River Bluff Review

Hello! We invite you to submit your work to SIUE’s online student literary journal, the River Bluff Review! 

Our journal is meant to celebrate SIUE’s creative minds. We don’t care what you look like or where you’re from or what you’re majoring in or what you had for breakfast. We want work that makes us feel something. 

(By the way, we won’t know who submitted what until after all selections have been made.)

All current undergraduate and graduate students of SIUE are eligible to submit work.

Deadline: Sunday, September 17, 2023, 11:59 PM

Submissions welcome in: 

• Poetry
• Prose (fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction – including excerpts from longer pieces), short plays; graphic narratives
• Visual Art: photography, drawings, paintings, and photographic representations of art in other media
• Media: short videos, animation, original music, etc.  Something we haven't thought of? 

We believe in humans! Let’s not bring the robots into this, okay?  (Please, no GenAI.)  

Works must not have been previously published in print or online journals. (Material appearing on personal websites and social media is acceptable; if that’s the case, please include a link.)

If you’re interested in submitting work that doesn’t fall into one of these categories, send us a query at riverbluffreview@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you. 

Submission Instructions: 

Number of submissions allowed: 

• No more than four total pieces of art and/or written work should be submitted. 

Length of submissions:

• Please limit individual fiction and nonfiction pieces to under 6,000 words. Please limit graphic narrative submissions to under 20 pages. 
• Submissions in other media should be under 15 minutes.

Submission process: 

We are managing submissions through the online submission management system Submittable. This allows us to efficiently keep track of submissions and maintain the anonymity of submitters. (Faculty advisor Valerie Vogrin is the only person who will know the identity of submitters before the final editorial decisions have been made.)

This link will take you to Submittable. It takes less than a minute to create a free account. 

If you are submitting multiple pieces, you need to complete a separate submission for each piece. 

Allowable file types: 

• Please send text-only submissions in Word format. 
• Graphic files should be sent as JPEGs or PNGs.
• Audio files should be sent as MP3 files.
• Other media should be sent as MP4 files.

Required information: 

• Name
• SIUE email address (to confirm student status)
• phone number (in case we need to reach you pronto)
• title of the piece

Fiction and creative nonfiction writers, please include the piece’s word count at the top of your document.

NOTE: The author’s/artist's name should not appear on any of the pieces submitted. All submissions are reviewed blind by editors.

Frequently Asked Questions: 

How will I know if you’ve received my submission?

Submittable will issue you an automated acknowledgement. We recommend you safelist notification emails from Submittable so they don’t end up in your Spam folder. 

Who makes the editorial decisions?

The editors are students currently enrolled in English 494 – Literary Editing. Students make the final decisions about the layout and all literary and artistic content. 

When do the editors make their decisions?

Editorial decisions will be made in early-to-mid-November.

Is River Bluff Review something new?

The RBR has been publishing great student work for over twenty years.

What if I still have questions?

Email any questions regarding submissions to riverbluffreview@gmail.com. 

DEADLINE: Sunday, September 17th, 2023, 11:59 PM