Submission Guidelines

Contributor & Payment Notes

All submissions to The Cactus Wren Review are free at this time.

We aim to pay our contributors for every accepted piece. Any and all donations will go directly to our writers’ fund, from which we will pay our contributors.

Authors retain copyrights to their work published in The Cactus Wren Review.

Genre Notes

The Cactus Wren Review is open to submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, and select visual art.

For fiction and non-fiction submissions, you may submit up to 3 pieces per submission window. Stories and essays may be any length, provided that they are under 5,000 words in total.

For poetry submissions, you may submit up to 6 poems, formatted as a single document. Each poem should be clearly marked on its own page.

For submissions of visual art, you may submit up to 10 images per submission period.

You may submit to more than one genre.

Simultaneous Submissions and Document Notes

Submitted work must be previously unpublished. This excludes self-publication to a personal blog or social media outlet.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please email us immediately at contact@cactuswrenreview.com should your piece be accepted elsewhere. Your piece will be withdrawn but you may, in this instance, submit an alternate piece in its place at that time.

We will not accept work that has been generated, even in part, by AI.

Submissions should be sent in a legible font no smaller than 12pt.

We accept submissions in the form of PDFs or Word Documents.

How to Submit

Email all submissions to submit@cactuswrenreview.com.

Please include a short bio in your submission document.

Direct all questions and inquiries to contact@cactuswrenreview.com. Any submissions to this email address will be deleted.