Bennington Review is published twice a year in print form. We aim to stake out a distinctive space for innovative, intelligent, and moving fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, film writing, and cross-genre work. In the spirit of poet Dean Young’s dictum that poets should be “making birds, not birdcages,” we are particularly taken with writing that is simultaneously graceful and reckless.
Unsolicited submissions will only be accepted from January 6th, 2025, through March 9th, 2025. We will open for poetry and fiction submissions only. Our nonfiction submissions are temporarily closed due to backlog, but we expect to reopen nonfiction this year. We no longer accept film submissions as their own category; if you are submitting writing about film, please submit it through nonfiction once that period opens.
Submissions response times vary, though we aim to respond to most submissions within five to eight months.
For submissions received on or after September 1st, 2022, we will pay contributors $120 for prose of six typeset pages and under, $250 for prose of over six typeset pages, and $25 per poem, in addition to two copies of the issue in which the piece is published and one copy of the subsequent issue.
Work must be previously unpublished in print or online, including on personal blogs. Prose submissions must be double-spaced and paginated. Please include a cover letter with your submission. We welcome simultaneous submissions, as long as you notify us immediately when work has been accepted elsewhere. We do not accept multiple submissions to Bennington Review at the same time: please limit your submissions to the magazine to one at a time, regardless of genre. Wait to submit to us again until you have heard back on your initial submission.
We do not accept unsolicited submissions from current or recent students, faculty, or staff of Bennington College. Undergraduate and graduate alumni, as well as past employees of Bennington, are asked to wait a minimum of three years before submitting work to the magazine.
We welcome submissions from established and emerging writers alike. We ask that writers who submit to the journal possess a familiarity with contemporary literature in the genre of their work. Individual genre guidelines are listed below.
Note that we are additionally interested in publishing translations: translators should have permission from the copyright holder and should include a copy of the original work with their submission, regardless of language.
We acquire first North American serial rights for all accepted work.
Due to increased production costs and our desire to continue to be able to pay our contributors, Bennington Review now charges a $3 reading fee per submission.
If you have any questions about these guidelines, please email us at benningtonreview@bennington.edu.
Please send no fewer than three and no more than five poems per submission. Poems should be single-spaced, unless either the work is in one-line stanzas or the poem requires additional space between lines.
Include all poems as one document in a single file. Feel free to submit your work to other magazines simultaneously. However, please do not send us multiple submissions — wait to send a second time until you've heard back from us.
Also, if the work you are submitting is already slated for publication in a forthcoming book, please be sure to let us know and share the forthcoming book's publication date in your cover letter.
Please send no more than 30 double-spaced pages per submission; any excerpts from a longer project must work as self-contained stories.
If submitting flash fiction, please submit up to three pieces of up to 1000 words each as one document in a single file.
Feel free to submit your work to other magazines simultaneously. However, please do not send us multiple submissions — wait to send a second time until you've heard back from us.
Also, if the work you are submitting is already slated for publication as part of a forthcoming book, please be sure to let us know and share the forthcoming book's publication date in your cover letter.