Philly Chapbook Review is open to original poetry submissions of three to five poems or either one piece of short fiction or up to three pieces of flash fiction for our Spring 2027 issue and beyond from now until December 15. Full details for each category along with the link to our submission form can be found below.
Only one submission per author will be accepted: either poetry or fiction.
Original Poetry/Fiction (OPEN): Click here to submit.
A small honorarium ($10) will be paid for first serial and archival rights for accepted submissions and all contributors get a Meet Our Contributor post. All original work will be considered for Best of the Net and Pushcart nominations.
While simultaneous submissions are permitted, we try to send first-round decisions–which account for over 90% of responses–within a week or two. If you can give us this time, we greatly appreciate it.
Poetry
We’re looking for serious poetry that has something important to say. This can mean poems about topics important to you, poems telling us about who you are or what you think, or an unusual or clever creative style. Poems don’t need to deal with weighty subjects, but should be meaningful. All poems should be 40 non-space lines or fewer.
Our feelings about form have evolved to only avoid what we perceive to be tired forms: metered verse with end rhyme in the English style, short forms made popular in the U.S. over a century ago like haiku, tanka, etc. Forms like non-rhyming sonnets, ghazals, pantoums, and others where serious work is still being done are now welcome along with our primary focus on free verse.
We also like to feature a poet rather than a poem, so submissions must include three to five poems. Each submission is judged as a whole.
Fiction
We’re looking for short fiction that has something meaningful to say. This can include stories that explore subjects important to you, reflect a distinct perspective or voice, or take an interesting or creative approach to storytelling. Stories should feel intentional and thoughtfully crafted.
We are open to a wide range of styles and genres within literary fiction, including speculative, flash fiction, experimental, and hybrid work. By “literary,” we mean fiction that shows strong attention to language, voice, and character, rather than relying primarily on plot or genre conventions.
Fiction submissions should contain either one story of 1,000-5,000 words or up to three flash fiction pieces of 500-1,000 words each.
There is no fee to submit, but please read and follow the guidelines below:
- If you have difficulty with this form, please email info {@} phillychapbookreview.org.
- Each piece should begin a new page of a single .doc or .docx file.
- We are pleased to accept submissions from anywhere in the world.
- Only literary writing, please. This doesn’t mean that poems or stories can’t fall into a genre, but if they do, they should be meaningful to serious readers.
- We accept work that includes untranslated non-English words, but the piece much be at least 50% English. This includes both hybrid pieces and bilingual translations.
- Any entries that denigrate another person on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, sexual preference, or disability will be discarded. We are a small publication run by a disabled person who loves the great variety of voices in literature.
- Work may not be previously published in a periodical. (We define periodicals as magazines, websites, blogs, or social media feeds with more than 500 followers.)
- To allow others a chance, if we’ve published your work before, please wait two full issue periods after the one in which you appear before submitting again.
Contents
October ’26: Best of the Net, New Staff & New Schedule
Managing Editor Aiden Hunt shares about Philly Chapbook Review’s staff changes, Best of the Net nominations, submission stats, and new publication format in this editor’s note to Issue 14.
“I always feel like I have so much to say to my mother and in this poem, I selected a few memories to share. In a way, this creative choice is symbolic of waving my white flag…” Read three poems by Natalie Zhang, along with a few words about “Flagship.”
The Vocabulary of Disability: On Atropa Belladonna Coursing Through My Veins by Sudikshaa Amar
“Amar’s varied descriptions of embodied experience…let readers see into the work of forging a personal nomenclature for identity and action.” Read the full chapbook review by Contributing Editor, D.W. Baker.