General Guidelines

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS

We accept simultaneous submissions (i.e., pieces you have submitted to other publications). However, you need to notify us if any of your pieces are accepted elsewhere. Upon acceptance in Sagebrush Review, please withdraw your poems from other considerations.

RIGHTS

We reserve First Serial and Electronic Rights to every piece we publish. If we seek to publish your work, the exclusivity of Sagebrush’s right to publish your work only lasts as long as the period of time leading up to the date of publication. Once your work is published, all rights are reverted to you, and you are able to resubmit the work anywhere for consideration. We kindly ask that if your work is published elsewhere following its publication with us, you credit Sagebrush Review as its initial place of publication.

If we publish your work, we may post extracts from it on our social media in future. If you want to deny us these re-publication rights, do let us know. Apart from the right to publish your piece online, we retain no rights over your work. 

We will seek your permission before including a piece in our annual printed journal.

Your work must be original, and you must be the creator and holder of the copyright. All submissions presuppose your agreement to this policy. 

STANDARDS

We are looking for clear and concise work from a variety of diverse voices and perspectives. We seek poetry that uses original, interesting language skillfully and prose that uses effective narrative pacing to capture the reader. Most importantly, we want to read well-crafted work – stories that engage us and poems that surprise us.

We are unlikely to be interested in pieces with gratuitous sex or violence. We will not publish writing that is sexist, racist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, or ableist.

SUBMISSION FEE

Sagebrush takes a small $2.00 submission fee to keep our journal operating. 

This fee helps us defray the costs of managing submissions and publishing the annual printed journal, as Sagebrush Review is staffed by volunteers, and we depend on donations to keep us running. This fee does not guarantee personalized feedback or influence any decisions regarding the works published.

POETRY

Aesthetically, we are interested in poetry that engages us with descriptive images and lyrical sounds. We like poems that are written in free verse, blank verse, and other traditional forms equally.

We also welcome visual/object poetry. When formatting such experimental pieces for submission, please remember that we are limited by WordPress’ text constraints and our journals are printed on 5.5” x 8.5” pages. 

Submit up to three (3) poems in one Word document. Center titles and include your name. Use a readable 12 point-sized font. Times New Roman or Calibri only please.

We ask you to limit each poem to approximately 30 lines. 

PROSE

We ask that you keep prose pieces (short stories and works of creative non-fiction) under 2500 words. 

There is no minimum – we want flash fiction, too! We ask that you keep works of flash fiction under 1000 words. 

Submit up to three (3) works of flash fiction or one (1) short story in a single Word document. Center titles and please include a word count on the top right side of the first page of your prose pieces. (We will not accept prose pieces without a word count.) Use a readable 12 point-sized font in Times New Roman or Calibri.  

ART

We appreciate abstract and figurative art equally. Drawings, paintings, digital art, photography, prints, mixed media – we love it all! The only stipulation we have is that we do not accept art that depicts excessive gore or graphic violence of any kind.

We accept portfolios of up to six (10) pieces of visual art. Please submit images as high-resolution .JPG or .PNG files.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION

Sagebrush is looking for creative non-fiction in the form of personal narratives, essays, memoirs, craft books, etc. 

We ask that you keep non-fiction works to a maximum of 3000 words and submit no more than three essays at a time. 

Center titles and please include a word count in the top right side of the first page for non-fiction pieces. (We will not accept pieces without a word count.) Use a readable 12 point-sized font in Times New Roman or Calibri.  

COMPENSATION

As a student-run organization, we are unable to offer financial compensation for online publications. We will promote contributors' work via social media.