Deadlines are as follows
March 1 – Spring
June 1 – Summer
September 1 – Autumn
December 1 – Winter
Please read this section before submitting work.
Please include some form of identification in the work itself.
All submissions must be in electronic form. Our preference is an MS Word file uploaded through the system below.
By submitting work to us you grant us a non-exclusive licence to publish your work in any form we see fit. You may withdraw a submission up untill the issue deadline (see above).
We don't pay so you retain all copyrights. If we publish your work online we may include it in a printed edition.
Poetry may be submitted in any length. Please don't submit 100 poems and ask us to pick 3.
Fiction may be submitted in three formats:
very short stories less than 500 words in length
short stories less than 1000 words in length
Short stories that don’t fit the above should be less than 3000 words.
We also accept longer forms of fiction occasionally.
Non-Fiction is just that so lets see some
interesting footnotes. Non-fiction should be short, (a lot) less than 5000
words
Book Reviews should be positive unless the author
is a well-known blowhard. Our mission is to encourage literature not
discourage it..
Any form of art may be submitted with the constraint that
it must be something that can be published in 2 dimensions. It’s hard to
publish sculpture but illustrations together with some intelligent prose
count.
Published works are welcome with proper attribution.
Welcome to the thirty third issue (Volume 9, no 1) of the Wilderness
House Literary Review. WHLR is a result of the collaboration between a
group of poets and writers who call themselves the Bagel Bards (who keep publishing their anthologies).
The stories, articles, poems and examples of art have
been presented as PDF files. This is a format that
allows for a much cleaner presentation than would otherwise be available on
the web. If you don’t have an Adobe Reader (used to read a PDF file) on your
computer you can download one from the Adobe website. These files are large and we hope you will be patient when downloading
then, however we think the beauty of the words deserves a beautiful presentation.
Finally, the
copyrights are owned by their respective authors whose opinions are theirs
alone and do not reflect the opinions of our sponsors or partners.
Book publishing has become a strange business. The romantic view we have of publishing dates back more than a century. There was a huge literate public hungry for entertainment, a relatively small group of (mostly) men and women who wrote and a few brilliant and benevolent but ruthless editors who purified the great writings of the age. The world of the author was a small social circle that revolved around the editor of the imprint. There were many imprints. It was difficult to break into this world. You couldn’t just walk into the Algonquin Hotel with a manuscript. Entree was by invitation only. Later the literary agent (I imagine them as social butterflies dancing around the table) served as intermediaries for the social outcasts of our world.
What’s changed is that the number of serious publishers has collapsed into a few humongous gigantic corporations who’s bottom line is worshiped over the art they sell. Editors no longer edit and access to the intermediaries is now by invitation only. Get the right MFA and access will be granted, otherwise don’t call them, they’ll call you if your “platform” is large enough for them to take notice. Yes I’m cynical.
I've written a novel titled "Poplar Hill." It's based on the stories my mother used to tell about her early life. An agent told me that she’d represent it to publishers it if I got it professionally edited. That is, edited by someone I don’t know and have to pay. Thus I've launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to get my novel edited so that an agent will sell it. Yep, I'm looking for money and feedback. The campaign will run until May 1 with no extensions so please take a look now and invest if you are so inclined. Pass it on if you like it.
Our fiction editor loves Anton Chekhov and despairs the notion that there are no latter day Chekhovs submitting works for her consideration. This is not to say that the work she receives isn’t excellent … it’s just not Chekhov. To that end WHLReview announces a new prize for fiction to be called “the Chekhov Prize.” A google search reveals several other Chekhov prizes with cash. Alas we’re not offering cash. We will look for a bearded bobble-head doll. In the mean time we have T-shirts with the Chekhov Prize logo available. Just click on Chekhov's head.
For your reading pleasure we offer an outstanding collection of short stories by:
Our poetry editor, not wanting to be outdone by our fiction editor is pleased to announce the Gertrude Stein "rose" prize for creativity in poetry. Anyone published in Volume 3 (and beyond) is eligible. We don't have any idea what the prize will consist of - a T-shirt for sure. Perhaps we can find a Plaster of Paris bust of Julius Caesar, put a rose in its mouth and decorate it to look like Gertrude Stein. In the mean time we have T-shirts with the our rose prize logo available. Just click on Gerturde's head.
The widget server that once provided a smooth scroling region for our reviews has gone the way of the Dodo and no replacement has been found so we'll just have to point you to The Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene
As we said when we started this is a joint
production of Wilderness House Literary Retreat and the “bagel bards”.
The “Bagel Bards” have just published their eighth
anthology. You may purchase them here:
