Clinch Mountain Review

Contributing authors must be:

• AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE and
• CURRENT OR FORMER RESIDENTS OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA

• Materials will be considered in the genres of poetry, short fiction, and memoir (personal narrative non-fiction) with any setting and on any subject, traditional or contemporary.
• We do not accept previously published works or simultaneous submissions.

• Please submit no more than 3-5 poems and/or no more than one piece each in the prose genres per year.
• Poems should be a maximum of 40 lines.
• Prose submissions should be a maximum of 3000 words.

• ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE BY E-MAIL to russ.wood@sw.edu as an ATTACHMENT saved in Microsoft Word format or, in Rich Text Format (RTF) (Please put all poems into one document.)
• Include your name, your e-mail address, and your current place of residence with mailing address and zip code. (If you are a former resident, also include your previous place of residence in Southwestern Virginia.)
• Include in the MESSAGE PORTION of the e-mail 1) your name, 2) the title(s) of the work(s) submitted, and 3) a statement that all the work submitted is eligible according to these guidelines.
• Do not submit anything on paper. Submissions on paper or in any form other than those described above cannot be considered for publication and will be discarded.
• Please note: All prose works will be considered to be fiction unless designated “Memoir” or “Nonfiction” on the attached work itself (not in the message portion of the email).

Unsolicited submissions will be considered only if received BETWEEN JANUARY 15 and JUNE 3. Notification will be by e-mail in early summer. Publication will be in the Fall.

Payment is one copy of the issue in which your work appears.

All rights revert to the author after publication in The Clinch Mountain Review.

• Be real. Ground your writing in particular times and places.
• ESPECIALLY FOR POETS
  • Condense; don’t gush.
  • Avoid rhymes unless you are a widely published poet.  The chief malady which causes rejection of poems by CMR is the “rhyme at any price” syndrome. (If you don’t know what this means, your rhymed poems probably suffer from it.)
• ESPECIALLY FOR FICTION WRITERS:
  • Create character by focusing on decisions (small and large) that people make.
  • Let character determine the plot, not vice versa.

Copies (while they last) are available in the Humanities Division Office or by mail nationally. Contact 276-964-7392 or ginger.rife@sw.edu for more information.

Contributors must be at least 18 years of age and be a CURRENT or FORMER RESIDENT of Southwest Virginia.

Samples from each issue can be found on that year’s publication page link listed on the CMR Menu.

Yes, CMR is looking for pieces written by individuals from Southwestern Virginia (current and former), not about Southwestern Virginia. Pieces about Southwestern Virginia are accepted and encouraged, but this is not a requirement.

Yes, CMR is looking for a variety of styles both contemporary and traditional.