Submission Guidelines

Submissions to the open reading period must be postmarked between August 15 and November 30. Authors selected for publication are paid with two (2) complimentary copies of the journal

Fourth Genre Steinberg Essay Prize submissions are accepted between January 1 and the middle of March. For additional information about contest submissions, please go to the contest page.

Anything received outside of these reading periods will be recycled.

• We have an 8,000 word limit for general submissions, and a 6,000 word limit for submissions to the Fourth Genre Steinberg Essay Prize.
  
• We do not accept multiple submissions in any regular reading period, although multiple submissions are accepted for the contest.
  
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable for our regular reading period, but ask that you notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere before you hear from us.
  
• We do not accept electronic submissions.
  
• Please do not include SASE. We will reply via email.
  
• All manuscripts will be recycled.

Images

• For publication, all images must be minimum 300 dpi at planned publication size
  
• It’s the author’s obligation and responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright and/or other use restrictions prior to submitting materials to MSU Press for publication.
  
• Citations, permissions, and captions are required upon submission for all images, including those derived from the internet.
  
• MSU Press cannot publish such materials until clearance is obtained.

Send submissions to:
Laura Julier, Editor
Fourth Genre
434 Farm Lane, Rm. 235
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1033

For “Writer as Reader” essays …
Fourth Genre’s “Writer as Reader” will feature essays that respond to creative and literary nonfiction, focusing primarily on a single work. It may be work that has influenced the author’s own writing, provides an example of the genre’s possibilities, is widely influential, or challenging in its form, content, history, or politics.

Successful essays will be neither jargon-laced nor disinterested, but will find a home in the personal and will tell a story about the author’s relationship with one particular work of nonfiction. There is a 3,000-word limit.

For queries about or submissions to the Fourth Genre “Writer as Reader” feature, please contact Will Jennings, Fourth Genre Writer as Reader editor, at william-jennings@uiowa.edu.

For review essays …
please query Ned Stuckey-French, Fourth Genre Review Essay editor, at nstuckey-french@fsu.edu.

For general queries...
Contact us at genre4@msu.edu.

Fourth Genre Author’s Publishing Agreement (PDF). Important—please read for reference only. The agreement should only be completed after acceptance for publication by the editor.