Each month, Barrelhouse sends out an email newsletter to its large subscriber list. Each newsletter features an original essay, along with brief updates on whatever we have going on: calls for submissions, Writer Camp applications, a new book, etc. In the past, the essays have been solicited. But we're opening up for submissions.

What we're looking for: Original personal essays (under 1,000 words) on a pop cultural obsession. We can define "pop culture" pretty broadly here. But the personal is particularly important. We're not interested in a movie review, or a book recommendation. Rather, we want to read about your idiosyncratic relationship to whatever "thing" you're writing about. Maybe you went down some weird rabbit holes watching failed marriage proposal videos on YouTube. Or you're fascinated with the hair and wardrobe choices in the '80s vampire movie The Lost Boys. Or the music of Megadeath still conjures up sweet memories of your first love. 

We don't want to be too prescriptive! We just want good writing, and interesting perspectives.

The Nuts and Bolts

Word Count: Under 1,000 (strict limit)

Payment: Yes (our standard $50, paid on publication)

Open period: We'll accept pieces on a rolling basis, and will close (or pause) submissions when the queue gets out of hand or when we've accepted several months of newsletter essays

Rights: We want pieces that haven't yet appeared elsewhere. The newsletter doesn't "live" anywhere permanently (unlike a Substack, for instance) so after we've sent it out, you'll retain all the rights to your piece. You could put it on your own website, or even publish it elsewhere, as long as the other publication was ok with it having been in our newsletter first.

Barrelhouse loves to celebrate books just like you do, so let's do that thing together! We're interested in running reviews of books that fit Our Whole Thing. You read Barrelhouse, so you know what we're about. Let that be your guide. And also, these:

Book Review Guidelines:

• Please send us reviews of books other than your own.
• No self-published titles.
• Do not submit work to the Reviews section that is meant for another section.
• Do not submit excerpts or essays based on your own work.
• We prefer reviews that focus on recent titles, meaning books that came out within the past six months or that are upcoming in the next six months. That guideline can stretch to about a year, but not much farther. (Our Reviews Editor has a pretty good record for response times.) We do not run retrospective reviews.
• We have a strong taste for small-press titles, especially books that might not be reviewed anywhere else. We love weird books, hybrid work, and other rare birds. We are extremely unlikely to accept a review of a book by a major publisher (Harper, Random House, Riverhead, etc).
• We're interested in full-length or chapbook-length collections of poetry & prose. We're open to memoirs and story or essay collections.
• Include publisher, page count, and date of book release. Include a link to the publisher's website for purchase.
• Word docs preferred but RTF is OK. No Pages, dear Lord.
• We are open to non-standard reviewing forms, as long as it doesn't distract from the book in question. We do not want book essays.
• If you've previously spoken to our Reviews Editor, Katharine Coldiron, please indicate that in your cover letter.
• Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please let us know and withdraw your submission if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• All accepted reviews are subject to editorial suggestions.
• We love you but we do not pay for book reviews at this time. Reviews run online only.

If you are an author or a publisher who wants your book reviewed at Barrelhouse, you can query, but be advised that we almost never assign books pitched to us in this way. Your best bet is to find a reviewer and ask them to submit a finished review to us here, through Submittable. 

Barrelhouse will open for nonfiction submissions on 6/1 and close on 6/28, unless we hit 500 submissions in that window (history indicates we will not hit this number, at least not too quickly). All essays will be considered for print issue 27.

Please note that all Barrelhouse essays must have a pop culture angle of some kind. This is non-negotiable. It’s one of our big things.  Recent issues include essays that that focus in some way on topics like Taxi, Jet magazine/representations of Black female beauty, Alex Trebek, Lorena Bobbitt/cultural treatment of Bobbitt, summer on the boardwalk, Guns ‘N Roses, mountain climbing, the Nebraska Cornhuskers mascot, Paula Abdul, John Prine, and being back on one’s bullshit. Some other notes:

• We are really unlikely to print "newsy" essays; we know a lot of you are working on pieces about important global events , but unless there are several additional layers beyond the news peg, it's just not our thing and, honestly, you don't want to send us a time-sensitive piece when it might not see the light of day for 9 months. Our nonfiction editor recently published an essay on this very topic.
• You don't have to be funny, or "funny" but it doesn't hurt if your piece indicates an awareness of the concept of a sense of humor.
• We're extremely open to and interested in pieces that play with structure in some way (leaving this note intentionally broad). 
• Some essayists we like a lot, with the caveat that this list is not comprehensive for obvious reasons: Elisa Gabbert, Hanif Abdurraqib, Brooke Champagne, Jo Ann Beard (duh), Lucas Mann, Vivian Gornick, Matthew Vollmer, Natalia Ginzburg, Jamila Osman, and of course everyone we have ever published for whom we hold an exactly equal amount of love and respect.  
• All contributors receive $50 and two copies of the issue
• Essays we publish tend to be in the range of 1500-7000 words, though there are no firm rules regarding length (anything over 12k would have to be truly exceptional to make the cut). 
• If you’re submitting flash essays (about 750-850 words or shorter) feel free to include up to 3 in a single document.   

***Nonfiction submissions for this period will be capped at 500. ***