General Guidelines
New Ohio Review publishes two print editions annually, in the fall and spring. We also publish two online editions annually, in June and December.
For those interested in having their work considered for the print editions of NOR (and/or future online ventures), submission periods are August 15th to November 15th and January 15th to April 15th.
We accept poetry, nonfiction, and fiction.
Our annual contests run from January 15th to April 15th. Contest entries have a $22 reading fee with an included one-year subscription.
We recommend considering the page count of your work before submitting. Since NOR is a relatively thin volume, a prose piece of more than 20 pages will have to work hard to find a place.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know in your cover letter and inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
Please submit only once per reading period in each genre unless we request more work.
We truly appreciate your interest in our magazine and we hope you will subscribe!
FORMAT:
Poems should be individually typed, either single- or double-spaced, on one side of the page. (Please do not send more than six poems in a single submission.)
Prose should be typed, double-spaced on one side. Cross-genre work or any work that is unusually formatted is welcome, but please be aware that our page width and font size are restricted. If you are submitting through our online system, we prefer Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx).
We do not accept previously published work, book reviews, or unsolicited translations.
RESPONSE TIME:
Approximately 2 - 4 months
WITHDRAWAL:
Prose: please click "remove" on the submission manager to delete the entire document.
Poetry: please click "activity" on the submission to add a note indicating which poem you would like withdrawn from consideration.
You may submit one story per submission. Prose should be typed, double-spaced, and be no longer than 20 pages.
Submissions for this contest are blind. Please exclude your contact information—including name, email address, and mailing address—from your actual submission.
$1,500 Prize and publication in New Ohio Review 37 or 38.
Stories that are not selected will still be considered for publication.
Entry fee comes with 1-year subscription (two print issues).
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Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fiction.
Deesha’s debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is forthcoming from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 2026.
You may submit one essay/memoir per submission.
Prose should be typed, double-spaced, and be no longer than 20 pages.
Submissions for this contest are "concealed." Please exclude your contact information—including name, email address, and mailing address—from your actual submission.
$1,500 Prize and publication in New Ohio Review 35 or 36. Pieces that are not selected will still be considered for publication. Entry fee comes with 1-year subscription (two print issues).
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Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s first book, Thin Places, was published in Spring 2022 in the US. It was an Indies Introduce selection for Winter/Spring 2022, an Indie Next selection for April 2022, and A Junior Library Guild selection for Spring 2022. Cacophony of Bone is her second book. She lives on the west coast of Ireland with her family.
You may submit up to 6 single-spaced pages of poetry per submission entry.
Submissions for this contest are "concealed." Please exclude your contact information—including name, email address, and mailing address—from your actual submission.
$1,500 Prize and publication in New Ohio Review 35 or 36. Pieces that are not selected will still be considered for publication. (Customarily, we publish 30-40 poems that were originally submitted as contest entries.) Entry fee comes with a 1-year subscription (two print issues).
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Ted Kooser is a former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner who lives in retirement in rural Nebraska. His most recent collection of poems is Raft, from Copper Canyon Press 2024. Forthcoming from the University Press of Mississippi is Conversations with Ted Kooser, edited by John Cusatis. Also forthcoming is Kooser's sixth children's book Seven Skies All at Once, from Candlewick Press. Kooser taught graduate poetry writing for fifteen years at The University of Nebraska and is the author of The Poetry Home Repair Manual.
For submissions:
One essay per submission. Prose should be typed double-spaced and be no longer than 20 pages. Cross-genre work or any work that is unusually formatted is welcome, but please be aware that our page width and font size are restricted.
Please use .doc or .docx file type.
Limit to one submission per reading period unless we request more.
For regular submissions:
Submit up to six pages of poetry.
Each typed poem should be on a new page. Please single- or double-space. Cross-genre work or any work that is unusually formatted is welcome, but be aware that our page width and font size are restricted.
Please use .doc or .docx file type.
Limit to one submission per reading period unless we request more, or unless you are a subscriber.
Thank you!
One story per submission. Prose should be typed double-spaced and be no longer than 20 pages. Cross-genre work, or any work that is unusually formatted, is welcome, but please be aware that our page width and font size are restricted. Please include your email address, mailing address, and the piece's genre at the top of your submission.
Please use a file type of .doc or .docx.
Subscribers may submit as many stories per reading period as they would like. However, we ask that they wait until hearing back from us on a story before sending the next one.
One essay per submission. Prose should be typed double-spaced and be no longer than 20 pages. Cross-genre work, or any work that is unusually formatted, is welcome, but please be aware that our page width and font size are restricted. Please include your email address, mailing address, and the piece's genre at the top of your submission.
Please use a file type of .doc or .docx.
Subscribers may submit as many essays per reading period as they would like. However, we ask that they wait until an hearing back from us on an essay before sending the next one.
Each typed poem should be on a new page. Please single- or double-space. Cross-genre work or any work that is unusually formatted is welcome, but please be aware that our page width and font size are restricted. Please include your email address, mailing address, and genre at the top of your submission.
Subscribers may submit as many batches of poems per reading period as they would like. However, we ask that they wait until hearing back from us on a batch before sending the next one.
This portal is for SUBSCRIBERS TO NEW OHIO REVIEW ONLY (unless you have heard specifically from us to use this method of submitting).
Subscribers who wish to submit a regular submission in any genre can do so for free. In your cover letter, please let us know when you subscribed so we can cross-check our records.
Please also specify the genre of your piece in the submission title. E.G: "Fiction: Wuthering Heights" or "Poetry: The Waste Land and Four Others."
Please use .doc or .docx file type.
Subscribers also have the right to submit during the summer months and during our winter break.
They may also submit as often as they would like per reading period. We do ask that subscribers wait until hearing back from us on one submission before submitting the next one.
If you'd like to subscribe, check the subscription options elsewhere on Submittable. And please see our guidelines before you submit as well.
Thank you for your support.