The average response time for submissions is between 1 and 6 months. If you have not received a response after 6 months, please check on the status of your submission in Submittable. If you encounter any problems, email us at blackwarriorreview@gmail.com
We do not consider previously published work.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please tell us if it is a simultaneous submission, and notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.
Please do not mix genres in the same submission. Our online issue is currently an exception to this rule.
Past contributors and contest winners, please wait three years from the date of your publication to resubmit work.
Past contributors and contest winners to the print journal may submit after waiting only one year to the online journal. Past contributors to the online journal should also wait a year before submitting to the print journal. We view these journals as separate creatures, having meaningful conversations late into the night.
You may submit to both the online and the print journal.
Students, faculty, staff, and administrators currently or formerly (within four years) affiliated with the University of Alabama are ineligible for consideration or publication.
We especially strive to magnify voices that are traditionally and systemically silenced. Writers of color, queer and trans writers, disabled writers, immigrant writers, fat writers and femmes: you are welcome and wanted here.
We offer a limited number of fee waivers for writers whom the submission fee would present financial hardship, and we offer free submissions for incarcerated writers. Please email feewaiver.bwr@gmail.com to request a fee waiver.
We encourage you to read Black Warrior Review before submitting. Sample issues are available for $15; one-year subscriptions for $25.
Fall 2026 Digital Chapbook Contest
From October 8th to December 1st, we will be accepting chapbook collections of 15-20 pages (not including front or back matter) in all genres. Two winners will be selected by the BWR editors, and each winner will be awarded a $500 prize along with publication of their chapbook on the BWR website. Along with the two winners, two submissions will be specially noted as honorable mentions.
Essays, stories, poems, and any other form of hybrid writing that takes risks and experiments with form & content are welcome. BWR is named after the Black Warrior River, a name honoring Chief Tuskaloosa, a paramount chief of the Mississippi nations. Like the river, our journal is constantly changing & deeply resilient. We are the longest-running journal helmed by graduate students in the United States, running continuously since 1974. While we’re based in Alabama and pride ourselves on featuring local writers and artists alongside Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners, we have serious international reach and are often considered on the forefront of experimental, fabulist, and all-around “weird” literature and a home for marginalized voices. We believe in pushing boundaries, fostering innovation, and amplifying voices often unheard in traditional literary spaces.
Our Submission Guidelines
Upload your submission as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
In your submission, please include a title page, table of contents, and page numbers. While individual pieces in the manuscript may be published elsewhere, the manuscript must be unpublished as a whole. Submissions must include an acknowledgements page for any previously published work, if applicable. These pages do not count towards the 15-20 page limit for submissions.
Authors have the option to include cover art in their submissions, though this does not guarantee any submitted art will be used; otherwise, BWR will provide cover art for the winning chapbooks.
Winners and honorable mentions will be informed in early 2027, and we will announce the winners & honorable mentions publicly in February 2027. We accept, and encourage, simultaneous submissions and only ask that you withdraw your piece(s) upon acceptance elsewhere.
Individual pieces from chapbook submissions may be considered for BWR publication as general submissions for issue 54.1—at editor discretion—provided they are not published elsewhere.
No AI Submissions
We currently do not accept work from artificial intelligence (“AI”) generators or similar. By submitting your entry here, you are attesting that your work was not created, in whole or in part, with an AI generator or similar.
Black Warrior Review is deeply grateful for your generosity. Donations help sustain our magazine and support our contributors and artists. Please note:
- Donations made through this portal are not tax-deductible.
- To make a tax-deductible donation, you can contact the Office of Student Media when they reopen in mid-January 2025.
This portal is for donations only. To submit work to BWR, please visit our submissions page.
Thank you for supporting BWR and our literary community!