Fairy Tale Review invites submissions for consideration by the editors for Volume 23, which will be published in Spring 2027.
Submissions Open March 1, 2026 - June 15, 2026
Founded in 2005, Fairy Tale Review is an annual literary journal of new fairy-tale informed fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Work from Fairy Tale Review has been honored by Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, Shirley Jackson Awards, Best American Mystery and Suspense, Best American Essays, and other esteemed venues. Past contributors include Shastri Akella, Aimee Bender, Laird Hunt, Carmen Maria Machado, Lydia Millet, and many more debut and award-winning authors.
Submission Guidelines
For poetry and prose: For poetry we can consider packets of five poems and/or up to ten pages; for prose we can consider up to 30 manuscript pages. Submissions can include a single work or multiple complete works. You will be asked to designate a genre when you submit. You may submit in multiple genres, but please only submit once to each genre. We prefer Word documents; please include page numbers. A cover sheet with titles is helpful if the document includes multiple works. If your work has special formatting needs to appear on the page as intended, please submit both a Word document and a PDF. We consider all styles and genres: prose fiction, verse fiction, memoir, essay, craft essay, creative scholarship, poetry, not to mention work that does not fall neatly into any category (go ahead and pick the closest genre on Submittable; we’re used to seeing unusual work). We would love to see some graphic novel excerpts or stories, comics, and plays.
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 original artwork: We rarely publish visual art due to our trim size and cost limitations for full color pages; but we are open to considering it. Visual artists may submit up to five high-resolution images in a single portfolio. Again, looking at a print or e-book back issue will give you a sense of possible fit of aesthetic and in our format.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome, of course. We ask that you withdraw your submission immediately if accepted elsewhere (and let us know what lucky journal has accepted the work!).
The best way to get a sense of any literary journal’s history and hopeful future is to read more than one back issue of Fairy Tale Review. The website does not have content from the print journal on it, but back issues are available for purchase, and lots of used copies are available online if you can’t afford the full price. You can also request that the journal be acquired at your public library in print or as an e-book via Libby. In-person requests to librarians seem to have a high success rate.
Since its inception, Fairy Tale Review has been committed to contributor diversity and inclusive engagement. As al-ways, 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 Tale Review is proudly published by the Journals Division of Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI, and is proud to be part of their Donald Haase Series in Fairy-Tale Studies.
Submissions Open March 1, 2026 - June 15, 2026
Fairy Tale Review invites submissions for consideration by the editors for Volume 23, which will be published in Spring 2027.
Founded in 2005, Fairy Tale Review is an annual literary journal of new fairy-tale informed fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. Work from Fairy Tale Review has been honored by Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, Shirley Jackson Awards, Best American Mystery and Suspense, Best American Essays, and other esteemed venues. Past contributors include Shastri Akella, Aimee Bender, Laird Hunt, Carmen Maria Machado, Lydia Millet, and many more debut and award-winning authors.
Submission Guidelines
For poetry and prose: For poetry we can consider packets of five poems and/or up to ten pages; for prose we can consider up to 30 manuscript pages. Submissions can include a single work or multiple complete works. You will be asked to designate a genre when you submit. You may submit in multiple genres, but please only submit once to each genre. We prefer Word documents; please include page numbers. A cover sheet with titles is helpful if the document includes multiple works. If your work has special formatting needs to appear on the page as intended, please submit both a Word document and a PDF. We consider all styles and genres: prose fiction, verse fiction, memoir, essay, craft essay, creative scholarship, poetry, not to mention work that does not fall neatly into any category (go ahead and pick the closest genre on Submittable; we’re used to seeing unusual work). We would love to see some graphic novel excerpts or stories, comics, and plays.
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 original artwork: We rarely publish visual art due to our trim size and cost limitations for full color pages; but we are open to considering it. Visual artists may submit up to five high-resolution images in a single portfolio. Again, looking at a print or e-book back issue will give you a sense of possible fit of aesthetic and in our format.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome, of course. We ask that you withdraw your submission immediately if accepted elsewhere (and let us know what lucky journal has accepted the work!).
The best way to get a sense of any literary journal’s history and hopeful future is to read more than one back issue of Fairy Tale Review. The website does not have content from the print journal on it, but back issues are available for purchase, and lots of used copies are available online if you can’t afford the full price. You can also request that the journal be acquired at your public library in print or as an e-book via Libby. In-person requests to librarians seem to have a high success rate.
Since its inception, Fairy Tale Review has been committed to contributor diversity and inclusive engagement. As al-ways, 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 Tale Review is proudly published by the Journals Division of Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI, and is proud to be part of their Donald Haase Series in Fairy-Tale Studies.