The Malahat Review welcomes submissions of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. Also, it accepts translated work in any of these three genres, by new and established writers from Canada and abroad.
The best way to know what kinds of work the malahat review might publish is to order a print or digital issue or subscribe.
Eligibility for the Malahat Review
- Submission entries from Canadian writers and international writers are accepted.
- They accept work from international writers only during certain months, depending on the genre.
- One to six months for poetry and up to nine months for fiction and creative nonfiction response.
Submission Guidelines
- Malahat Review accepts submissions via Submittable only.
- Please submit your work in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
- Please list the word count (for prose) or line count (for poetry) at the beginning of each piece.
- For regular submissions, make sure your name and contact info appear on the first page.
- Contest submissions are judged anonymously—no personal info is to be listed anywhere on your contest document. More so, there is a cover letter section for your information to be imputed.
- Ensure the name, mailing address, and email linked to your Submittable account are up to date. If any of this info differs, you can leave a note in the cover letter section.
- Please list the title(s) of the work submitted and include a short bio note.
- Excluding any of their contests and theme issues, they ask that writers submit only once per genre (poetry, fiction, cnf, translations) in each calendar year. Contest submissions are unlimited, provided you pay the contest fee(s).
- They do not publish any work that has previously been published, whether in print or online, even if the print run or online audience was small. No work that has been excerpted elsewhere is eligible for submission, nor is any work that has been revised since its original publication.
- For regular submissions, please inform the organizers if you are making a simultaneous submission, and please update them as soon as possible with any changes to the status of your submission. For contests, simultaneous submissions are not acceptable at this time.
Poetry – Regular Submission
- Three to five poems (up to 10 pages max). Submissions by international writers are accepted during the following six months: January and February, May through July, and November. Therefore, deadline is November 10, 2023.
- To submit poetry do so via their poetry submittable
Fiction – Regular Submission
- A single submission of up to 8,000 words OR one to three shorter fictions of up to 750 words each. Submissions by international writers are accepted during the following four months: March and April, and September and October.
- To submit fiction, use the fiction submission link.
Creative Nonfiction – regular submission
- A single submission of up to 5,000 words OR one to three pieces of up to 1,000 words each. Submissions by international writers are accepted all year.
- Creative nonfiction is literary writing based in fact; style matters no less than substance, whatever form the writing may take (e.g., the personal essay, memoir, biography, travel writing, historical account).
- They do not accept submissions whose primary purpose is to argue a case or to offer an opinion or commentary on someone or something.
- Submissions should be done using Submittable
Translation
Although The Malahat Review publishes work by contemporary writers, we will consider translations of work by past writers who are unknown or little known in the English-speaking world. Please include a copy of the original text and, for work still under copyright, a copy of a letter of permission from the original author and/or first-language publisher. The same limits and rules apply to translation submissions as to other submissions.
Payment and Copyright
- Malahat Review pays CAD$70 per published page plus a one-year print subscription and two copies of the issue in which your work appears.
- Contest winners receive a cash prize instead of a per-page payment (see below for prize amounts).
- They purchase first world serial print and digital rights for publication in English; copyright remains with the author.