Submissions
Our submissions period is currently closed. Please follow our blog to receive updates about the reading periods for future issues.
Submissions (with the exception of Community Voices and Visual Art/Photography queries) will only be accepted via our online form. Please read our guidelines thoroughly before proceeding.
General Guidelines
- You may submit only once per reading period.
- All poetry, translations, and prose should be submitted via our online system ONLY. If you experience technical trouble with the system during the submission process, please send us an email at editors [at] lanternreview (dot) com.
- Your submission must meet both our general guidelines and the specific guidelines for the category in which you are submitting (see below, under “Categories of Work Accepted”)
- Please include a cover letter as the first page of your submission. Our electronic form will also ask you to input a short biographical statement. We ask that you limit these statements to 1–2 sentences per artist [translators need not submit additional bio(s) for the artist(s) whose work they are translating].
- Acceptable file formats: As our system can accept only one file at a time from each submitter, poetry and prose manuscripts should be uploaded as a single MS Word (.doc or .docx) document or Adobe .pdf file, the first page of which should consist of a cover letter. In order to avoid a potential upload error, we suggest that you remove all spaces and punctuation from the file name of your document—e.g., “MChangPoems.docx” rather than “M Chang - Poems.docx”. (See specific guidelines under “Categories of Work Accepted” for Community Voices and Visual Art submissions).
- In submitting your work to us, you guarantee that the pieces included in your MS have not been published before—either in electronic or print form—and that they constitute your original creative work. Rights revert to the author upon publication of the work.
- Please allow approximately 4 weeks after the end of the reading period for our response.
- Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but you must alert us to which poems have been submitted simultaneously, and must inform us immediately should they be accepted elsewhere.
- Please note that as LR is a completely volunteer-run operation, we are unable to offer our contributors monetary compensation at this time.
Categories of Work Accepted
- Original poems: Collaborative or individual; traditional, experimental, hybrid forms—all are welcome! Please submit no more than 4 poems at a time. For collaborative pieces, please indicate the name of only one artist under “Contact Information,” but include all collaborators’ names in the “Artist Names” box (under “Manuscript Information”).
- Translations: New translations of poems into English. Please submit no more than 4 translations at a time. Indicate the name of the original poet as well as your own in the “Artist Name(s)” box. Unless the poem you have translated is in the public domain, please also make sure that you have secured all necessary permissions from the owner of the original piece's copyright before submitting your translation to us.
- Book Reviews & Essays: We occasionally feature a prose piece (written by a poet or scholar of poetry) at the end of our issues. Types of work that we are interested in include: reviews of recent poetry collections, critical essays relating to poetic craft or issues in poetics, and creative reflections by poets on such subjects as process, community, and politics in poetry. Please note that we are looking for prose whose subject matter deals with poetry and its practice in some way (for example, we are not interested in publishing reviews of short story collections). Please submit no more than one prose piece at a time. Prose pieces should be no longer than 3000 words in length.
- Community Voices: Most general (non-themed) issues will feature a number of poems that have produced in the context of a writing or arts community, as well as a short profile of the group(s) that produced the work. If you are a member of a group whom we might be interested in featuring, please query us at editors [at] lanternreview (dot) com.
- Visual Art & Photography: We seek visual art to feature both as cover art and alongside the poems in each issue. Visual art submissions should NOT be submitted via our online form. Rather, they should be compressed into a single .zip file and emailed to us at editors [at] lanternreview.com using the subject line “Visual Art Submission: [Artist’s Name]”. A cover letter including a short bio and a brief artist’s statement about the work should also be attached. In general, horizontally-oriented images tend to work better with our layout, but vertical images will also be considered, especially for the cover. If submitting a cover image, please note that we are interested in featuring cover art that feels representative of our overall vision. We can only accept images in .jpeg format. Each image should be no smaller than 1000 px wide.
Our Aesthetic
We incline towards contemporary free verse that features a compelling sense of voice, strong internal music and striking imagery, but are open to work that spans the spectrum from the more conservative lyric influenced by traditional forms, to experimental and hybrid forms that push the boundaries of poetry's definitions. To get an idea of what poets the editors like to read and what sort of themes and issues we find compelling, please take some time to browse through our current issue before submitting.
Who May Submit
We seek quality submissions from individual artists and communities of artists, regardless of ethnic background. Your submission does not necessarily have to directly address a “big question” about Asian (U.S.) American identity; nor does it have to take place in America or in Asia. However, please keep in mind that we are seeking to publish work that engages to some degree with issues relevant to the Asian American and/or Asian diasporic experience, and that when reading any piece, we will be looking for not only superior craft, but also for an approach to the work's subject matter that is both thoughtful and culturally/politically sensitive. (Please note: LR staff members are ineligible to submit work during their time with us).
