Submissions are open April 1, 2025 and close April 30, 2025.
Please note, starting with the April 2024 window, we have implemented a small submission fee of $5 CAD (about ($3.70 USD). After almost nine years of none or voluntary sub fees, it is simply no longer sustainable this way. (Fees for the bimonthly ekphrastic challenges will remain voluntary for now.) Scroll down for details about this change. We thank you for supporting the considerable time and effort it takes to maintain this journal.
Ekphrastic Submissions
Where
Submit to the editors at [email protected].
Currently, our editors are Lorette C. Luzajic, Sandi Stromberg, and Kate Copeland.
When
January 2025
April 2025
July 2025
October 2025
We are only open to receive regular journal submissions during these months.
Works sent during other times may be deleted or not reach the editors.
Contest and challenge submissions are received ongoing, according to any specific rules of the call.
What to Send
-short fiction including microfiction and flash fiction
-poetry, all kinds- we love prose poetry- please note, experimental spacing is tough to replicate online
-creative nonfiction
-translations of ekphrastic work from other languages (with permission of original author or public domain)
-ekphrastic book reviews (please query)
-author interviews (please query)
-sequences of poetry, CNF, or fiction (about one artist, one style, one artwork, or other link)
-Throwback Thursdays features (list of your favourites from archives, check out the feature and general format here.)
-We can no longer consider Rattle outtakes.
Length: Prose 50 to 4000 words. We have a very strong preference for work in the 100-1000 range. Poetry can be any length, but please query about any that are unusually long.
EKPHRASTIC WORK ONLY!!!!
We define "ekphrasis" or "ekphrastic" as "creative writing inspired by visual art." Wherever the art takes you is fine, whether it is "about" the art or artist, or about something else.
We love all the arts, but only consider ekphrasis after visual arts such as painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and photography. Performative, musical, or moving picture arts, such as symphonies, cinema, or dance are amazing, but outside of our niche.
Fees
After almost nine years of no fees or voluntary submission fees, we have now implemented a $5 CAD or about $3.75 USD fee, effective as of April 1, 2024. This is for our main journal stream but the fees for the bimonthly ekphrastic challenges remain voluntary for now.
The journal takes time and money to run, read for, and promote. We are simply getting such a high volume of submissions, even with only four receiving months, that this is the next step. Our editors spend an unbelievable amount of time reading through submissions. It is wonderful to get so many creations, but we need to streamline the volume in order to sustain the journal. We also receive a high volume of submissions that are not appropriate for the journal, non-ekphrastic submissions, multiple submissions, and submissions we have already declined, phenomena that we hope will be mitigated by implementing a small sub fee. It has been important to us to keep a democratic, open-door policy with our community regarding submissions. We tried it every other way until now. We hope the community will be willing to help with this small fee to support our time, online fees, office supplies, coffee, etc.
Please reference your order number in your email.
If you are in hardship or cannot pay for another reason, submit anyway and let us know in your cover letter.
We value the whole ekphrastic world and diverse art and poetry. If you are submitting from a country where $5 is an inordinate fee, please let us know and we can recalibrate to make it fair or waive the fee, depending on the circumstance. For example, if you are in Cuba or Pakistan, $5 would be a huge portion of your income rather than a cup of coffee.
The Ekphrastic Challenges and Contests
The Ekphrastic Writing Challenges continue with their own deadlines for all genres. The challenges have their own submission address, so please follow the instructions posted with each prompt. We have a variety of contests and events with their own deadlines as well. Rules will vary with each contest.
Subscriptions
By submitting to The Ekphrastic Review, you are automatically joining our subscribers' list. Your submission is your permission.
What to Include
-up to five stories or poems (or a mix of both) in the body of email (you can include a matching Word document to show us format and italics)
-brief, friendly cover note to editor reminding me of our connection or introducing yourself
-publishing name
-brief evergreen bio 100 words or less (say something interesting about yourself and highlight your accomplishments rather than a long list of publications- list no more than three or four journal names)
-subject line: tell us what your email is about ("poetry on Monet and Michelangelo" "sequence of microfiction on abstract art" "translation question for editor")
Edits and Changes
-We do not make extensive edits to anyone's work. We prefer to leave the voice and intention of the writer. We make simple typo corrections or small changes for clarity, spelling, etc.
-We assume the work you send is finished. Do not send new versions or changes to your work or to your bio during consideration or after publication.
Format
It is difficult to publish experimental works accurately. Flush left is best. We love creative formats but if we can't publish it accurately, we won't be able to use it. If you are submitting a work that does not flush left and we accept said work, expect to see if formatted flush left on publication day. If there are different fonts and different font sizes, slash-throughs, underlines, and changing boldface and italics considerations, expect to see all of these levelled out into standard type on publication day.
