Submissions Open Sept 1 - Nov 30

River Heron Review is published biannually in February and August.

General submissions are open March 1 - May 31 and September 1 - November 30

General submission Guidelines

River Heron Review seeks clear, concise, and crafted work from a variety of diverse voices and perspectives. We love poems that use language imaginatively without sacrificing meaning and movement and are receptive to all styles of poetry. We want to be awed, surprised, or moved by the poems you submit.

Submissions from new, emerging, and established poets are welcomed. We especially encourage submissions from historically underrepresented voices in poetry communities -- BIPOC, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, persons of any ability. We celebrate the full expression of all identities in our journal.

• Submit up to three poems in one document. Submit only once per submission period.

• It is our practice to read all submissions without seeing the name of the contributor. We ask that submissions remain anonymous so that we may make our selections based on the quality of the writing. Names or initials are not to appear on any part of the poetry submission. Submissions will be assigned an auto-generated number by Submittable.

• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere by sending us a note through the “Messages” section of Submittable.

• We do not solicit submissions. One hundred percent of published work has been curated through our anonymous Submittable process.

• Previously published work is not accepted. Unpublished work means work that has not appeared in any form of print or digital media, including personal and public blogs.

• If your work has been accepted to River Heron Review, please skip one general issue (does not include contest issues) before submitting again.

• RHR assumes First Electronic/Online Rights including the right to archive.

• Please credit River Heron Review should your poem be published again elsewhere.

• Submissions not adhering to our guidelines will not be considered for publication.

A $3.00 submission fee helps defray the costs of managing submissions and publishing the magazine.
River Heron Review is not funded by any university, college, or organization. We do not receive any grants.

Originality and Editorial Discretion

By submitting work to River Heron Review, all authors affirm that their submission is original, created solely by the submitting author, and has not been generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence tools or platforms. Plagiarized, previously published (unless explicitly allowed), or non-original content will be disqualified.

River Heron Review reserves the right to disqualify, rescind recognition, or remove any work from publication or contest consideration if, at any time before or after acceptance or announcement, we determine that the submission violates our guidelines or fails to meet our editorial standards for originality and integrity.

We also reserve the right to request verification of authorship. If a work’s originality cannot be verified, we may rescind publication or awards at our discretion.

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