Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University

Committed to the publication of contemporary creative writing. We are equally interested in work by both new and established writers. CR welcomes work that centers story and voice and/or that plays with form in meaningful ways.

Launched in 1956 (with the first issue featuring work by Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, Henry Miller, Bertolt Brecht, and Mark van Doren), Colorado Review is a national literary journal featuring contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews.

Each issue is approximately 200 pages. Published three times a year, CR has a circulation of approximately 1,100, is carried by university and public libraries across the country, and is also available via Project MUSE. 

The journal receives over 7,000 manuscript submissions each academic year. It lives on the campus at Colorado State University.

With the exception of book reviews, Colorado Review does not publish the work of CSU faculty (current or emeritus), staff, or students; CSU alumni may submit three years after their graduation.
Authors do NOT need to be residents of Colorado or the United States. If you are, however, a foreign national working in the United States, please check the conditions of your visa status with regard to receiving payment from entities other than your sponsor. Colorado State University cannot issue honoraria to foreign nationals with B1/WB, B2/WT, H-1B, or F-1 visas. A J-1 visa holder with a sponsor other than CSU must have written authorization from the Responsible Officer (RO) at their sponsoring institution prior to the activity.

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Nonfiction Lit Mags That Pay $200+

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Reputable Lit Mags with Print Issues

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The Ultimate List of Places to Submit Your Nonfiction

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Story-focused publications with works chosen for Pushcart Prize anthologies. Less than 5% of nominated fiction typically makes the anthology.

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Literary Magazines That Nominate for the Pushcart Prize

BASS represents the most mainstream recognition for short fiction in America. These journals serve as the initial screening layer for potential inclusion in this widely-read collection.

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Essay-focused publications with works selected for Pushcart Prize anthologies. These journals have repeatedly identified nonfiction that resonates with Pushcart editors and readers.

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Colorado Review

Manuscripts must be at least 48 pages but no more than 100 pages.

Colorado Prize for Poetry

Colorado Review pays $300 for nonfiction.
We read nonfiction year-round.
Between May 1 and August 1, we read only nonfiction. Please do not submit short stories or poems to this category. Fiction and poetry submissions received in this nonfiction category will be declined.
We are interested in creative nonfiction (memoir and personal essay) with contemporary themes. Our website has several examples of nonfiction we have published.
Please do not submit literary criticism.
There is no specific word or page count; generally, however, Colorado Review is most interested in essays that are somewhere between 20 and 25 manuscript pages, though we have published both shorter and longer pieces of nonfiction.
File types accepted: Word (DOC and DOCX), PDF, and RTF.

NONFICTION

Colorado Review pays $300 for short stories.
We consider short fiction (but not flash fiction or short shorts) with contemporary themes (no genre fiction, please).
We strongly encourage you to be familiar with the fiction Colorado Review has previously published; visit our website to read selected stories that we have published or to purchase sample issues.
There is no specific word or page count; generally, however, Colorado Review publishes short stories that are somewhere between 15 and 25 manuscript pages. 
Please submit no more than one story at a time.
If Colorado Review has published your work in the last two years, please refrain from submitting so that we may continue to feature new voices.

FICTION

We are currently accepting photography submissions to be considered as cover artwork for Colorado Review. We pay $100 for one-time use of images (images may, however, appear in marketing materials as representations of the published magazine issues).Image requirements:  Art must be approximately 3600 x 2700 pixels with at least 300 dpi.   Art must be submitted as a PNG or JPEG.  Art may not be an AI image or be manipulated by AI. Digital editing and photo manipulation, however, are welcome.  The medium must be photography.   We do not use black-and-white photos.  The image orientation should be landscape.What we are and are not looking for:  The images we use for our covers wrap around the front and back of the magazine.   There must be space within the image on the front for our logo and the names of contributors. There must be space on the back as well for more contributor names (we split them between the front and back cover). You do not need to include our logo in your artwork. Simply submit a photograph.  We welcome fine art photography, still life, architecture, abstractions--or surprise us! We want a photo that can tell a story, even in its simplicity.   We are generally not interested in portraits of people. Animals might be considered, but not sought out. Some of our past covers (front and back) as inspiration:

