Submit
“That’s a true story that never happened.”
-Tim O’Brien, “How to Tell a True War Story”
Tell us your truth.
The Coachella Review is the student-run online literary journal for the University of California, Riverside Palm Desert Graduate Center’s MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts program. We accept work that is well-constructed. Thoughtful. Even experimental. But always from the gut. Doesn’t matter to us if you tell it or film it. We want nothing less than your truth in the form of fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry and film shorts.
Our deadlines are September 30 for the Fall issue, January 2 for the Winter issue, and May 1 for the Spring issue. Our annual Genre Fiction Contest deadline is June 1, and the winner wins $500 and publication in our Fall issue. Since we accept submissions on a rolling basis, you really never miss a deadline – we just consider it for the next issue. If you’re really good, we might sneak you in anyway, because we’re online, you know, and we have special powers. And tell us if you’ve never been published before. We’ll make a big deal about it.
Listed below are submission guidelines for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Film. If you’d like continued good will from the editors, please pay attention to the details.
We can’t wait to hear from you.
Fiction: Short stories and sudden fiction are welcome, as long as they do not exceed 6,000 words. If you send us something that’s less than 1,500 words, make it really good. Realism, fabulism, whateverism. Submit as many times as you like, but please, only one story per attachment.
Nonfiction: We’re happy to read and publish personal essay, memoir, vignette, travel writing, literary journalism. Tell us all about your views, other people’s views, new views and new news, just keep it less than 6,000 words. Again, submit as many as you like.
Poetry: Send three to five poems; we have no restrictions on either form or length. We want poetry that pushes the envelope, breaks the mold – poetry that doesn’t use the clichés we just did. Please submit all poems as a single attachment.Visit our submission page, Submit to The Coachella Review, to send in your work.
For Film and Playwriting: please email a one to two sentence logline to film@thecoachellareview.com on what the film/webisode/play is about (i.e., drama, comedy, action, documentary, musical, experimental, etc.) We will accept short films or webisodes no longer than 40 minutes. If we like your log line, we’ll be in touch to have you send the film on a file or DVD.
Alternative Writing: We welcome writing in all forms. Here is where you can submit your digital masterpieces. We want your slam poetry, digital typography, films, plays, musicals, webisodes, and comics. Videos must be no longer than 40 minutes. Please email a short description (100 words or less) about your piece to tcrfeatures@gmail.com. If we like it, we’ll be in touch to have you send the video file or DVD.
Questions, Withdrawls, etc: You can contact the editors at thecoachellareview@gmail.com
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