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Submission Reading Periods #

We do not accept AI-generated or AI-assisted text or images.

COMICS are open for consideration by Comics Editor Chris Gavaler.

FICTION submissions open for our Fiction Editorial Fellow, Emily Yang, on October 15 at noon EST. Emily is inviting submissions (up to 200) for the following theme: Basins. For more information on the Basins theme, check out the "What We Look For" section below.

CREATIVE NONFICTION submissions open for our Creative Nonfiction Editorial Fellow, Ibrahim Fawzy, on October 15 at noon EST. We will accept up to 200 submissions before closing this window. For more information on this submission call, check out the "What We Look For" section below.

THE 2026 GRAYBEAL-GOWEN PRIZE FOR VIRGINIA POETS has closed for submissions. The Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Prize for 2026 will be judged by Denise Duhamel.

FICTION submissions (short stories and novel excerpts) open on September 10 and on January 15 each year, and stay open until the submission cap is met.

POETRY will next open for submissions (up to 200) on January 15, 2027, to be considered by Poetry Editor Lesley Wheeler.

Our POETRY IN TRANSLATION section is not currently open for submissions, though we will consider translated prose during open reading periods for fiction and nonfiction.

THE SHENANDOAH FELLOWSHIP FOR EMERGING EDITORS is not currently open for submissions. Please follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter for updates.

What We Look For #

Fiction ("Basins" Theme) — Opening October 15, 2026

Starting October 15 at noon EST, our Fiction Editorial Fellow, Emily Yang, will open for submissions (up to 200) on the following theme: Basins.

Emily writes:

In her 1986 essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” Ursula Le Guin articulates a feminist and anti-imperialist vision of storytelling that centers the bag over the sword, the gathering over the hunting, the human and more-than-human over the hero. Per Elizabeth Fisher, the earliest human inventions were likely containers to hold gifts gathered from the earth. “A leaf a gourd a shell a net a bag a sling a sack a bottle a pot a box a container. A holder. A recipient,” writes Le Guin.

In that spirit, I am interested in fiction that takes the basin as its departure point or container. A basin is an open, usually circular vessel with sloped sides, typically hewn to hold water for washing. A basin is also a geological formation: a depression in the surface of the earth or in the ocean floor, or a tract of land where all flowing water converges or passes into another body of water. And, as Mohawk midwife Katsi Cook reminds us, water in our mothers is our first environment, the womb also a kind of basin.

A basin is a container that makes possible our kinship with water, which in turn nurses and sustains life in all its forms. For my folio, I am seeking stories that gather what would otherwise slip through our fingers, stories shaped like or concerned with basins of all kinds, whether river mouths, wombs, or potholes. I want stories more interested in holding, wondering, and receiving than in conquering, knowing, and taking.

Creative Nonfiction — Opening October 15, 2026

Starting October 15 at noon EST, our Creative Nonfiction Editorial Fellow, Ibrahim Fawzy, will open for submissions (up to 200).

Ibrahim writes:

I am looking for creative nonfiction that views writing as an act of witnessing—something that is careful about the silences, contradictions, and ethical issues that decide how a story can be told. I am particularly drawn to forms that are porous and shift between memoir and reportage, as well as between personal and collective history, giving their subjects the opportunity to decide on the structure of their work. I welcome multilingual and transnational writing, especially from underrepresented communities, provided that it avoids exoticization and does not alter its world to suit an imagined reader. Whether the style is simple and meditative or formally experimental, the nonfiction I am interested in maintains ambiguity, emotional truth, and the textures of real life.

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Shenandoah's editors love writing that stretches their imaginations and ways of thinking, surprises, makes them laugh, moves them, is formally interesting or challenging, defies genre, explores the confusing or uncomfortable, introduces them to new writers, thinks globally, has a distinctive voice, cares about the world, and does not assume white people are literature’s default characters. 

We publish an excerpt from a novel-in-progress during each issue of Shenandoah, with a note from the author about their process and what it’s like to be in the middle of a big project. We know writers at this stage need support, and we would like Shenandoah to be a place where they can get some. These excerpts need not function like a short story. We’ve found the best novel excerpts give some sense of the overall scope of the book and whet the reader’s appetite without leaving us dangling too far off of a cliff.

General poetry submissions are considered by editor Lesley Wheeler. Lesley reads for power, surprise, intelligence, big-heartedness, craftiness, mystery, and risky strangeness.

General creative nonfiction submissions are considered by editor Jean-Luc Bouchard. Jean-Luc is seeking CNF rooted in the author’s obsessions and passions, CNF that is intentional about its structure and pacing, and CNF that incorporate elements of research, literary journalism, and cultural criticism in addition to memoir, lyric essay, and personal essay.

Comics, considered by editor Chris Gavaler, can be in black and white or color and should be submitted as PDFs. We define the form broadly and so welcome the widest possible range of visual styles and image–text approaches.

Full Submission Guidelines#

Shenandoah aims to showcase a wide variety of voices and perspectives in terms of gender identity, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, nationality, regionality, sexuality, and educational background (MFAs are not necessary here). We love publishing new writers; publishing history is not a prerequisite either. Checking out our current issue is another great way to get a sense of the kind of work we like. All content is freely available on our website.

Some logistics:

  • We’ll only consider one submission per author at a time (no multiple submissions in different genres, please), and will delete multiple submissions without reading them. Please decide what you’d like us to read most, submit that, and wait for a response before submitting additional work.
  • Submitted work should be previously unpublished in English.
  • Work simultaneously submitted elsewhere will be considered, but we ask that you withdraw the work immediately if it is accepted (and congratulations, by the way).
  • Prose submissions should be under 8,000 words.
  • We’ll consider up to three pieces of flash or micro fiction/CNF in a single submission.
  • For poetry submissions, please send three to five of the poems you consider your most urgent work, no more than ten pages total.
  • Due to the limited space we have in each issue, we’re asking previous contributors to wait five years before sending us new work. We are thrilled to celebrate our contributors’ successes; please do keep in touch with publications and updates so we can help champion your work in the world!
  • Our submission manager accepts only 800 submissions per month as that is all we can reasonably handle. If submissions are not being accepted during the windows noted, it’s because we’ve already reached 800. We suggest submitting early in the reading period.
  • All submissions should be sent through Submittable. We do not accept submissions by email or mail, with apologies to the U.S. Postal Service. 

We believe your work has incredible value. We pay all of our contributors as much as our budget allows. Payment details will be explained when your work is accepted.

We buy first North American Serial Rights, and rights to the work revert to the author after publication. As a courtesy, we ask writers to note Shenandoah as the first place of publication when the work is anthologized, reprinted, or otherwise made public through another format.