Scrivener believes that art is granular. That good art surprises. Scrivener wants you to surprise us with your grain. We want to honour the analogue means of literary culture. The xerox and the staple, the thread and the fold. Dozens of hands grace each issue with their touch. This spring will be a celebration of trace. Exceptionally, all text featured in our 48th issue will be handwritten. 

Submissions for issue  48 open Sunday, 1 February and close on Sunday, 1 March. 

  • Submit, as always, your best poetry, fiction, and nonfiction as a .doc or .dox file. See our general submission guidelines below.

  • Should our editors select your piece for publication, we ask that you send us a handwritten version, stylized and/or illustrated per your persuasion. Works need not be handwritten upon submission.

  • We understand that transcribing by hand takes considerable time and effort, especially transcribing longer pieces. Should you be unable or unwilling to do so once your work is accepted, one of our editors can transcribe it on your behalf. 

  • We ask that art submissions are similarly “longhand” or otherwise made by analog means. Think illustrations in ink, ballpoint doodles, or charcoal profiles. However, Scrivener takes a roomy view of these conditions and is open to art submissions of all styles and media.

General Submission Guidelines

  • Files & Format: Submissions are fielded by this form. Please fill out the form again for each separate submission—five poems, five forms. Identifying information should appear only in the Google Form. Each piece should consist of one document (.doc or .docx), titled only the title of the submitted piece. Your poem “Alfred,” for example, must be submitted as Alfred.docx. All text must be written in Times New Roman or a similarly legible serif typeface. 

  • Poetry: You may submit up to five poems. Each poem must be a separate .doc or .docx file without any identifying information.

  • Fiction: You may submit up to two works of fiction each no more than 3,000 words. Each must be a separate .doc or .docx file without any identifying information.

  • Nonfiction: You may submit up to two works of fiction each no more than 3,000 words. Each must be a separate .doc or .docx file without any identifying information.

  • Visual Art: You may submit up to five works of visual art in the medium of your choice. Each should take the most appropriate image file format (.jpeg or .pdf, for example). If your artwork is too large to submit through Google Forms, please reach out to us by email. All artwork will be published in black-and-white.

  • Decisions: If your submission is accepted for publication, we will contact you by email. If your submission is not accepted, we will likewise notify you by email. 

  • N.B. Submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be considered. Scrivener Creative Review (“SCR” or “Scrivener”) does not accept work that has been previously published, including to submitters’ personal blogs or social media. Submitters warrant that they are the creators of the entry they submit and own the rights to it. SCR reserves the right to publish all submitted work. All personal information provided by the submitter shall be used solely for the administration of SCR. By providing such information, the submitter consents to its use for such purposes. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Need I be a McGill student to submit? No, you need not be. Nor need you be Canadian.

Does Scrivener pay its contributors?  Given our current funding, we unfortunately cannot pay our contributors.

Submissions for issue 48 are now open. Below are our submission guidelines. With questions, please reach out to scrivenereditorial@gmail.com. 

The Longhand Issue