Submissions

The editors of West Branch welcome submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We read unsolicited manuscripts between August 15 and April 15; manuscripts received during the summer will be returned unread. We print only original, unpublished work. Manuscripts may be sent to: Editors, West Branch, Bucknell Hall, Bucknell University, Lewisburg PA 17837.

General manuscript guidelines

• All manuscripts should be typed and paginated, with the author’s name on each page. Prose should be double-spaced and should include a word count.
• Please send no more than six poems or thirty pages of prose. Please do not use staples.
• Simultaneous submissions must be clearly marked as such; please notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.
• Please include a self-addressed envelope (no postcards) with sufficient postage for a response or for the manuscript’s return. Manuscripts received without return postage will be discarded.
• Our usual response time is ten weeks or less, but if we find your material interesting you may wait longer to hear from us. Please do not query about the status of your manuscript until five months have passed. If you must query, please do so by email: <westbranch@bucknell.edu>.

International submissions

Please send by mail. You may request that we respond by email; in this case an SASE is unnecessary, but please provide a working email address.

Email submissions

• We encourage email submission of FICTION manuscripts only. All other work must be sent by mail. You may also continue to send fiction by regular mail.
• FICTION manuscripts should follow the above formatting guidelines. Please send to <wbfiction@bucknell.edu>. You may use this same address to query the status of your emailed fiction.
• Do not paste your work into the email. Send a file attachment in Microsoft Word format. Use the body of your email message as a cover letter.

Presently, we pay contributors $10 per printed page ($20 minimum / $100 maximum). Additionally, we provide each contributor with two copies of the issue in which his/her work appears and a one-year subscription to West Branch.

Book reviews are typically arranged by assignment. If you are interested in writing reviews, please query with a sample. We currently pay $200 per assigned review.

Please acquaint yourself with the magazine before submitting; sample back issues are available for only $3. Subscriptions are available at $10 for one year and $16 for two years.