Our submissions are currently closed for our Spring 2026 Issue. Decisions regarding pieces submitted for the Spring 2026 Issue will be available by June 1st. Please reach out to us with any questions.

We will begin accepting submissions for our Fall 2026 Issue in August 2026. See below for our submission guidelines.

We accept submissions from all authors, and affiliation with Columbia University is not a requirement. Submissions are judged blindly by the editorial board.

The Columbia Review only accepts electronic submissions sent to thecolumbiareview@gmail.com. In the subject line, please write “[Poetry / Prose / Translation / Cover Art] Submission [Fall / Spring] [Year].” Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please let us know if your piece is accepted elsewhere in the same email chain you sent the piece. Please submit writing in a Microsoft Word document. Because submissions are considered anonymously, do not include your name anywhere in the document. Please do include in your email a brief biographical statement written in third-person.

Please submit up to 5 poems, up to 3 pieces of flash fiction (each fewer than 1,000 words), one piece of short fiction (fewer than 3,000 words), or up to 5 images or works of art. Please submit in only one genre at a time. Prose submissions may include several works, so long as the submission does not exceed the 3,000 word maximum. We do accept unsolicited essays, reviews, or Op-Eds. Please wait to hear back from us about your submission status before submitting again. Submissions that do not adhere to our guidelines will be deleted unread.

We accept translations so long as the translator has obtained permissions from the author. Our guidelines for translations are the same as those for other genres. We especially encourage translations of poetry to include the departing language in their submission. Certain members of our editorial board are fluent in the following languages: Spanish, Italian, French, Korean, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Mandarin, Hebrew, and Arabic. We are especially well-suited to evaluate translations from these languages, although we accept translations from any language.

If you would like The Columbia Review to review your book or slate a catalog of your books (if a publisher) for review, send a query to thecolumbiareview@gmail.com with “Review Query” in the subject line. The Columbia Review will typically only slate books that have been published within the last year for a review, unless there is a new urgency for reviewing an old title. If you believe this is the case, please explain further in your query. We do not publish reviews

Unfortunately, due to the volume of materials we receive, we may not be able to respond to every submission or query. We accept or reject almost all pieces within 5 months of receiving them. If you have not heard back from us within 3 months, we encourage you to explore other publication options, and feel free to query us about your status. If we do not have a record of your submission, it is likely that your submission did not cohere with our guidelines and was deleted before evaluation. Please check to be sure that your submission follows our guidelines before querying.

Although we would love to compensate contributors for their work, we are unable to at this time. Our staff is comprised of volunteers. We do, however, value the relationships we create with our past contributors and are happy to publicize or review forthcoming books and projects.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please email us at the address above. We look forward to reading your work.