Founding Editor Kate Bernheimer will edit the twentieth annual issue of Fairy Tale Review. Vol. 20 will not have a theme. We are looking for your best new work. Please familiarize yourself with the contents of our print issues. Submissions will be accepted March 8, 2023 – July 15, 2023.

We ask that all submissions adhere to the following general guidelines:

All work must be submitted using our Submittable portal. We do not accept submissions via email or postal service.

Submissions must be previously unpublished, both in print and online. Submissions must be previously unpublished, both in print and online; work submitted that is part of a forthcoming book such as a story collection is eligible for consideration as long as the book in which it will appear has a publication date later than March 1, 2024.

Writers should submit only once in a given genre per submission period, unless encouraged to submit again by our editorial staff. Multiple submissions will go unread.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please note as such in your cover letter and withdraw the submission immediately if accepted elsewhere. Withdrawals can be done through Submittable. If you’ve submitted a packet of poems and must withdraw one but would like the rest to remain under consideration, please add a note to your submission in Submittable.

We welcome submissions directly from authors, agents, and book publishers; and we welcome book manuscripts under contract and with publication dates after March 1, 2024 from which we might select contents for first serial rights publication (whether poems, stories, essays, graphic novel, etc). Please email us with information and details if you are representing a forthcoming book you would like to offer us first serial rights that you hold or represent for that book.

We welcome multi-lingual work. For works that are not primarily in English, please include a translation of the non-English portion(s) if that will, in your view, support its accessibility for our editorial staff.

Specific genre guidelines can be found below:

For prose: Writers may submit a single prose piece up to 6,000 words or up to three prose pieces under 1,000 words each (combined in a single Word Doc). We welcome short fiction, essays, lyric nonfiction, and creative scholarship. Scholarship will go through a standard peer review process.

For poetry: Writers may submit up to four poems totaling no more than ten pages.

For graphic novels, comics, and drama: Writers may submit up to ten pages.

For original artwork: Artists may submit up to five high-resolution images.

For translations (to English): Writers may submit translations of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Submissions in translation should follow the above guidelines corresponding to the genre of the original work. Submissions in translation should include the translated work in its source language, along with documentation of any permissions necessary to publish the work in both languages (original and English) combined in a single document.

For dialogues: If you wish to propose a dialogue between yourself and another scholar or author (or someone working in another discipline whose work centers fairy tales), please submit a short letter of inquiry contextualizing the proposed dialogue, including current bios for both participants, and email us directly at ftreditorial@gmail.com.

Volume 20 of Fairy Tale Review will be published in February 2024. Contributors will receive two (2) copies of the issue and a $50 honorarium upon publication. A standard contract between the contributor and Fairy Tale Review will be executed upon acceptance.

Our editorial staff is small and entirely volunteer-based. We hope to respond to all submissions within 4 months.

Fairy Tale Review is published by the Journals Division of Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI, and is proud to be part of their Series in Fairy Tale Studies.

Since its inception, Fairy Tale Review has been committed to contributor diversity and inclusive engagement. As always, we are especially interested in submissions by women and nonbinary writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, BIPOC writers, Indigenous writers, writers with disabilities, and writers from other marginalized and underrepresented groups in mainstream publishing. Fairy tales have long represented marginalized communities. We celebrate the power of fairy tales to represent, resist, and reflect on abuses of power.