The Yale Review is currently closed for submissions. We will open for certain genres at the end of the summer. Our guidelines have recently changed, so please read the below carefully.
General Guidelines
All submissions to The Yale Review must be in English, and all must be previously unpublished in print or online, including on personal websites, blogs, or Substacks. We are happy to consider simultaneous submissions, but we kindly ask that you notify us promptly if a piece is accepted for publication elsewhere.
Please note that we do not accept mailed submissions. Any work sent by mail to our offices will not be read.
Poetry
We will accept a limited number of submissions via Submittable beginning on September 1, 2026.
To defray the labor and software costs associated with Submittable, we charge three dollars per submission. Submitters may claim this fee against a new subscription to the journal. Because we believe that financial hardship should not be a barrier to submission, we offer a limited number of fee-free submissions; to request a waiver on or after September 1, 2026, please email [email protected] with the subject line “Fee Waiver.”
Every poetry submission received during our September submission period will receive a response by the end of May 2027. We are unable to respond to inquiries about the status of your submission via email.
Fiction
Due to an unprecedented number of submissions this year, we are not currently open for fiction submissions. Please check back for updated information in 2027.
Nonfiction
We will open for both nonfiction pitches and submissions on August 26, 2026. Time-sensitive ideas should be sent as pitches according to the guidelines below. Completed personal essays and other finished nonfiction drafts should be submitted as Word document attachments to [email protected] with the subject line “Submission: [Your Name].” Please include a cover letter and a short bio in the body of your email.
We try to respond to every submission, but if you haven’t heard from us within four weeks, please assume we’ve passed. Please submit only one completed draft at a time.
Pitch Guidelines
We primarily publish two kinds of work. The first is criticism: review essays with strong arguments rather than straight reviews of single books, films, pieces of music, or other cultural items. The second are critical essays. These essays tend to be untethered to new releases, and they may combine reportage, argument, and/or personal reflection. For essays of either kind, we look for pitches that contain a clear articulation of the argument and the stakes. When pitching pieces with timely pegs, bear in mind that because we are a quarterly publication, we plan at least four to six months out.
We accept pitches on a wide range of subjects—literature, art, history, politics, film, television, music, internet subcultures. We seek sharp, original voices driven by curiosity and verve—writers who take apart and reconstruct their subjects in surprising ways, and who are unafraid of unexpected juxtapositions. We welcome pitches with an urgent or timely peg, but we are equally excited by ideas that command us to see an old subject with fresh eyes, rescue what has been overlooked, or convince us that something we'd never thought about is actually vital. We want criticism that goes further than the traditional review, plays with form, and commits to argument.
For a sense of what we publish, see Maggie Doherty on the abortion stories we tell in a post-Dobbs world; Brandy Jensen on polyamory and its discontents; Rizvana Bradley on the visual politics of the George Floyd protests; Maggie Millneron why Mary Oliver’s best poetry has been misunderstood; Jerome Ellison Murphy on conspicuous erudition in today’s Black poetry; Dan Chiasson on the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick; Tiana Reid on what a lost Zora Neale Hurston novel reveals about her legacy; and Christopher Hawthorne on why The Brutalist isn’t really about architecture.
To pitch us:
Email [email protected] with "Pitch:" at the start of the subject line, followed by the topic or proposed title. In three paragraphs or fewer, introduce yourself, lay out your idea and argument, and give us a sense of your timeline. Pieces typically run 2,000 to 5,000 words, occasionally longer. Link to or attach up to three clips, ideally on related subjects. Please tell us in the body of your email if you have pitched the piece elsewhere, and notify us promptly if it is accepted by another publication.
We accept pitches only for English-language work that has not been previously published in print or online. We try to respond to every pitch, but if you haven’t heard from us within four weeks, please assume we’ve passed. Please submit only one pitch at a time.
Please note that we are not currently accepting pitches for interviews.
Editorial Process and Rates
Accepted work undergoes our standard editorial process, in which we work closely with the author to hone the final piece.
Depending upon the length of the piece, we pay between $250 and $1,000 for prose, and $150 for poems online or in print. Print contributors will receive two complimentary copies of the issue in which their work appears. Upon acceptance of their work, all contributors will receive a contract outlining payment and rights. Contributors retain full copyright of their work.
AI GUIDELINES
The Yale Review publishes writing grounded in human insight, voice, and responsibility. While we recognize that some writers may use generative AI technologies in their writing process, our priority remains publishing pieces of human authorship and expression.
Writers submitting to TYR should keep the following in mind:
Primary authorship must be human. We do not accept submissions that rely on AI to generate entire drafts, arguments, or analyses.
Process-level use is acceptable. AI technologies may be used to support your process—for example, to generate prompts or organize research—especially in projects that reflect on or engage with AI itself.
Transparency matters. If a piece incorporates AI-generated language or structure in a meaningful or visible way, please briefly indicate, at the time of submission, how AI was used in the composition of the piece.
Writers are responsible for accuracy. All factual claims in a piece must be verified. As always, TYR conducts its own round of fact-checking prior to publication.
Editorial review is always human. Every piece published in The Yale Review is reviewed and shaped by human editors, and we remain committed to work that reflects lived experience and individual sensibilities.