We want unique voices and risky writing; send your predictable stuff to those hoary old journals who’ve been printing the same thing since 1970. 

Pacifica Literary Review publishes poetry, fiction, and creative non three times a year on our website, and we are the best at what we do. We are an inclusive space for the best emerging and established writers. Seattle is our home base, and everything you’ve heard is true: the coffee is good, it rains a lot, and we have the best writing community in the US. Writers from all backgrounds, races, orientations, occupations, and sports fandoms are encouraged to send us work.

Professors and baristas will receive equal consideration. Sonnets and memes will receive equal consideration. If it is excellent and gives us the feels, we’ll print it.

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Pacifica Literary Review

Fiction submissions should be under 5,000 words, formatted in Times New Roman with 12 pt font, paginated and double spaced.  Please include the title on the first page of your submission.  Novel excerpts are acceptable, but must be able to stand alone. Flash fiction submissions should be less than 1,000 words individually. Please include no more than 3 separate pieces in one document; do not submit each flash piece individually.

Fiction

Nonfiction includes memoir, creative non-fiction and essays. Please note which genre you're submitting to in the header for your submission. All submissions should be paginated and formatted in Times New Roman 12 pt font.Entries should be under 5,000 words, double spaced. Please include the title on the first page of your submission. Excerpts from larger works are acceptable, but must be able to stand alone.

Creative Nonfiction

Please submit no more than three poems, in a single document. We will not consider poems that are submitted individually from the same author (i.e., 3 separate submissions each containing a single poem from a single author).

Poetry

The Folio is a place for longer submissions of individual works by a single author linked by a common thematic/artistic concern. Submissions containing multiple genres (i.e. poetry and creative nonfiction) or hybrid genres are welcome. Please note that all pieces/parts/works in your submission must be unpublished, here or elsewhere.
If you are submitting poetry only: your submission should be 15 pages or less.
If you are submitting fiction/CNF only: your submission should be 30 pages or less.
If you are submitting poetry and prose: your submission should be 20 pages or less.
Please note that at this time, we are not accepting visual media in this category.

The Folio

The Folio — Hybrid

Pacifica is proud to announce that our 2026 Poetry Contest will be judged by Emily Van Kley. To be considered for this contest, you must submit no more than 3 previously unpublished poems to this category in a single document. Authors may submit only once to this contest. Submissions containing more than 3 poems, or multiple submissions from a single author, will be deleted and the Contest Entry Fee will not be refunded. Submissions received in our general "Poetry" submission category will not be considered for this contest. A single author may submit simultaneously to both the Poetry Contest and our general "Poetry" category, as long as you submit different poems to each category. We do not accept reprints, but simultaneous submissions are fine. Judges reserve the right to not declare a winner; in this rare case, no entry fees will be refunded. First Prize will receive $500, publication in Pacifica Literary Review, and eternal glory. Any Honorable Mentions will also receive publication in Pacifica. Good luck!
Emily Van Kley is a queer poet and circus artist currently based in Olympia, Washington. Her poetry collections are The Cold and the Rust (2018), winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, and Arrhythmia (2022), both from Persea Books. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry and Best New Poets, and has received the Loraine Williams Prize for Poetry, the Iowa Review Award, and the Florida Review Editor’s Award among other honors. When not writing, Emily can often be found teaching or performing aerial acrobatics.

Pacifica Literary Review

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