COVER ART (Photography)

Colorado Review considers poetry of any style. 
Each issue features the work of 15 poets, and poets are paid a flat fee of $100. We prefer that poets submit groups of poems that work together, but this should not be seen as a barrier to submission. All poems will be considered on their own merit. You are welcome to submit up to 7 poems, totaling no more than 20 pages. We also welcome long poems (up to 10 pages).
Please also keep in mind that line lengths are limited by the size of our print journal; we can only fit up to 65 characters (including spaces and punctuation) per line. If your poem has very long lines or requires spacing that exceeds 65 characters, Colorado Review likely will not be able to accommodate the formatting.
If Colorado Review has published your work in the last two years, please refrain from submitting so that we may continue to feature new voices. 
If for any reason you’d like to withdraw a poem, please send us a message through Submittable. Please do not send requests to remove poems from your manuscript through Submittable’s “Open Editing” option.

POETRY

BOOK REVIEW GUIDELINES
  The primary function of Colorado Review’s book reviews is to bring attention to works that might not otherwise be noticed by the mainstream press. To that end, we’re interested in reviews of books from small, independent publishers and university presses, and books from new and emerging writers. We accept previously unpublished reviews of poetry and short story collections, novels, and literary nonfiction that, generally, have come out within the last year. We do not review work that has been self-published. All book reviews are featured here on our website. We strongly encourage you to read several before submitting.
  Simultaneous submissions are fine.
  Reviewers are compensated with a one-year subscription to Colorado Review. 
  Aim for 750 to 1,000 words in your review.
  While there is certainly a space for negative book reviews, Colorado Review is not that space. This is not to say you should refrain from offering criticism, but simply that we wish to recommend the books we choose for review.
  The review should offer a well-crafted blend of summary and analysis and avoid the form of scholarly criticism. If you’re unfamiliar with the distinction, please look to such popular publications as Rain Taxi or the review section of the New York Times to get an idea of what we’re looking for. The review should provide a sense of what the book is about and should be accessible to any reader of literature. If your review is rife with academic jargon, it’s probably not what we’re looking for.
  Please don’t send us a review of your friend’s/colleague’s/professor’s/student’s book. While you may have met the author at a conference or are perhaps even an acquaintance, you should not have a relationship with the author that will compromise your ability to praise and/or criticize the work objectively.
  Complete guidelines and formatting instructions are available here for poetry and here for fiction and nonfiction.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Center for Literary Publishing is accepting manuscript submissions for the 2027 Mountain/West Poetry Series from poets living in the US west of the Mississippi River, including Hawaii, Alaska, and the US Pacific Territories. Please do not submit if you do not currently reside in one of these states or territories.
Deadline is Feb 15, 2026. 
Poets who have entered the 2026 Colorado Prize for Poetry and live in the US west of the Mississippi need not submit, as their manuscripts will automatically be considered for the series.
Manuscripts must be at least 60 pages but no more than 100 pages.
Individual poems within the manuscript may be previously published, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Self-published books are not eligible for submission.
Please submit no more than one manuscript.
Submissions will be accepted online only, via Submittable.
This is not a contest, and there is no submission fee.
Manuscripts will not be read blind. You may include, if applicable, acknowledgments noting poems’ previous publication.
Authors will receive a standard publishing contract that offers a $500 advance against royalties with 10 percent (net) royalties once the advance is earned out, as well as twenty complimentary copies and a 40 percent author discount. Books will be distributed to the trade by the University Press of Colorado.
Questions? Please contact Stephanie G’Schwind at Stephanie(dot)Gschwind(at)colostate(dot)edu.

poets living in the US west of the Mississippi River, including Hawaii, Alaska, and the US Pacific Territories

Colorado Review

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