Longridge Review has three reading periods each calendar year. Please read the submission guidelines before sending us your work. We recommend that you also read a few essays on this site to see what we publish.

We discourage simple excerpts from memoir, as such fragments rarely work well as stand-alone, coherent, effective essays. We do not publish writing that is overtly sentimental.

Our emphasis is on literature that explores the mysteries of childhood experience, the wonder of adult reflection, and how the two connect over a lifespan.

We are committed to publishing narratives steeped in reverence for childhood experience and perceptions, but we seek essays that stretch beyond the clichés of childhood as simple, angelic, or easy. We want to feature writing that layers the events of the writer’s early years with a sense of wisdom or learning accumulated in adult life.

We welcome diverse creative nonfiction pieces that demonstrate perceptive and revealing moments about the human condition.

We will not consider trite, light narratives; genre nonfiction; critical analyses; inspirational or motivational advice; erotica or pornography; or any writing that purposefully exploits or demeans.

We encourage established, unpublished, or emerging writers to submit their best work to Longridge Review.

We accept only electronic submissions through our online submission manager, Submittable. The submission fees are $3 for regular issues and $10 for the contest.

A note about flash CNF: If you have multiple shorter pieces that each are less than 1,000 words and together do not exceed 3,500 words, you may submit them all together in one document. We ask that you explain this is what you are doing in your cover letter.

The title of your submission should be included with your name (e.g., Jane Doe “My Essay Title”). Include a short 3rd-person biography (five to seven sentences) with your submission.

In your biography, please include your publications, but list no more than four journals where you work has appeared. Book titles should include the publisher and year of publication. Please list only literary awards and prizes (not nominations or semi-finalist statuses). Generally, we will not include information about your family or your pets. We want to focus on your literary accomplishments and/or interests.

We will consider simultaneous submissions as long as you let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. We will not consider previously published materials, including online publications, personal blogs, social media sites, etc.

Longridge Review acquires first electronic and indefinite archive rights. Upon publication, all other rights revert to the author. Please credit Longridge Review as first publisher if you reprint elsewhere. 

A secondary publisher should include a line that refers to the issue number, season, and year. For example: “This essay was originally published by Longridge Review in Issue #12, Fall 2018, http://longridgereview.com.“

Longridge Review reserves the right to reprint work at a later date if we have the opportunity to occasionally make a print anthology and want to include your work.

Longridge Review reserves the right to edit manuscripts for grammar or clarity issues without notification if necessary. If a manuscript requires a substantial amount of editing, we will notify the author of such changes for review before publication.

Our sincere thanks to Still: The Journal, for articulating the clear and intentional submission guidelines we adapted here.