Submission Guidelines
Pigeon Review is an online only art and literary publication. On the 15th of every month, brand new art and short stories are published to our website. Submissions are open from the 16th to the final day of each month. Please send us your work within the submission window. If work is submitted outside of the window, we may not see it and therefore it will not be considered for publication.
Please read our guidelines below. We look forward to seeing your work!
Here at Pigeon Review, we read all unsolicited submissions. However, we do have a few guidelines:
All work must be your own.
All written work must be in English but translations are welcome.
We accept simultaneous submissions, just let us know if it’s accepted elsewhere.
We accept multiple submissions. Please send each submission as a separate email (unless they are short stories).
Currently, we are not accepting previously published work. (We understand that artists and writers need to share their work to gain exposure, so we don't consider publishing work to a personal website/blog, to Reddit/Tumblr/Twitter, or anything similar as being published. We consider a work to be previously published if it has been self-published, in an anthology, magazine, etc. You may submit art if it has been previously exhibited in a gallery as long as it has not been published otherwise.)
If your piece is accepted, we acquire first-time North American serial/online rights. Upon publication, rights revert to the author or artist.* We ask that anyone whose work is published with us allows us to share their work on social media and email posts.
We know it's difficult to send your work away and hear nothing back but please allow us up to six (6) weeks to consider your work.
Submissions are open from the 16th to the final day of the same month.
As a general rule, we aren't looking for heavily political or Covid-19 related stories/art.
With every submission, please include your name (real or pen/artist name), email address, a one-paragraph biography written in the third person, and if you would like, a place where we can link readers to your other work or ways to support you (website, Patreon, Kofi, Twitter, etc).
STORIES
We find that agents, publishers, and presses look for stories that are "dynamic," "plot-driven," and "emotionally impactful." Usually, they want a big twist at the end or some kind of fireworks. Darth Vader is the father and the Death Star blows up. But it's not often that our lives have big twists and awe-inspiring fireworks. Sometimes the moments that impact us the most are the quiet ones. The ones we didn't realize were happening and didn't know had ended. These are the stories we want. Stories that meander through city alleyways and country lanes. We want to see a snapshot of life, even something that blends the line between fiction and reality. This is what we know we love, but we're happy to be surprised. So if you have something outside of this aesthetic that you think we'll like, we want to read that too.
We're not accepting poetry, full-length novels/novellas, or the genres of horror, gore, and erotica.
Please send us either:
One short fiction story up to 3,000 words.
or
Two flash fiction stories up to 1,000 words.
or
Four micro-fiction stories up to 300 words.
Please paste your story or stories into the body of the email and use the subject "FICTION SUBMISSION" without the quotation marks. We will not open attachments. If you have multiple stories, separate them by title.
ART
From a cluttered room or a cup of coffee to an inquisitive face, we like art that tells a story. Pigeon Review is currently accepting work in the genres of portrait/figure, nature/landscape/plein air, still life, and narrative realism. Mediums that we accept are traditional paintings, digital paintings, illustrations, photography, and sculpture. (Sculptures genres included (but are not limited to) ceramic, textile, and found art. Entries should be high definition photographs of an individual piece.)
Please send us up to 10 images that you would like us to consider for publication. Images should be JPGs, 300dpi, and no larger than 5MBs. We will not open files that are not JPGs. Please also send us a link to your website or portfolio if you have one.
Use the subject "ART SUBMISSION" without quotation marks. Please include the medium of the piece, the size of the piece (if physical), the title of the piece, and the year it was created.
Please email your submission to pigeonreview@gmail.com.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer an honorarium at this time. We hope to change this in the near future.
You should receive a confirmation email within an hour of submitting. If you haven't received a confirmation email within an hour please check your spam folder, if it's not there check your submission to ensure that the subject line and email recipient address are correct. If you're still having trouble, please contact us at pigeonreview@gmail.com.
*What are First North American Serial/Online Rights? It goes hand in hand with simultaneous submissions. In basic terms, we get the right to publish your story in North America first. (This does mean you can publish with us and a magazine/press based out of another part of the world without an issue, such as the UK or Europe.) We also obtain the right to publish online and/or in a magazine. Once we publish your work, the rights then revert back to you so you can publish in another magazine/press/anthology. These are non-exclusive rights.
