The Regular Reading Period is open!

We welcome unsolicited submissions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction during our Regular Reading Period, open from June 1 to November 15 at 12:00pm EST.

Ploughshares is published four times a year: blended poetry and prose issues in the winter and spring, a prose issue in the summer, and a special longform issue in the fall. Our spring and summer issues are guest-edited by different writers of prominence. Guest editors are invited to solicit up to half of their issues, with the other half selected from manuscripts submitted to the journal and screened for them by staff editors. This guest editor policy, which we have used since our founding in 1971, is designed to introduce readers to different literary tastes, and to offer a fuller representation of the range and diversity of contemporary letters than would be possible with a single editorship.

Guidelines

Manuscript Guidelines

For our regular submission period, please submit up to 6,500 words of prose or 3-5 pages of poetry, with each poem starting on a new page.

The editors are particularly interested in translation submissions, as long as permission has been granted by the original author, or, in the case of deceased poets and writers, from the copyright holder or estate.

If you are submitting to our Fall Longform issue, we accept prose submissions up to 15,000 words and poetry submissions between 6-10 pages. We define longform poetry as a single long poem, variations on the epic poem, or a sequential poem such as a crown of sonnets or numbered series. Longform poetry does not include a series of poems with related themes or titles; rather, we are looking for cohesive sequences that do not stand alone. We welcome narrative, lyric, formally inventive, and hybrid work. Please note that we cannot print in color at this time.

Past contributors should wait one year after their most recent publication in Ploughshares before they submit again. Please note that past Longform issue contributors may not be published again in a future Longform issue.

When formatting your manuscript, we prefer the following:

Typed, double-spaced pages (single-spacing is welcome for poetry).

Numbered pages with the author’s name and email address at the top of each page.

We do not consider:

Previously published work. If your submission is part of a forthcoming book, let us know in your cover letter and the expected publication date.

Work written by individuals currently affiliated with Ploughshares or Emerson College as a volunteer screener, intern, student, staff member, or faculty member.

AI-generated manuscripts.

We cannot accommodate revisions after a manuscript has been submitted. If your work is accepted, you will have the opportunity to provide a revision before it is published.

Contributor Honorarium

Payment is upon publication:

$45/printed page, $90 minimum per title, $450 maximum per author.

Two contributor copies of the issue.

A discounted rate for additional contributor copies.

A one-year print subscription.

Simultaneous vs. Multiple Submissions

We do not consider multiple submissions, so please send only one manuscript in one genre at a time. Simultaneous submissions to other journals are welcome as long as they are identified as such and we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.