Blackbird Journal Open Call

Submissions for Blackbird 2.0 are now open under the direction of new editors Kathleen Graber and Jessica Hendry Nelson. Blackbird will now publish four issues–short, thoughtfully curated collections we’re calling our Flights–every year, two in the fall and two in the spring.

Kathleen Graber is the author of The River Twice (Princeton University Press, 2019), The Eternal City (2010), chosen for the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets and a finalist for the National Book Award, and Correspondence (2006), winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. She teaches creative writing and literature at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jessica Hendry Nelson is the author of Joy Rides Through the Tunnel of Grief, winner of the AWP Sue William Silverman Prize in Creative Nonfiction, (UGA, 2023) and If Only You People Could Follow Directions (Counterpoint, 2014), finalist for the Vermont Book Award. She is also coauthor of the textbook and anthology Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2021). She is assistant professor in the MFA program and English Department at Virginia Commonwealth University and on faculty in the MFA program at the University of Nebraska in Omaha.

Please read the following guidelines before you submit.

General Guidelines

Blackbird does not accept previously published work.
Blackbird does not accept submissions from current VCU students, faculty, or staff.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable so long as they are indicated as such and we are immediately notified upon acceptance elsewhere. To withdraw individual poems from a submission, please send a message in Submittable notifying us of the poems that are no longer available.
Translations are welcome so long as permissions have been obtained from the author.
We are able to publish long works in all genres, but query Blackbird before you send a prose piece over 8,000 words, a poem exceeding 10 pages, or a full-length play.
Please submit a cover letter, either in the Submittable box provided or as the first page of your submission; if you have previously published with Blackbird or received encouragement on a previous submission, please include that information as well.
Online submissions are strongly preferred, though Blackbird will accept submissions by regular mail; mailed submissions may take longer to process.
We reserve the right to close submissions prior to our stated closure date, should we reach the maximum number of submissions that our fluctuating staff size can accommodate at that time.

Poetry: Send up to six poems at a time, but no fewer than two poems. Set your poem as you want it to appear on the printed page. Submit all poems as a single document.
Fiction: Double-space, please. We primarily look for short stories, but novel excerpts are acceptable if self-contained.
Nonfiction: Double-space, please. We primarily look for personal essays, but memoir excerpts are acceptable if self-contained. Unsolicited book reviews and criticism are not considered.
Art: We feature one visual artist per Flight.
- In a single PDF document, send up to ten images of a single body of work (or related series of works).
- At the beginning of your PDF, please include an artist’s statement of up to 500 words that addresses this particular body of work and your general artist’s practice; an image index detailing each work’s title, medium, dimensions and date of completion; and, if the work has been exhibited, when and where.
- Artists selected for publication should be prepared to submit individual jpeg images of their work and will be interviewed by Blackbird’s art editor for a written feature. Featured artists may also be asked to participate in a video or audio segment to accompany their work, but participation will be at the artist’s discretion.
- While Blackbird does not generally accept previously published artworks, we are happy to feature bodies of work that have appeared in exhibition catalogues or an artist’s/gallery’s social media/websites. It is also acceptable to submit bodies of work including individual pieces that have appeared in other publications so long as the majority of the works submitted have not been published elsewhere.
Book Reviews, Craft Essays, and Interviews
- We accept book reviews of up to 500 words or fewer. Books must have been published within a year. We only accept reviews of first or second books.
- Completed craft essays and interviews of up to 2,000 words.
- You may also choose to pitch an interview by querying us at blackbird@vcu.edu
Video essays (new!)
- Email submission queries to blackbird@vcu.edu
  
  To Submit Online
Send your submission by using https://blackbird.submittable.com/submit.
Upload only one file. Submissions may be uploaded in the following formats: .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf
- File title should read last name_first name_genre
  e.g., joyce_james_fiction.doc
  
  To Submit Via Regular Mail
Mail your manuscripts in a page-size manila envelope, your full name and address on the outside, to “Editor, Poetry” or “Editor, Fiction” or “Editor, Nonfiction” or “Editor, Art.”
Include a cover letter, which should include: your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, and the title(s) of submitted work.
All manuscripts and correspondence regarding submissions should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for a response.
Mail submissions to:

Blackbird
VCU Department of English
Box 842005
Richmond, VA 23284-2005

Note: Except in special cases, we will read online submissions first, thus your work will move through our process more quickly if you have submitted online.
We receive and review a high volume of submissions, as a result it may take six months or longer to respond to your submission. We take the work of prospective contributors seriously and appreciate the opportunity to read your pieces. We ask that you wait at least six months before querying about an active submission.
If work is accepted for publication, you must provide an electronic copy as a .doc (Word) or .rtf (rich text format) if you have not already done so. Payment is after publication.
All published work will be archived online.