short stories (500 words or less) are acceptable.

Poetry: open length; however, if you send a longer poem (more than a couple pages), the work must capture readers in the first stanza and hold them through every stanza thereafter. Send up to six poems per submission; please wait to hear from us to send more material. Accessibility is important; we particularly enjoy narrative.

Prose: up to 3,000 words for contests (no word limit for submission to Soundings Review), double-spaced, 12 point Times Roman font for essays. Some interviews might be longer; again, a query is suggested.

Children’s literature falls under the same guidelines as above.

For all submissions

• Please do not send longer material to the contests as it will not be read.
• Please make sure that your work is proofed and polished. Be sure to keep a copy of your work.
• If you do not include any SASE, you will not receive a response. If you live outside the U.S., please include IRC amounts that are adequate – check with your post office for specific information.
• Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but we will regard the material as still available unless we hear from you. Simultaneous submissions must be ethically managed by you.
• Please do not send discs or other media with your work; should we accept the material, we will contact you about the electronic media we require.
• Please do not submit your material through email (online). Currently, we do not have the resources to handle online submissions. When this changes, we’ll let you know!

Rights

We ask for first North American serial rights and also one-time anthology reprint rights should we wish to include the work in the anthology that follows publication of your work. Should we wish to include any part or all of your work online, we will ask for permission. We do reserve the right to include your name, bio and title of the work we publish in any Whidbey Island Writers Association publicity, including print and online media. Except for these rights, copyright reverts to author.

Send submissions to

Soundings Review

P.O. Box 639
Freeland, WA 98249

Response time

We will try to respond to your work within three months, but our staff volunteers, and we like to read each submission carefully; if you haven’t heard from us in three months, feel free to contact the editor. If we would like to hold the work for a future issue, we will contact you about that possibility.

Payment

Two copies of the magazine in which your work appears. As our budget allows, we will also pay authors honorariums. These may vary from issue to issue.

Magazines survive by creating a community of readers. Share the magazine with others. Encourage people to buy and read the magazine. Don’t forget to vote for the Readers’ Choice award – this is the choice for readers, not editors – and give us feedback. We like letters.