Submission Guidelines
ORP will accept submissions in the genres below for publication in its seventh annual issue from January 23 through May 31, 2024.
In general, simultaneous submissions are fine, but please contact us immediately if your work is picked up elsewhere. We request first serial rights, after which all rights revert to the author or artist. We do not reprint previously published work unless otherwise explicitly stated in the specific guidelines. Please include a 60-word bio with your submission and feel free to upload a photo with your submission.
We are especially eager to publish pieces that engage with the work of marginalized and decentered people—Black and Brown creators, LGBTQ+ creators, and creators of all levels of dis/ability, and to that end, we invite creators to self-identify in their submissions.
Fiction: Please submit one story up to 6,000 words in .docx format. All work should be double-spaced.
Emerging Voices Fiction: Please submit one short story up to 6,000 words in .docx format. Only one short story per submitter will be read and reviewed. All work should be double-spaced. Please include your full name, pseudonym or pen name, should you wish to use it for publication, and preferred email on the first page of the document. Please also include the title of your short story on the first page. Emerging Voices Fiction also accepts translated work. Please mention in your cover letter if you are submitting translated work and include the name of the translator.
Creative Non-Fiction: Please submit creative non-fiction pieces that are no longer than 5,000 words in .docx format. All work should be double-spaced. Your name should not appear anywhere in the document.
Poetry: Please submit up to three poems in .docx format. Each poem should start on its own page. Please note if a page break is also a stanza break. We do our best to respond to submissions in a timely manner. Sometimes, taking our time means your poem has made it through multiple rounds and is being seriously considered for publication. For this reason, please wait at least 6 months before inquiring about a submission. Generally, we are not interested in prose poetry. Duplicate poetry submissions within the same submission window will be automatically declined.
Emerging Voices Poetry: Please submit up to 3 poems in one document of no longer than 10 pages total in .doc or .docx format. If your poem(s) require specific formatting, you may use .pdf to preserve the spacing. Each poem should start on its own page. Please note if a page break is also a stanza break. Please include your full name, pseudonym or pen name, should you wish to use it for publication, and preferred email on the first page of the document. Please also include the title(s) of your poem(s) with each poem. Emerging Voices Poetry does not accept translations at this time. Only one submission of poetry per submitter will be read and reviewed.
Visual Art: Please submit photography or other visual arts that are saved at 300 dpi or greater. We reserve the right to crop or edit submissions in order to fit in print or on our webpage.
Additionally, ORP Soundings will publish reviews, interviews, profiles, commentary, or other innovative forms (including multimedia) that seek to highlight or critically engage with issues or works of literary, artistic, or cultural significance. Submissions should align with ORP's mission to amplify stories that speak to what it means to be alive in this world, works that move of out of ourselves and into other spaces, and voices who bring balance and diversity to historical institutions of power. For these reasons, we prioritize works that are published or produced independently, without the clout of corporate promotion.
Please note that Oyster River Pages will not publish any work that has been created, in part or in full, or in collaboration with generative artificial intelligence. Should we find that work published on our site has been created with the support of generative artificial intelligence, we reserve the right to remove such work from our site and rescind publication.
Incarcerated persons, or others unable to use Submittable, may send submissions to:
Oyster River Pages
Attn: Submissions
P.O. Box 706
Lewes, DE 19958
We regret that we cannot reply to all postal submissions. If you do not hear from us within six months, assume that we have declined your submission.
