Eastern Iowa Review

Website

http://www.portyonderpress.com/eastern-iowa-review.html

From the Editor

Most journals and reviews want a story; we want magic in the language & fire in the flow, a show to impress over drama to incite. Well, a story is fine IF it’s embedded within a strong lyrical or experimental essay. Please stretch your lyrical wings. Give us the beautiful, the musical, even the odd & quirky. Think Annie Dillard meets Gertrude Stein.

Free general submissions all year ’round. Year-round Tip Jar expedited submissions: $3 tip jar to be read within 2 weeks and a decision made, $5 to be read and a decision made within 1 week. Also, we offer a critique of an essay, article, or novel excerpt up to 2000 words for $30, or $45 up to 5000 words. Lyric essay critiques do not guarantee acceptance; all submissions will be given the same consideration.

All stories must appeal to a broad audience. Do feel free to delve into the tougher subjects, only do so carefully. We are a “journal of good spaces.”

No identifying author details on submissions, please. We read “blind.” We also edit all material submitted, if necessary, but the author will have final say as per usual. Please do not submit again until you hear back from us.

Miscellaneous Facts

Any writer from any country in the world is welcome to submit. All submissions must be in English.

Include a short 50 word bio in the space allowed on the Submittable form.

This will be an annual print journal. Contributors will be informed when the issue is published, probably mid-summer.

We may choose to publish select pieces or excerpts of work on this site.

Our final decisions will be based on work quality and current needs (though we may occasionally solicit work).

Suitable submissions may be nominated for the Pushcart award.

Please do not ask about a free submission until the full 90 days have passed.

Submissions

What we seek: Lyric Essays and Experimental / Hybrid Essays only. No fiction, poetry, art, or generic nonfiction, please. Place-based themes, literary vitality, moral consequence, the sharply beautiful and achingly honest but without a lingering on the darkness. Your submission should be considered “crossover” work: that is, suitable for most ages, though certainly not dumbed down or soft or overtly religious works.

What we hope to avoid: purple prose, genre/mainstream writing, erotica, horror, bawdy and base elements, base humor, predictability, swearing, gratuitous sexuality, preaching / conversion attempts / agenda in religious work, political works without story and literary bent, racial or sexual bias, bigotry, name-calling. Excessive and unnecessary drama for drama’s sake. Darkness for darkness’ sake. Find better ways to employ strong emotion in your writing.

We love nature, the world, outer space. Cultures. We’d rather avoid stories of illnesses, relationship problems, and harsh family dynamics as the central focus. We would rather see the gentle or redemptive or calm within the honest, the light of the flame within the darkness; and though the flame may burn at times, show us the blue streaks within the flame, the pink of the scars, and what the healing means to you, not how loudly you screamed at the touch. Reveal the new. Be witty. Be fun or meditative or experimental with language.

If you’re not sure about a work or a topic, please send it anyway. Though we can’t absolutely promise input, in some cases we may jot a suggestion if we have to decline a piece that’s close to our ideal.

Upcoming

Beginning with the second issue: One lyric and/or experimental essay will be chosen in May from the previous months’ accepted selections for the Eastern Iowa Review Lyric/Experimental Essay Prize: $150 each for the best lyric and/or experimental essay(s) we receive (prize overrides contributor’s payment).

Information

Editors Name Chila Woychik
Print publication? Yes
Circulation Not sure
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL https://easterniowareview.submittable.com/submit
Approx. Response Time? 1 month or less
How often do you publish? 1 x Year
Year Founded? 2014
Do you pay? Yes

Contact

Twitter n/a
Mailing Address:
6332 – 33rd Avenue Drive
Shellsburg, IA 52332
Email contact@portyonderpress.com