Submission Guidelines

(Parentheses) Review is a space of collective understanding, exploration, and experimentation. We are open to submissions of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Please read the editor bios on the about page to see who best to make your submission out to. If you are unsure or think multiple editors would be a good fit, please address the submission to ‘editors,’ and we will assign who we think would be best suited.

Currently, we are not in a position to pay any contributors (which will hopefully change in the future).

We aim to respond to all pitches and submissions within four weeks of receiving them.

If pitching:

In the body of the email, please include a brief idea/scope of the essay, review, or interview you want to write. Include relevant links (to the exhibition website, for example) and one or two samples of previous writing that match the form, if possible. We also want to know why you are the one who should be writing this text; we don’t care if you’ve never published before or are a seasoned veteran, it’s your voice and point-of-view that we’re interested in. If the piece is time sensitive — e.g. a current trend — point this out in your email: we want to make sure it gets the time and attention it deserves.

With interviews, make sure you have already been offered access to the person you’re pitching an interview about.

For reviews, please see the show/film/listen to the album before contacting us. It’s one thing to see the work online, or love the maker’s previous outputs, and something completely different to stand in front and interact with it for what it is.

All reviews should be pitched to an editor before writing.

For any book reviews, please get in touch with an editor to discuss.

If submitting:

Make sure it follows the word counts below. All fiction and poetry submissions should be complete at the time of submission. We are happy to receive completed essays. Completed works will still be subject to editorial input and feedback.

If your piece is not successful, that doesn’t mean it’s bad or poorly written (we’ve all had our fair share of rejections)! We may not have the space for it at this time, or it may be better suited for a later date. We encourage you to resubmit another idea/text.

Approximate Word Counts:

Essays (personal/memoir/critical): 1,500-2,500

Interviews: 1,500-2,500

Reviews: 600-800

Fiction: max 4,000

Poetry: no more than 3 poems in any one submission.

Please email: editors@parenthesesreview.com