$5,000 Fiction | $5,000 Nonfiction | $5,000 Poetry NOW OPEN! Winners receive publication, promotion, and a cash prize. See submission guidelines.
The Missouri Review, founded in 1978, is one of the most highly regarded literary magazines in the United States. For the past four decades we’ve upheld a reputation for finding and publishing the very best writers first. We are based at the University of Missouri and publish four issues each year. Each issue contains approximately five new stories, three new poetry features, and two essays, all selected from unsolicited submissions sent by writers throughout the world. The Missouri Review maintains an “open submission” policy; we read year-round, sifting through approximately 12,000 submissions each year. New, emerging, and midcareer writers whose work has been published in the Missouri Review have been anthologized over 100 times in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Travel Writing, Best American Poetry, The O. Henry Prize Stories, Best of the Net, and The Pushcart Prize, among others. We are also pleased to be the first to have published the fiction of many emerging writers, including Tim Loc, Jennie Lin, Susan Ford, and Amanda Baldeneaux. Writers whose work first appeared in the Missouri Review continue to win major prizes, including the National Book Award, the Yale Younger Poets Award, MacArthur Foundation “Genius” awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally, we publish special features and interviews with a diverse body of writers. In our “History as Literature” series, we have published historical documents of literary significance or effect. The “Found Text” series features previously unpublished work by literary giants of the past, including Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Marianne Moore, Charlotte Bronte, Jack Kerouac, and William Faulkner.