Thanks for submitting your work to Barrelhouse!
Before you proceed, a note about open and closed categories. If you don't see the category that fits your work, we're not open for that thing. We keep submission periods pretty short because we're hoping that helps make our response times shorter, as well. The best way to track submission periods is probably to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook or check back later.
Here are some guidelines:
No previously published work.
Please submit only one piece at a time. Except for poetry. You can submit up to five poems. Everybody else — just one!
We pay $50 to each contributor to our print and online issues. Print contributors also receive two contributor copies.
We accept simultaneous submissions, on the understanding that you’ll tell us if you place the work elsewhere.
It will probably take us two to three months to get back to you for online issues and six months for print issues. We try to do that faster, but there are few of us and many of you.
Writer Camp is a laid-back mini-vacation with plenty of time for writing. No readings, no mandatory sessions, no schedules: you decide when it’s time to write, read, or nap in a hammock. Each participant also has the option of receiving detailed feedback from a Barrelhouse editor on their work.
Your registration fee includes lodging, brunch and dinner, a few group activities, plenty of time to write, and campfires every night. Learn more at https://www.barrelhousemag.com/writer-camp
2026 camp dates
JUNE CAMP: Thursday, June 25-Sunday, June 28 Four days, three nights
AUGUST CAMP: Wednesday, August 5-Sunday, August 9 Five days, four nights
The Aftermath
Stories often focus on the climactic events in one’s life, but after these points of intensity, the world goes on. What happens when the adventure is over? How do you live your daily life after being abducted by aliens? What do you fill your days with after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize? What happens in the sequel to a story that doesn’t need one? This spring, Barrelhouse is calling for short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, and art that measure moments in and after abnormal times. The ways we can feel elated, apathetic, tortured, or fixated on the events that shape us. What does it look like once the afterglow has faded?
The Details
Fiction and Creative Nonfiction: up to 5,000 words
Poetry: 3-5 poems
Art: Make sure files are in a format and resolution appropriate for web posting
Simultaneous Submissions: Are welcomed! Just make sure to withdraw a piece immediately if it's accepted elsewhere.
Multiple Submissions: Please only submit once for this call
Payment: $50
Deadline: Submissions will stay open until March 16, or when we reach our submission cap for this call (500), whichever happens first. Likely we'll hit that cap, so don't wait too long to submit.
Note: This online issue is being edited by students in Temple University's MFA program, under the direction of Barrelhouse editor Mike Ingram.
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.