Until August 16, we will be accepting submissions across genres for our annual contest! Essays, stories, poems, and any other form of hybrid writing that takes risks and experiments with form & content are welcome. BWR is named after the Black Warrior River, a name honoring Chief Tuskaloosa, a paramount chief of the Mississippi nations. Like the river, our journal is constantly changing & deeply resilient. We are the longest-running journal helmed by graduate students the United States, running continuously since 1974. While we’re based in Alabama and pride ourselves on featuring local writers and artists alongside Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners, we have serious national reach and are often considered on the forefront of experimental, fabulist, and all-around “weird” literature and a home for marginalized voices. We believe in pushing boundaries, fostering innovation, and amplifying voices often unheard in traditional literary spaces.

Genre(s): Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction

Location(s): Tuscaloosa, AL

Submissions Open: May 1

Submissions Close: August 16

Submission Fee: $20

Fee Waiver: Yes

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