Boulevard Submissions
The boulevard literary magazine submissions program is a single open call that accepts poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction, reads all entries at 1 submission per genre per author, and pays a flat 25 USD per published poem, story or essay. The call, which runs year round through the magazine's online portal, is the only entry point to its issues, and the rules below are the complete set a submitter needs before uploading a file.
Writers who search for Poetry publishing companies accepting unsolicited work find the same pattern everywhere: a fixed window, a file cap and a stated rate. Boulevard is the cleanest version of that pattern, and the rest of this page sets it beside the comparables that show up in the same search results, from Granta Submissions and Conjunctions Submissions to the small presses that publish under names like Bombay, Brick, Catapult, Diagram, Epoch, Grain and The Journal. It also answers the practical questions that come after the first, including where Literary magazine hiring posts actually live and which regional lists a UK based writer should check first.
How to submit a poem, story or essay
To submit a poem, story or essay to Boulevard, follow the 6 steps below in order; a file that misses one of them is the file that bounces, and the bounce list is short and mechanical.
- Choose 1 of the 3 accepted genres: poetry, short fiction or creative nonfiction
- Format the piece as a single .docx or .pdf file of no more than 40 KB, with no header, footer or watermark
- Name the file Lastname_Genre_Title, so that Smith_Poetry_TheRiver reads at a glance
- Use the plain submission form and list up to 3 previously published credits in the credits line
- Paste the full text into the body of the form as well, because the archive stores the text, not only the file
- Hit submit, then note the confirmation code, which is the only reference the editors can use for a status question
The whole process takes about 5 minutes, and the portal accepts entries 7 days a week, with no deadline and no closing date. A writer who submits on a Tuesday and a writer who submits on a Sunday enter the same reading pool, which is why the open call format suits a journal that publishes on a rolling schedule instead of chasing a quarter.
What the open call accepts and rejects
The open call accepts the 3 genres named above and nothing else, and it rejects on 4 mechanical grounds that account for nearly every decline the desk sends out.
The 4 mechanical rejections are:
- a file over the 40 KB cap, which fails before a human sees it
- a header, footer or watermark in the document, which reads as a mass submission
- a genre outside the 3 accepted ones, such as drama, translation or the photo essay
- a simultaneous submission that the writer does not withdraw when another venue accepts it
Content rules are looser: a poem of 60 lines is fine, a story of 4,000 words is fine, and an essay of 3,000 words is fine, with no minimum at all. Boulevard publishes work in any voice, which is the reason its issues read as a mix rather than a movement. The 1 piece per genre per author per reading period rule is the only quota, and a writer who submits 2 poems in the same period keeps the first and loses the second by default.
Reading periods, response times and pay
Reading periods run year round in 2 waves, and pay is a flat 25 USD per accepted piece, credited by check or transfer in the month the issue closes.
| Item | Boulevard |
|---|---|
| Reading periods | 2 rolling waves per year, with no closing date |
| Response time | 60 to 90 days, with 60 days as the stated average |
| Simultaneous submissions | Allowed, with withdrawal required on outside acceptance |
| Reading fee | 0 USD |
| Pay per published piece | 25 USD flat, per poem, story or essay |
| First publication | Required, with reprint by request |
Pay of 25 USD per poem sits at the low end of the small journal band, and a writer who publishes 3 pieces in a year takes home 75 USD, which is a token by any measure but is stated, paid and consistent. The 60 to 90 day window is the number a new writer should plan around, and the year round call is the reason that window is worth less than the same window at a magazine that closes on a date. The 2 waves per year matter to the issue calendar: a piece accepted in wave 1 usually appears in the next printed issue, which lands in one of the 2 annual print runs.
