Bear Review is an online journal of poetry. We only accept unpublished work and we acquire first rights. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please let us know if the work is accepted elsewhere. Please do not submit book reviews here. If you have a book review you'd like to write and/or submit, please query our book reviews editor Jay Aja at bearreviewspoetry@gmail.com. Do not send a book review without Jay Aja replying to your query and inviting the review.
We accept submissions on a rolling basis through our submissions manager.
- Attach submissions as a single .docx document. (No PDFs)
- Include a brief note and/or bio (200 words maximum) with your submission.
- Please send no more than three to five poems per submission.
- If you have had your work published with us recently, please wait a full calendar year after publication to send us another packet of poems.
- Even though we are adjusting to handling an increase in submissions volume, we promise to do our best to respond in four to six months. Please do not query until six months have passed since the date of your submission.
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Why we now charge for submissions:
We are a group of friends who devote our precious off hours to this journal. We receive no support from grants or institutions, and every cent we raise here offsets the costs associated with our website and the use of Submittable. Any leftover funds will go to an annual Editors' Prize, for which all writers we publish will be considered.
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Thank you for trusting us with your work. We look forward to reading it soon.
We only accept and publish unpublished work, and we acquire first rights. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please let us know if the work is accepted elsewhere.
Notes: to withdraw an accepted piece, you will need to message us on Submittable rather than add a note. The Notes feature is not visible to editors. Please do not submit book reviews here. Email our book reviews editor Jay Aja at bearreviewspoetry@gmail.com only if you would like to query them about a review you would like us to consider. Do not send reviews to this email address unless the editor has agreed to consider or accept a review.
- Attach submissions of poetry only as a single .docx. .
- Include a brief cover letter and bio (200 words maximum) in the "Cover Letter" box.
- Please send three to five poems (each on a separate page).
- We will do our best to respond in a timely manner (usually within two to four months, though when submissions volumes are high, as many as six).
- If you have recently published with us, please wait a full calendar year before submitting more work.