Fiction Reading Period Closing August 1st

After much consideration, we at Black Warrior Review have made the decision to close our 2014 general fiction submissions on August 1st. Contest submissions will remain open till September 1st.

We know that fiction submissions only recently re-opened; however, in the time that has elapsed, we have received a wealth of excellent fiction – more, frankly, than there is space to publish in the magazine. There came a point where we decided that, in order to give the pieces submitted the kind of careful consideration we are inclined to give, we had to close submissions.

This is, in part, due to an effort by BWR staff to reduce both the backlog and response time for submissions. Continuing to succeed in this effort is of the greatest importance to the editorial staff, as we believe that part of being respectful of our submitters is being prompt in our response to their work. Not only that, but since our staff changes every year, we don’t want to burden our successors with an abundance of unread work, which would only increase both backlog and response times.

In giving our submitters and potential submitters notice of the end of our reading period, we hope to avoid any inconvenience. As always, we are honored by the attention we receive from submitters – as evidenced by our commitment to publishing only unsolicited work in our next issue – and we’re excited about being able to give all our submissions the attention they deserve.

Zachary Doss, Fiction Editor