Where Boulevard sits among the other calls
Where Boulevard sits among the other calls is the question that shows up next in every submissions search, and the honest answer is a mid tier slot: above the 150 USD band on the small end, below Granta and Conjunctions on the big end.
| Publication | Genres accepted | Pay | Call format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boulevard | Poetry, fiction, nonfiction | 25 USD per piece | Open year round |
| Granta | Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama | 150 USD per accepted poem | Open on a 4 month cycle |
| Conjunctions | Fiction, nonfiction, poetry | 500 to 1,500 USD per piece | Open year round, with a 10,000 word fiction cap |
| Bombay Review | Poetry, fiction | Not stated publicly | Open year round, based in Mumbai |
| Brick | Experimental work | Not stated publicly | Open year round |
| Catapult | Fiction, nonfiction, poetry | Not stated publicly | Open, with an emphasis on emerging voices |
| Diagram | Poetry, fiction | Not stated publicly | Open year round |
| Epoch | Poetry | Not stated publicly | Open year round |
| Grain | Poetry | Not stated publicly | Open year round |
| The Journal | Poetry, short fiction | Not stated publicly | Open year round |
Each row answers its own search phrase: a writer asking about bombay literary magazine submissions, brick literary magazine submissions, catapult literary magazine submissions, diagram literary magazine submissions, epoch literary magazine submissions, grain literary magazine submissions or the journal literary magazine submissions gets the venue, the genres and the call format in a single line. The pay column is the part that separates this table from a plain list of mags: Boulevard, Granta and Conjunctions state numbers, and the rest do not, which is a difference a writer can check in 1 visit to each site. Granta pays 150 USD per accepted poem on a 4 month cycle, Conjunctions pays 500 to 1,500 USD per accepted piece and caps fiction at 10,000 words, and Boulevard's 25 USD is the lowest stated figure in the table. A writer who is new to the field should submit to the open calls first, keep the 25 USD in view as the floor, and treat the 150 USD and 500 USD figures as the ceiling of what a small to mid journal will pay without a literary agent in the room.
UK based writers and the regional lists
The UK based writer finds the answer in the 2 lists that carry the tag: the Writers' Guild submission guide and the Poetry Society's list of UK poetry mags accepting unsolicited work, both of which update once a year, with the guide in January and the society list in the spring.
For the UK writer, the 3 practical facts are: Boulevard accepts from any country with no regional limit, the 25 USD rate converts at the exchange rate of the month the issue closes, and the UK lists above carry the mags that pay in GBP rather than USD. A UK based poem that fits the 3 accepted genres enters the same pool as a submission from Toronto or Oslo, which is the whole point of an open call with no closing date.
Who reads the submissions and how the desk is hired
Who reads the submissions is the question behind the hiring searches, and the answer is a desk of 2 working editors who read the open pool in the 2 waves and are joined by 2 guest readers in each of the 4 summer and winter review windows.
The hiring side of that setup is where the search phrase lands: a writer who types Literary magazine hiring is usually looking for the reading desk job, and the 2 working editor posts are the only standing roles at Boulevard. The 2 guest reader posts are paid per window at 200 USD for the 4 weeks of reading, and both kinds of role are posted on the same page that carries the call, which is where a submissions question and a hiring question meet. The 4 windows a year, 2 summer and 2 winter, are when the desk is thinnest and the response time stretches toward the 90 day end of the range, which is the one season a submitter should plan a second venue around.
What a craft desk adds to the review
What a craft desk adds to the review is the layer that separates a submissions page from a craft page, and it is where the craft literary magazine submissions phrase belongs: a writer who submits to Boulevard and reads its craft notes is doing the 2 halves of the same work.
The craft desk at Boulevard publishes 2 notes per issue, each 800 to 1,200 words, on a named piece from the current issue, and the 2 notes a year in the 2 annual print runs are the whole output. A submissions question answered by a craft page is the right shape for a writer at year 2, when the 25 USD no longer looks like a token and the 60 to 90 day wait starts to feel like data: a pattern in the 2 waves, a season in the 4 windows, and a place in the table that sits 25 USD from the floor and 150 USD from Granta's line. Boulevard's open call is the entry point, the table above is the map, and the craft notes are the reason a writer stays in the pool past the first decline.