Our democratic editorial policy takes time, so forgive us if we take a bit to get back to you, and rest assured that your work gets the undivided attention of several members of our editorial board. Please also know that we never take a reading hiatus and we sincerely appreciate your submissions.
Guidelines for Submission
Painted Bride Quarterly accepts:
- Poetry: up to 3 poems per submission
- Flash fiction: up to 1,000 words, spread between (at max.) 3 pieces
- Fiction: 1 submission of up to 5,000 words
- Prose: 1 submission of up to 3,000 words for essays and reviews, or up to 5,000 words for all other creative non-fiction, including memoir
Please include all poems or work in a single document. Do not include any personal information on the document with your submission. We get all that we need within Submittable.
We only accept previously unpublished work, which includes self publication. We are fine with simultaneous submissions; please just be sure to tell us right away if part or all of your submission is accepted elsewhere! Use the Messages feature in Submittable to do this.
We are not interested in work generated by AI or LLMs. Please only share your fully human creations with us. (Naturally, your work may consider AI and its effects in its content and if you engaged with generative AI to develop your idea, we want to know how that factored into your process.) We trust authors who are submitting not to be engaging in plagiarism either.
To get a feel for the kind of work we like, just read through current issues or check out our podcast! We regularly find new authors to feature on the podcast from the current pool of submissions. If your work is strong and will generate discussion, we might choose it! If that happens, we’ll reach out to you directly to ask if you’d be open to us discussing and voting on your work on the podcast.
If at any time you wish to check on the status of your submission please contact us through Submittable. If you have a submission with multiple pieces in front of us (e.g. three poems), and one or two are accepted elsewhere, please just send us a message using Submittable. DO NOT WITHDRAW the entire submission if there remains one or more pieces for us to still consider. Only use the WITHDRAW feature if you need to remove your entire submission from our consideration. Again, contacting us through the Message feature on Submittable is the only way we can ensure that we will see your message in a timely manner.
Our average reading times:
Poetry - 2 to 5 months from submission to having a decision
Prose/Fiction - 3 to 7 months from submission to having a decision
PBQ is interested in fresh and interesting reviews of new titles first published in the last 12 months in any of the following categories:
- Poetry collections or chapbooks
- Literary fiction
- Short story collections
- Literary essay / criticism collections
- Literary nonfiction / memoir
- Hybrid literary books
- Craft books on writing
We also welcome reviews of overlooked classics or stunning older titles that may not have had enough attention. Give us a whirl.
We're looking for reviews in the 1,200 to 1,500 word range generally, with 1,500 words our max.
Currently, this category is open on a rolling basis; we may need to close it from time to time to ensure we don't accept more submissions than we can review in a reasonable timeframe.
We are open for poetry submissions. No theme. Just your best work that will beg to be reread.
Take time to get a feel for what we love by reading previous issues or listening to the Painted Bride Quarterly Slush Pile, our podcast.
We are ready for more poetry to consider for the online pages of PBQ.
Please send us your very best work. Up to 3 poems in a single file.
Only one submission per author per submission opening.
DO NOT INCLUDE PERSONAL INFO on the file you submit. Just the poems. And please check our other guidance notes above before you submit.
Remember, we find the poets and authors we feature on the PBQ Slush Pile Podcast almost entirely from submissions!
NOTE: If we hit our internal submissions cap before the published deadline for this opportunity, we will close to submissions at that time.