Please understand that this is not out of disrespect for creative formatting, font play, or a preference for flush left margins! We adore e.e. cummings. It is entirely a practical matter. The host's software and natural virtual habits make unusual formatting very difficult or impossible. Sorry.
Payment
We cannot pay. This journal is a volunteer effort, run out of pocket by the editor. Sorry.
Some of our contests have cash prizes and are clearly noted. The entry fees from those contests help us offer the prizes.
Reprints/ Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are assumed.
Reprints are welcome.
If your work has been published before, let us know where so we can credit it appropriately.
Drop us a line with "WITHDRAW" in the subject if any of your submitted works are chosen elsewhere. Congratulations!
Multiple Submissions
We enjoy ongoing relationships with writers. But please wait until you hear back from a round of submissions before sending more.
Repeated Submissions
Do not send works again that have been returned to you.
Donations
The Ekphrastic Review is free to anyone with Internet connection.
Please consider a small gift if you are able. It takes an incredible amount of time to run the journal. Your gift can help support and maintain a unique arts journal that publishes and promotes ekphrastic literature. Click here to send us a coffee or some web maintenance fees!
Who Can Submit
We welcome ekphrastic submissions from anyone, anywhere.
Response Time
Response time is currently up to twelve weeks, depending on volume, backlog, and individual editor's schedules.
Rights
You always own your work and we never do.
We do keep your work in our archives online if we accept it. We will not remove it just because you decide you no longer like it, have changed it, or want someone else to have it instead.
You are free to use your own work anywhere, anytime, before, during, or after we publish it. We do appreciate it very much if you acknowledge The Ekphrastic Review when work we published appears elsewhere. Thank you!
Mission
The Ekphrastic Review is committed to the growth, expansion, and practice of the art form of creative writing inspired or prompted by visual art. We define ekphrastic writing simply as "creative writing inspired by art." The piece can be an in-depth experience of the art work, or it can use the art as a starting point for expression. The connection to the artwork or artist can be subtle, or it can be central to the work.
Info on How to Include Artwork in Submission
Please include a link to the artwork or a low to moderate resolution jpeg.
Please organize the information in a way that makes it apparent what work goes with what poem or story.
Please include the title, artist, artist's nationality, and year of artwork creation.
Example of preferred format:
Las Meninas, by Diego Velázquez (Spain) 1656
Asking For a Friend, by Lorette C. Luzajic (Canada) 2017
Do not put artwork into a Word document or PDF.
For contemporary and recent art, if you have permission to use the artwork, or a connection to the artist, please share that information. A link to or contact at gallery or rep is helpful. We seek permission to show living artists or copyrighted artwork, but it can be an obstacle. We are grateful if you can help us remove that obstacle if you have a way in.
A Note on Rejection
We hate sending sorry notices.
The editorial process is a highly subjective one and also something of a lottery.
We strive to publish quality writing in a variety of voices and styles, but cannot possibly publish all the worthy work submitted.
We receive thousands of works. The Ekphrastic Review simply cannot post them all.
We don't send criticism or detailed reasons when we politely return your work. There are many reasons we can't use a piece, but the most likely is that we simply don't have room for all of the good writing we get.
SAMPLE SUBMISSION FOR REFERENCE:
We are flexible and approachable and no one will be ousted for a faux pas.
That said, it takes a surprising amount of time to edit, arrange, and coordinate a post, and that time can be reduced exponentially for us if you follow this easy format!
subject line in email: Betty Smith sending more flash fiction on Picasso paintings
Dear Lorette,
Note from you, where you introduce yourself- or remind me if we've corresponded before -or update me briefly on your life if we know each other, because I'm curious about you and what you do.
Here are three nonfiction observations for your consideration. My bio follows.
poem/story 1: link to Still Life With Apples, by Clod Money (France) 1903
www.link-to-image.com
Title of Poem
Poem
here
it is.
Do you like it.
Haiku!
Mary Jane Sziezmogalskojmanoff-Jones
Mary Jane Sziezmogalskojmanoff-Jones is an unknown writer living in Iceland with her 719 cats./ John Doe is a 150 time Pushcart winner who writes art features for The New York Times. She has had 209 poetry collections published by Cool Press Books. She lives in Calgary, Alberta on a ranch and volunteers helping kids with art at St. Mary's Church.
A Note on Em Dashes
Do not use em dashes and other unusual punctuation. We are an online publication and data automatically changes em dashes. There is a reason keyboards don't have em dashes. There are quaint arguments for the em dash in writing circles and articles extolling em dash virtues as acts of poetry or even resistance. We don't take sides in these matters. But our online host, along with most online outlets, cannot translate the data accurately for em dashes onto the screen. This is not "The Ekphrastic Review." It is the technology of the web and our hosting platforms. A good rule of thumb: if the punctuation is not on your keyboard, don't use it.