General Guidelines

York Literary Review is a journal of new writing edited by Creative Writing staff and postgraduate students at the York Centre for Writing at York St John University. Our third issue will be published in Spring 2018. York Literary Review is published and distributed by Valley Press, Yorkshire's leading independent publisher. Our next submission window will run from Jan 26 to Feb 9 2018.

We are looking for the best new fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews from both established and new writers. We are also interested in submissions of visual art and photography to be featured alongside new writing. 

We pay contributors an honorarium in recognition of their work.

We are happy to receive work in any form, subject or genre. More innovative writing is strongly encouraged.

All submissions should be previously unpublished and in English, although we do accept translations of poetry, as long as the original text is provided. Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please notify us if the work is accepted elsewhere. Please provide a title, submit in either Word or PDF format, and include a short bio in your cover letter, indicating any previous publications. Submissions should be made in only one category.

Please see individual category guidelines below for further details:

Fiction

New fiction, including short stories or excerpts, should total no more than 3,000 words.

Non-Fiction & Essays

We welcome submissions of creative-nonfiction and essays on contemporary literature. Essays for this issue should be for a general, rather than academic readership, and of no more than 3,000 words.

Poetry

New poetry in any form. Please send no more than 3 poems. 

Art

Finally, we invite submissions of visual art and photography to be featured alongside new writing, either online or in print. Submissions should be in JPG format, but should also include a link to an online portfolio, where possible. Artists will be contacted regarding the type of illustrations or images we are interested in.