GENERAL SUBMISSIONS

GENRE-SPECIFIC GUIDELINES

• Number of pieces: 5 poems at a time in a single file format.
• Number of pages per piece: No length restrictions.
• Format: .doc, .docx or PDF.
• From the editors: We aim to represent and publish a wide variety of authors and poetics at CCR, and as such especially encourage submissions from poets of color, Indigenous poets, queer and LGBT+ poets, and poets with disabilities, in addition to whatever other worldviews and lived experiences you bring to your work. We like strong, vivid images and language that moves the poem somewhere and take us with them. We like poems that don’t shy away from feelings, or that work towards an understanding of why we shy away from feelings at all. We like energy in our poems, kinetic and potential, and sometimes both at once. We like experimentation and poems whose form enriches the content, so send us your weird ways of thinking, feeling, and being in the world—whether that’s a sonnet or an erasure or a form we haven’t even seen yet.

Fiction

• Number of pieces: Please send one story at a time.
• Number of pages per piece: Manuscripts should be no longer than 20 double-spaced pages.
• Format:  .doc, .docx or PDF.
• From the editors:  What makes a story memorable? We want lingering, emotional stories that rattle our rib cages long past the last line. We want stories that are sticky in our brains for their excellent imagery choices and their smart constructions. We are always in search of stories that bypass obvious shock tactics–graphic violence, in particular–and instead surprise the reader with their insight, their generosity of spirit, and their bravery of expression. And what makes a story energetic? We’re looking for fiction that’s tightly written and well-crafted. We love stories that know exactly why they’re making the decisions they make in form and experimentation, instead of stories that strive for oddness as an end goal. The way you tell the story should be best and only way to tell that story. We can’t wait to read; thanks for trusting us with your words.
• NOTE: While we admire and welcome stories that borrow from commercial genres like science fiction and mystery, traditional works in these genres are unlikely to find a home with us.

Creative Nonfiction

• Number of pieces: Please send one piece of creative non-fiction at a time.
• Number of pages per piece: Manuscripts should be no longer than 20 double-spaced pages.
• Format:  .doc and .docx preferred, PDF accepted.
• From the editor: We are open to the full range of creative nonfiction, from the lyric essay through the personal to more topical forms. Whether the through line of the piece is drawn taut by the pursuit of fact or the unfolding of experience or the pull of an image, it is first and foremost language and voice that will draw us in.

Book Reviews

• We are currently not accepting book reviews or queries.  Our reviews are solicited by the editors.

Art

• Number of pieces: Please submit up to 4 works of unpublished art (work that has not been published in print or selected through a juried process, such as contests). Our artists are often published portfolio-style—if your work is advanced for publication, we may showcase more than one of your pieces.
• Format: Image files (JPG, TIFF or PDF), high resolution (300 dpi or better).
• From the editor: Please visit our Instagram account to get a sense of the type of work we have published before. In addition to 2D works, we are also interested in documentations of installations, social practice projects, earth art, light art, street art, and maker work. We like text art and asemic writing. We’re open to showcasing artists from anywhere in the world, but be sure to let us know if your work has connections to Milwaukee.

I/O (eye-oh)

• Number of pieces: Please submit up to 2 works
• Number of pages per piece: 10 pages (+digital components).
• Format: For print, .docx is preferred, unless graphical/visual elements are necessary (then .pdf preferred). We do not have a preferred format for digital components, but a completely self-contained website with the content (web directory) should be provided. Given the hybridity and complexity of this genre, we may not be able to accept even meritorious submissions if we cannot provide appropriate resources and services to showcase the work. *Some additional criteria to consider for submission: digital work will be accessible at creamcityreview.org; smallest possible file size without distorting the work is requested; color profile used is U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2; and the print journal size is standard digest size on 80lb. matte paper. (Please contact us for any format or medium-specific needs.
• From the editor:  We are seeking submissions that span and coordinate both traditional print and digital components such that each platform may complement one another in the creation of interactive, programmatic, and other genre-bending works. We are looking for works that do the following:
  • Ask how ideas are expressed differently in language and image
  • Tell a story with/across multiple media objects
  • Use written language to open up, rather than limit, possible readings of multimedia texts
  • Use multiple formats to lay bare processes typically concealed in digitization
  • Prompt participatory engagement with sound, image, and text
• Examples may include: Poems or collage-works including QR codes or other bi-modal mechanisms, aleatory or generative texts with code exposed for manipulation, collaborative or socially mediated works with a print outcome, riddles, puzzles, or cryptograms connected to unlockable material online, and (especially) any text that stretches the boundaries of print-digital hybridity.
• Please visit us here to get a sense of the type of work we have published before.