Submissions
Inkhorn Review is a literary journal, published online quarterly and in print annually.
Free Reading Periods
- Autumn Edition (October): opens June 1
- Winter Edition (January): opens September 1
- Spring Edition (April): opens December 1
- Summer Edition (July): opens March 1
- Art Submissions: opens quarterly
Paid reading periods open year round
Inkhorn Review nominates for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions. Work by the editors is not eligible for publication or nomination.
What we're looking for
Poems and short prose that know what they're doing. Micros that aren't small. We respond to precision and moments that don't explain themselves. We're slower to take work that explains its own feeling or announces what the reader should conclude.
Moreover, we seek to make poetry relevant in today's world.
Previously, we weren't committed to a school, style, or kind of poem. You'll see that in our 2026 editions. But for issues beginning 2027, we're tired of playing tennis with the net down.
We prefer forms, but are not opposed to the occasional tightly written "modern" piece. If you write micro fiction, please format it as such, not as "verse." We anticipate that statement to create some backlash. Bring it on.
We view poetic form not as a rigid prison, but as an essential boundary that gave art its tension, meaning, and joy. Robert Frost famously compared writing free verse to "playing tennis with the net down," arguing that without the resistance of strict meter and rhyme, the game of poetry lost its purpose and thrill. For Frost, the true triumph of a poet lay in the ability to marry the strict, mathematical constraints of iambic pentameter with the natural, chaotic cadences of everyday human speech—a concept he called "the sound of sense." By keeping the traditional structures intact, Frost believed he could anchor deep, modern anxieties inside a comforting, rhythmic order, proving that true creative freedom is found by working within limitations rather than abandoning them.
We read everyone the same way. We don't care where else you've published, or whether you've published at all.
What to send
If you anticipate becoming a regular submitter, our Patreon program offers perks that may interest you.
Poetry — up to three poems, any length, any form. You may submit up to 6 poems as a paid submission.
Prose — one piece up to 3,000 words. Fiction, nonfiction, and things in between are welcome. You may submit up to 5,000 words as a paid submission.
Micro — up to three flash pieces in one document, none longer than 300 words.
Please send one submission at a time and wait to hear from us before sending another.
How to submit
We accept all submissions through Duotrope. Please do not send email submissions.
Simultaneous submissions
Yes. We assume you're sending your work elsewhere.
If a piece is accepted somewhere else, just withdraw it here. If part of a batch of poems is placed, withdraw that poem and let us keep considering the rest.
A longer response time may mean we're interested, but it isn't a promise of acceptance.
Response time
We aim to respond within 30 days. If it's been longer than 60 days, please query.
Fees and payment
Submission fee is $4, or wait until one of our quarterly free-submission periods. We pay for pieces in our print edition, but are not currently paying for those we publish online.
We pay contributors on publication day:
- Poetry: $25 per printed poem
- Micro: $25 per printed micro
- Fiction: $40 per printed piece over 1,000 words
- Nonfiction: $40 per printed piece over 1,000 words
- Art: $40 per printed work
If you have books in print, include the ISBNs with your submission. We include purchase links on your contributor page when possible. Purchases go through Bookshop.org and are subject to availability there.
What publication means
If we accept your work for print, it will appear in the next appropriate issue (seasonal, theme, or awards) and appear later in the online archive, where you'll be able to share your contributor page.
Online-only pieces are eligible for prize nomination.
By accepting an offer of publication, you grant Inkhorn Press and its successors and assigns first serial rights, the right to keep the work in our online archive, and the right to reprint it in the printed annual and other anthologies drawn from our own archive. For artwork, this also includes the non-exclusive right to use the image in promotion of the issue in which it appears. Payment upon initial publication covers all uses.
All other rights remain with you, and all rights revert to you on publication. Reprint your work wherever you like; we only ask that Inkhorn Review be credited as the first place it appeared.
We do not accept previously published work. A personal blog, newsletter, or public social media post counts as published. Work shared only in a workshop or private group is fine.
Submission for consideration implies acceptance of these terms.
On artificial intelligence
We publish human writing. Please don't send us work generated by AI, in whole or in part.
We're not talking about your spell-checker. The line we care about is the one the Authors Guild draws: generating text and presenting it as your own writing is different from using a tool in the background. If you want a thoughtful account of where that line sits, theirs is the best we've read — AI Best Practices for Authors.
The short version: the words and the thinking should be yours. That's what we're here to publish, and it's why a small journal like this is worth anyone's support.
Evaluations
Separately from submissions, we offer paid evaluations. An evaluation is 300–500 words on what the piece is doing, where it loses a reader, and one direction for revision. It is not a line edit or a copyedit.
Evaluations have no bearing on our editorial decisions. Buying one does not improve a piece’s chances. Please don’t send work that’s currently under consideration with us — if we find that it is, we’ll hold the evaluation until that piece has a decision, or refund you, whichever you prefer.
Evaluation by one of our readers — $25
Evaluation by the editor — $40
We respond within three weeks; if we miss that, the fee is refunded. A reader may decline a piece that falls outside what they can usefully speak to, in which case the fee is refunded.
Inkhorn Review is published by Follow the Rabbit LLC in Port Orchard, Washington.