South Dakota Review - Guidelines

South Dakota Review is committed to cultural and aesthetic diversity. First and foremost, we seek to publish exciting and compelling work that reflects the full spectrum of the contemporary literary arts. Since its inception in 1963, South Dakota Review has maintained a tradition of supporting work by contemporary writers writing from or about the American West. We hope to retain this unique flavor through particularly welcoming works by American Indian writers, writers addressing the complexities and contradictions of the “New West,” and writers exploring themes of landscape, place, and/or ecocriticism in surprising and innovative ways. At the same time, we’d like to set these ideas and themes in dialogue with and within the context of diverse literary communities. South Dakota Review publishes fiction, poetry, essays (and mixed/hybrid-genre work), as well as literary reviews, scholarly essays, interviews, and translations.

South Dakota Review considers only previously unpublished work. We are published quarterly, and we review and accept submissions from September 1 – April 15. There are no submission fees and it is free to submit your work to South Dakota Review.

South Dakota Review recommends that, before submitting, potential contributors first read the journal. You can take a peek at our covers and contributor lists for recent issues, as well as purchase subscriptions and sample copies ($15 per single back issue/$25 per double back issue) at our online store: https://www.coyotestore.usd.edu/category-s/107.htm

Advice from the Editor:

“Our aesthetic is eclectic, but we tend to favor deft use of language in both our poetry and prose selections, a diversity of voices, nuanced characterization in our fiction, and either elegantly or surprisingly executed formal strategies. We enjoy intentional, thoughtful, and original relationships between form and content. As part of our unique flavor, a small handful of works in each issue will typically engage with aspects of landscape, ecocritical issues, or place (oftentimes with respect to the American West). Former and upcoming contributors to SDR include Oliver de la Paz, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Jan Beatty, Natanya Ann Pulley, Ted Kooser, Ira Sukrungruang, Janice Lee, Kevin Clouther, MICHAEL CHANG, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Luisa Igloria, Naomi Kanakia, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, and Ocean Vuong, among others.”

Manuscript Preparation:

Prose: Standard prose manuscripts should generally be double-spaced. Although there is no word limit, the majority of prose works accepted in South Dakota Review are typically no longer than 6,000 words. Scholarly essays should follow MLA guidelines. Submit one standard prose length piece, or several flash-length prose pieces, at a time. Make sure to include a short bio note (no more than 150 words) in your Submittable cover letter suitable for use in our contributors’ notes. Upon acceptance, you will be given the opportunity to update your bio note if you wish. Barring visual or graphic elements that make PDF a better/more stable format, we typically prefer that you submit your work as a Word .docx document. Please do not submit additional work in the same genre until you’ve been notified of the status of the first piece that you’ve submitted. Please do not submit more than two times without prior invitation in the same genre during the annual reading period.

Poetry: Submit 4-6 poems for us to consider in your poetry submissions. (Please do not submit entire poetry manuscripts/collections.) Make sure to include a short bio note (no more than 150 words) in your Submittable cover letter suitable for use in our contributors’ notes. Upon acceptance, you will be given the opportunity to update your bio note if you wish. Barring visual or graphic elements that make PDF a better/more stable format, we typically prefer that you submit your work as a Word .docx document. Please do not submit additional work in the same genre until you’ve been notified of the status of the first piece that you’ve submitted. Please do not submit more than two times without prior invitation in the same genre during the annual reading period.

Simultaneous Submissions Policy:

South Dakota Review does accept simultaneous submissions, but please indicate if the manuscript under consideration is a simultaneous submission, and please withdraw/notify us immediately should the manuscript be accepted elsewhere. In the event that one or more poems is accepted from a group of poems, please immediately notify us which poem(s) has/have been accepted using the Messages feature (preferable to the Notes feature) in Submittable.

Notifications, Publication, and Payment:

We will strive to send out notifications within eight weeks from the time of submission. If your work has been passed along for further consideration, you will be notified and your work may be held for up to eight months as we make final decisions for the four issues that make up an annual volume. If your work is being held for further consideration, please let us know if it’s accepted elsewhere. If it has been more than twelve weeks, you are always welcome to query us regarding the status of your submission, but please also know that South Dakota Review will always respond to every single submission. In other words, if you haven’t heard from us, it means that your piece is still under consideration. Please do make sure that your email provider will accept our messages/notifications from Submittable so that they don’t get lost in your Junk or SPAM filters.

Manuscripts accepted for publication will typically appear in the journal within one year of acceptance. Contributors will be asked to sign a contract granting South Dakota Review first North American serial rights, and will also be given the opportunity to proofread their magazine galley proofs prior to publication.

Payment for publication consists of two contributor copies of the issue in which your work appears. Additional contributor copies of the issue in which an author’s manuscript appears may be ordered at a special contributors’ rate.  South Dakota Review acquires first North American serial rights and reserves the right to reprint; other than that, copyright privileges revert back to the contributing writers following publication.

How to Submit:

South Dakota Review only accepts submissions through the Submittable  submission management system. Please do not attempt to submit unsolicited manuscripts to South Dakota Review via e-mail, or regular U.S. mail, as they will be ignored.  South Dakota Review’s online submission system can be accessed at the following link: http://southdakotareview.submittable.com/Submit

South Dakota Review is published at the University of South Dakota through the Department of English and under the Sponsorship of the College of Arts & Sciences. Please feel free to e-mail us at sdreview@usd.edu with additional queries.