Submit

The annual submission periods for the Little Patuxent Review run as follows:

  • January issue: August 1 through October 24
  • June issue: December 1 through March 1

Please read the information below and then use our Submittable page to submit your work and to review further details. Thank you for your submissions!

Little Patuxent Review is a community-based publication focused on writers and artists from the Mid-Atlantic region, but all excellent work originating in the United States will be considered.

We recommend that you look over at least one issue to determine whether your work is appropriate for our publication. You can purchase individual copies online or at various local outlets. You can also view videos of the readings of some of the pieces we’ve published on our YouTube channel.

We also suggest that you read former Poetry Editor Laura Shovan’s Six Questions interview for her views on submissions and former Fiction Editor Jen Grow’s “More Words = More Reasons to Revise” on why submitting that great first draft just won’t work. Desiree Magney, LPR‘s publisher, has some great advice on how to craft a nonfiction narrative or memoir in her essay “Writing From the Heart, Shaping It Into Art.” Lastly, peruse former Online Editor Ilse Munro’s “The Story of a Story” on what it actually takes to get published in a top literary journal. And for a light-hearted look at what we don’t want, check out our fictional advice columnist’s piece “Dear Elvira: Bad Writing and Every Beholder’s Eye.”

General Format

Poetry and Prose Submissions

You may submit one fiction piece of no more than 5,000 words, one nonfiction piece of no more than 3,500 words, or a maximum of three poems of up to 100 lines each. You must specify the genre of the work, your name and pseudonym (if any), the word count (prose only) and complete contact information and include a 75-word bio written in the third person.

Your work must be typed using a standard, legible font (i.e, the equivalent of 12-point Times New Roman) with flush-left margins and submitted as a single .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf or .txt file.

Restrictions

  • We do not accept submissions from persons living outside of the United States.
  • While our contributing editors may provide pieces at the request of the editor, we do not accept unsolicited material from anyone listed on our masthead.
  • While we may reprint previously published work, we do not accept unsolicited submissions that have been previously published, either in print or online.
  • We do not accept multiple submissions or work submitted before we have notified you of our decision about pieces under review.
  • We do accept work that is simultaneously submitted to other journals as long as it is identified as such and you promptly inform us of acceptance elsewhere.

Submission Procedure

We do not accept submissions sent by standard mail or email. Please use Submittable, our electronic submission manager.

Deadlines and Themes

The submission period for our January issue opens August 1 and closes on October 24 every year. The submission period for our June issue opens December 1 and closes on March 1 every year.

Notification and Queries

Expect three to five months for a decision. If you have not heard from us in that time, check your Submittable account. If you still have a question, contact us by email at editor@littlepatuxentreview.org.

Compensation and Publication Rights

Regrettably, we cannot provide monetary compensation for work published in LPR. If we publish your work, we will give you one copy of the issue in which your work appears and the opportunity to read or discuss your work at the issue’s launch event. When we accept a piece, we obtain first-publication rights only.

Submit to LPR