Free to enter,
The Mary Dillow Stewart Prize/ Editors' Choice, prize: $250
Deadline: 31 July 2011 (fall), 31 January 2012 (spring)The Mary Dillow Stewart Prize is awarded annually for a story, poem, or essay published in either the fall or spring issue by an emerging writer. Award is $250 and a subscription.
Kestrel publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by established and emerging writers. We are especially happy to publish work by West Virginian and Appalachian writers. Kestrel features a visual artist in each issue; submission guidelines for art are below.
Send hard copy (regular post) submissions during our reading periods: November 1-January 31 (spring issue) and May 1-July 31 (fall issue); these are postmark deadlines. Submissions received outside our reading period will be returned unread. An SASE is required for response. Submissions received without an SASE will be committed to the shredder. Submissions should be typed, double spaced, in a conventional font. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Contributors receive two copies. Additional copies may be purchased at a discount.
Address your submission to the appropriate editor (fiction, poetry, nonfiction). Electronic submissions are accepted only with prior arrangement by the appropriate editor. Simultaneous submissions are grudgingly accepted; immediate notification of a manuscript accepted elsewhere is expected.
Allow three months for our response before inquiring about your submission. Do not send additional work before receiving our response to your first submission. Multiple submissions will be returned unread. Submission Services are discouraged. Restrict yourself to one submission per calendar year unless we request additional work.
Poetry: Kestrel welcomes poems of all genres, styles, and traditions, including experimental and hybrid forms. Send 3-5 of your best poems that work well together during one of our reading periods and restrict yourself to one set of offerings per calendar year.
Fiction: Kestrel is open to any genre of short fiction that questions assumptions and moves us to reconsider everyday life. We enjoy stories with believable plots, developed characters, consistent points-of-view, vivid and symbolic settings, true dialogue, and thought-provoking themes, though we also enjoy experimental writing that makes new the expected conventions. 5,000 words maximum; the author's name and contact information must appear on page 1.
Non-Fiction: Creative non-fiction, memoir, literary essay are preferred. Subject matter may vary but attention to writing as craft and art is paramount; the attention to diction, syntax, detail should delight and surprise. We appreciate writing that makes a subject's complexity understandable and its familiarity new. We expect non-fiction to be non-fiction. Reviews and scholarship are rarely published and only when solicited; you may query.
Visual Art: Submissions to Kestrel may be made in any medium. Artists must send, electronically or by disk at least twenty (20) works for consideration. Please include a selective bibliography for each submission. Image resolution should be at least 300 dpi. This will enable our staff to view and to reproduce the work in the most professional manner possible.
Thematic works or series are acceptable and should be labeled as such when submitted. If written material is routinely included with the work when it is exhibited, please include this for our staff. We will also need an artist’s statement. It may be possible to publish some or all of the written material with the works, but if this is not possible, it will, at the least, serve as a means for the staff to make selections of work for publication.
It should be understood that Kestrel may use images for publicity purposes. Copyright of visual examples remains with the artist. Although color reproductions will occasionally be selected, budgetary constraints requires the staff to give precedence to black and white works.
Submissions may be mailed to:
Kestrel
Language and Literature
Fairmont State University
1201 Locust Avenue
Fairmont, WV 26554
Attn: [genre] EditorContact Information:
For inquiries: kestrel@fairmontstate.edu
For submissions: Kestrel, Language and Literature, Fairmont State University, 1201 Locust Avenue, Fairmont, WV 26554, Attn: [genre] Editor
Website: http://www.fairmontstate.edu/kestrel