Free State Review is the print literary journal of the nonprofit book publisher Galileo Press. Each 90 to 110 page issue offers varied amounts of poetry and prose, and a few recurring beats such as our Remembering portfolio, one minute plays, and book reviews and author doings written as poems.
We want to publish every submission sent to us, and fail at this effort 93 % of the time. Here's how you can help: be literal, transitive, and associative all at once. Think and feel harmony more than melody. Be genuine. Read your piece aloud before sending it. We favor endings that don't shut down the poem or story. Yes, we like strong and textured characters, but not ones who are living in a 'character-driven' piece blithely overwhelming the plot they find themselves in. Try to swim without drowning. Our style creed: totally limited omniscience.
Experimentalists: if you want to push the reader away, go ahead, but remember to do something generous and honest to invite her back. Poets: you don't have to die to write a poem about death. Strange is not always better. Simple and clear are not always memorable. Imagination or experience? Hmmm. Try taking this way, smells of seawater. Or that way, has metal parts, or this way, pools.
The goal of our 'current issue with feedback options' isn't to teach you how to write. You've already mastered that. Often it's just a process of synching your beats with ours. An issue is worth a thousand words. We'll be as clear as possible with a sample copy and a few notes to settle your writing into what we're looking for.
Submit a full length collection of poems, essays, stories, novella, novel, memoir, or hybrid (with exception to 4-colour art / text hybrids). Please indicate in the title of your submission which genre you feel best describes it.
We are seeking: vivid imagery and the balance of abstract to concrete imagery, the capacity to surprise, an elastic syntax, pace, and music, thematic cohesiveness and the emotional range and maturity, deft handling of highly charged emotion, use of wit, humor, and self-implication, choice and use of extended metaphor, skillfully juxtaposing the micro and the macro, and more.
A narrative thread is OK. Associative is more exciting to us than linear thinking, but a walking bass helps. Plot is a suggestion. We want texture. Either go Anna Karenina deep or use a lot of surfaces. We want to engage with your writing.
We prefer novellas build to one crescendo, and novels build to two or three crescendos. We prefer short story collections occur more or less in the same year, even if you spent 20 years finishing them out. We prefer poetry collections between 52 and 80 pages.
Please include a brief artist statement. This is not a pitch or a summary. Let your shoes give away that you're hiding behind the curtain. What do you believe in? What is your hill, and can we climb it with you?
We've been doing books since 1979. Please don't send us something that's way too outside our beats. Please use great care in choosing where to send your manuscript. No press wants to be the wall for your spaghetti.
Galileo Press awards a negotiated stipend upon acceptance, 20 copies, standard royalties, distribution, and promotion.
Agents are welcome, but not required. Most of our authors are not agented but in several instances we've brought an agent in to rep the author.
Submit a chapbook collection of poems, essays, stories, or hybrid (with exception to 4-colour art / text hybrids). Please indicate in the title of your submission which genre you feel best describes it.
We are seeking a fresh burst of writing. We are not interested in a Best-of 20 years' worth of orphan poems. Projects are OK as long as they are deeply personal--no manuscripts about Cenozoic rock formations at this time. Despite being personal, please find a way to transfer your ideas to others so that your words can open everyone's blossom, not just your own.
Please include a brief artist statement. Let your shoes give away that you're hiding behind the curtain.
Galileo Press awards $200 upon acceptance of the final draft, 20 copies, swag, and old school royalties.