Submission Guidelines

Please read the following guidelines before you submit.

General Guidelines

• Blackbird does not accept previously published work.
• Blackbird does not accept submissions from current VCU students, faculty, or staff.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable so long as they are indicated as such and we are immediately notified upon acceptance elsewhere. To withdraw individual poems from a submission, please send a message in Submittable notifying us of the poems that are no longer available.
• Translations are welcome so long as permissions have been obtained from the author.
• We are able to publish long works in all genres, but query Blackbird before you send a prose piece over 8,000 words, a poem exceeding 10 pages, or a full-length play.
• Please submit a cover letter, either in the Submittable box provided or as the first page of your submission; if you have previously published with Blackbird or received encouragement on a previous submission, please include that information as well.
• Online submissions are strongly preferred, though Blackbird will accept submissions by regular mail; mailed submissions may take longer to process.
• We reserve the right to close submissions prior to our stated closure date, should we reach the maximum number of submissions that our fluctuating staff size can accommodate at that time.
  
  Poetry: Send up to six poems at a time, but no fewer than two poems. Set your poem as you want it to appear on the printed page. Submit all poems as a single document. We pay $40/poem.
  Fiction: Double-space, please. We primarily look for short stories, but novel excerpts are acceptable if self-contained. We pay $200/story.
  Creative Nonfiction: Double-space, please. We primarily look for personal essays, but memoir excerpts are acceptable if self-contained. Unsolicited book reviews and criticism are not considered. We pay $200/essay.
  Art: We feature one visual artist per Flight.
  • In a single PDF document, send up to ten images of a single body of work (or related series of works).
  • At the beginning of your PDF, please include an artist’s statement of up to 500 words that addresses this particular body of work and your general artist’s practice; an image index detailing each work’s title, medium, dimensions and date of completion; and, if the work has been exhibited, when and where. 
  • Artists selected for publication should be prepared to submit individual jpeg images of their work and will be interviewed by Blackbird’s art editor for a written feature. Featured artists may also be asked to participate in a video or audio segment to accompany their work, but participation will be at the artist’s discretion. 
  • While Blackbird does not generally accept previously published artworks, we are happy to feature bodies of work that have appeared in exhibition catalogues or an artist’s/gallery’s social media/websites. It is also acceptable to submit bodies of work including individual pieces that have appeared in other publications so long as the majority of the works submitted have not been published elsewhere.
  • The featured artist receives $200 for their work.
• Book Reviews, Craft Essays, and Interviews
  • We accept book reviews of up to 500 words or fewer. Books must have been published within a year. We only accept reviews of first or second books.
  • Completed craft essays and interviews of up to 2,000 words.
  • You may also choose to pitch an interview by querying us at blackbird@vcu.edu
  • We pay $100/book review, craft essay, and interview.
• Video essays
  • Blackbird is actively seeking video essays at this time! The writer and artist M. Freeman (whose own video essays are in a recent Blackbird Flight) describes video essays as “the mixed-breed love child of poetry, creative nonfiction, arthouse indies, documentary, and experimental media art.” We dig that! The video essays we admire most employ language, image, and sound with equal craftsmanship and collective vision. John Bresland’s “On the Origin of the Video Essay” shines a light on our video essay preferences. You can watch the video essays in that feature as examples, as well as our more recent video essay publications. Some other video essays we admire are featured in TriQuarterly (like “Touch” by James J. Hodge) and Brink Literary. Check them out! 
• Specifications:
  • Submit up to 5 at a time.
  • Video essays can be 12 minutes max, but we think the sweet spot is usually between 2 and 8 minutes.
  • We do not accept work that uses Generative AI in any form, especially work that passes off AI-generated visuals, audio, and/or writing as one’s original creation. We acknowledge that most modern video and audio software integrates artificial intelligence to some extent, so we encourage submitters to contact our team should they have any questions regarding this policy.
• What to Submit:
  • Send submissions as Vimeo or unlisted YouTube links.
  • A transcript of the text (as a Word Doc)
  • Artist statement: A short paragraph about the project, its intentions, and how image, sound, and text interact. This gives context for reviewers and can be brief.
  • Author/artist bios: 50–100 words for publication and editorial purposes.
• Sound-based Literature Submission Guidelines
  • As Blackbird continues to develop our podcast and publish new media, like video essays, we are now seeking sound-based literary projects. 
• What is Sound-based Literature? 
  • Writers and musicians have been pushing the boundaries between text/sound for decades. 
  • Sound-based literature is an original piece of writing that pairs a recorded voiceover with a musical composition or sound design score. We are seeking original, sound-based literature similar to JJJJJerome Ellis’ The Clearing or Katie Moulton’s Dead Dad Club: On Grief and Tom Petty. Sound-based literature submissions will be considered for publication in a future Flight and/or inclusion in an upcoming episode of the Blackbird Literary Podcast. 
  • Be sure to listen to our first podcast episode here to best understand the kind of work we’re seeking.
• Specifications: 
  • Submit up to 5 at a time.
  • Submissions can be 12 minutes max, but we think the sweet spot is usually between 2 and 8 minutes.
  • We do not accept work that uses Generative AI in any form, especially work that passes off AI-generated visuals, audio, and/or writing as one’s original creation. We acknowledge that most modern video and audio software integrates artificial intelligence to some extent, so we encourage submitters to contact our team should they have any questions regarding this policy.
• What to Submit:
  • The sound-based literature piece (ideally as a private SoundCloud or unlisted YouTube link or a WAV/MP3)
  • A transcript of the literature (as a Word Doc)
  • Artist statement: A short paragraph about the project, its intentions, and how sound and text interact. This gives context for reviewers and can be brief.
  • Author/artist bios: 50–100 words for publication and editorial purposes.
    
• To Submit Online
  
  • Send your submission by using https://blackbird.submittable.com/submit.
  • Upload only one file. Submissions may be uploaded in the following formats: .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf
    • File title should read last name_first name_genre
      e.g., joyce_james_fiction.doc