Are you seeking detailed, constructive feedback on your flash fiction piece? Black Warrior Review is excited to offer a limited-time opportunity for writers to receive personalized feedback from our Editor-in-Chief & former Fiction Editor.

What We Offer:

• Personalized editorial letters for flash fiction submissions, provided within 3-4 weeks of submission. We’ll focus on the strengths of your work and discuss potential areas for improvement, offering suggestions for revision and development. Letters will be penned by Samantha Bolf, our Editor-in-Chief.

Guidelines:

• Submission Length: Up to 1,000 words.
• Capacity: We will close this submission category once we reach our capacity to ensure quality feedback for all participants.
• Include a brief cover letter with your submission indicating your interest in the feedback option & any specific questions or areas of concern you’d like us to consider when we read and respond to your work.

Pricing Structure:

• Flash fiction (up to 1,000 words): $35.

Additional Information:

• Submitting through this category does not guarantee publication in BWR.
• Please only submit one piece per submission period.
• Editorial feedback will be comprehensive yet concise, approximately 2-2.5 pages long, focusing on overall content rather than line edits.
• We welcome international submissions and are committed to supporting diversity in both the writers we support and the stories we publish.
• AI-generated work is not accepted.
• This service is intended to provide constructive criticism and insight into your writing, serving as a tool for growth and development, irrespective of the publication outcome in Black Warrior Review. Our feedback will be honest, detailed, and aimed at helping you refine your craft.

Black Warrior Review exists in part because of your continued and generous support. Your donations here are applied directly to our endowment, which supports contributor and artist payments.

Please note that a donation through this portal will not be tax deductible. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to BWR, please visit this link. For submitting work to BWR, please see our other forms. This is not a portal to submit your work to BWR. 

To show our gratitude for your gift at the patron ($50) and guarantor ($100+) levels, you will receive a one-year subscription and recognition in upcoming issues of BWR.

Black Warrior Review is seeking submissions of all genres for our eighth edition of Boyfriend Village: More Than One Boyfriend. 

There’s a misconception about writing being a solitary pursuit. Even as a singular author working with a single piece of paper at a desk with only one chair, you have to ask: who provided the ink? How many people were involved in making the desk and the chair? How much history of production, engineering, mathematics, government, and philosophy is behind this single moment? More Than One Boyfriend seeks to correct this misconception by encapsulating the ways in which writing, like everything else, is a communal pursuit.

This might mean work authored by more than one person, yes, but also any work that is informed by more than one practice, more than one medium, more than one language, more than one voice, and more than one piece of art. It means ekphrastic work, erasure, reiteration, and bilingual writing. It means writing in conversation with and incorporating visual art, music, and interactivity; art that moves more than one of the senses. It means intersectional writing from writers with multifaceted backgrounds, whose work speaks to more than one mode of being. Writing that highlights more than one experience, more than one point of view, more than one voice, more than the one perspective we’re used to hearing the story from. Writing about the collaborative spirit; writing that tells the reader that they are more than just one.

More Than One Boyfriend asks for work that is more than itself.

~

This year’s issue is helmed by our first collaborative team of Online Editors, Darby Power & Jaric Sarmiento. 

Submissions are open between April 1st, 2024, and May 1st, 2024. While themed, this is open to interpretation. If you think your boyfriend(s) might belong in our village, don’t hesitate—send them along!

There is one submission category for all genres. We accept fiction, poetry, nonfiction, hybrid, visual and multimedia art, as well as sound collage, video, games, and more. For graphic, audio, and visual work, if Submittable accepts the file type, so will we! Color images are welcome. If submittable doesn’t accept the file type, feel free to email us at onlineeditors.bwr@gmail.com. 

You may use your cover letter to tell us as much or as little about yourself & your work as you like. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Though we welcome submissions of all forms of art, the following are general guidelines on length: For prose, under 7000 words is preferable. For flash (pieces under 1000 words), you may include up to three pieces. For poetry, five poems or less is ideal. Again, these are just guidelines; they’re here to give you an idea of the typical length we’re willing to accept. For submissions that can’t be measured by word count, just keep in mind how much time is needed to fully engage with the work. We suggest that you look through past issues of Boyfriend Village as a guide on what would be an appropriate length to submit.

AI Statement: Work that has been created in any part with the assistance of AI tools is not eligible for submission or publication.

There is a $3 submission fee. Submission fees are used to compensate contributors. If you need a fee waiver for any reason, please email us at feewaiver.bwr@gmail.com to request one.