Midwest Prairie Review
A Madison-based Regional Publication
"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River
Call for Prose, Script, Poetry and Art
Since the early twentieth century, writers across our great nation have created, written for, and enjoyed a tide of regionalist publications such as Texas’ Southwest Review, Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Midwestern Gothic, San Francisco based ZYZZYVA and Maine’s Hawk & Handsaw to name just a few. The writing community in Madison, Wisconsin and surrounding areas should have one such regional anthology to display and celebrate the great talent of our Midwestern-based writers.
And so, the Midwest Prairie Review has been born.
Being a Wisconsin-born (Milwaukee) writer who chose to leave her tribe and return (surprisingly) to Wisconsin nearly 25 years later, it is clear to me now that there is a unique voice that exists and permeates this beautiful magical college town known as Madison, Wisconsin and its surroundings. Having the opportunity to work within UW Madison Continuing Studies Writing Department, I have seen first-hand the talent of our local writers-and the admiration from those who attend our conferences from surrounding states and habitats and throughout the rest of the Nation. There’s a glow that comes over people’s faces when they arrive in Mad City. In workshops and classrooms during our annual events there is always at least one writer who proclaims “I love Madison, I always love being here!” or “I’m moving here next year.” There’s something about this place that brings out their creative consciousness. It is, quite literally, a literary hotbed. There have been so many creative individuals who have emerged from these environs from writer-environmentalists Aldo Leopold and John Muir to Frank Lloyd Wright and Georgia O’Keefe-two artists who artfully incorporate the land within their work to heartland playwrights Thorton Wilder and Larry Shue and “solid stock” authors Edna Ferber and Jane Hamilton-and all of the others in between with origins and ties to these Midwest prairies found in Wisconsin. We will welcome all writers from Wisconsin and the surrounding states and all writers who have some tie to and admire this part of the world also.
This regional publication will provide an arena for all of our writers to share their voices-voices that emerge from the geography, from the land of this place. The way landscape ignites imagination and sustains the human spirit from the local farms to the wilderness preserves and to the university campus and the numerous rivers and lakes. Personal stories and ideas that explore why their ancestors chose this land to why their children may or may not remain here for their lives-all of these voices need to be heard and they will be within the Midwest Prairie Review.
Consider this your call.
Please submit material for this new publication according to the guidelines listed below. Submissions will be accepted until October 12, 2012. Our judges will review and choose material until the end of the year and writers will be notified in Mid-January 2013 that their material has been chosen to be a part of the inaugural edition of Midwest Prairie Review. The volume will be available in April of 2013 to celebrate these authors, poets and artists during our 24th annual Writers’ Institute conference.
Submission guidelines
Download submission guidelines as a print-friendly pdf.
Published annually, Midwest Prairie Review considers unsolicited materials from July through October each year. In general, we are looking for thoughtful and thought-provoking written and visual art that interprets and redefines notions of living, working, and writing within the Midwestern heartland.
We are accepting only new work. Pre-published material will not be included in this new volume of Midwest Prairie Review.
Genre considerations: We accept poetry, creative nonficti on, scriptwriting, short stories, and visual art. Poets should submit between 1-5 poems for consideration. Writers of nonfiction, fiction, and screenplays may submit up to 15 double-spaced pages. Excerpts from longer monographs are acceptable, provided they stand alone as an independent work. If applicable, citations should appear in MLA or Chicago Manual of Style format. Midwest Prairie Review displays artwork in both color and black and white. Visual artists may submit up to5 images of their work for consideration. We are willing to consider submissions from two categories (e.g., poetry and short fiction; creative nonfiction and visual art) simultaneously. Please wait until the next review cycle to send additional materials.
Submitting your manuscript: Manuscripts and scripts will be accepted by email, provided they are sent as Microsoft Word documents, and by post All short stories and essays should be double-spaced and in a Times New Roman 12-point font or equivalent. We prefer paperclips to staples on paper drafts. You must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you would like your material returned.
Submitting your art: We accept images that can be clustered as part of a series or that can stand alone as individual images. The editorial staff reserves the right to decide if images will appear in color or black and white, and as cover images or within the journal. Please submit your images—original art or photography—as camera-ready JPEG files that are readable in any computer. Images may be sent on a CD or by email. You must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you would like your CD returned.
Deliberations: The editorial staff of Midwest Prairie Review is dedicated to producing a high-quality, thematically coherent journal. It may take, therefore, up to three months for you to receive a response regarding your submissions. Please do not contact us until that time has elapsed. We will consider simultaneous submissions; however, we ask that you notify us immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere. Published writers and artists will receive a copy of the issue in which their work appears as remuneration.
Out-of-state submissions: Since our July announcement regarding our new regional publication the Midwest Prairie Review, I have received a number of early submissions, congratulatory thoughts, and questions such as “Will you be accepting materials from neighboring Minnesota?” To which the answer is “Absolutely!” We are accepting materials from all writers and artists who are part of our writing community and that includes any of the following scenarios:
- A writer or artist born and raised and continuing to live in the Madison area.
- A writer or artist born and raised and continuing to live in Wisconsin.
- A writer or artist born and raised and living in any of Wisconsin’s neighboring states.
- A writer or artist born and raised in Madison or Wisconsin and now lives elsewhere.
- A writer or artist born and raised elsewhere and now lives in Madison or Wisconsin
- A writer or artist who is not a native of Wisconsin or neighboring states and admires the Midwest Prairielands and the energy that lives here
- A writer or artist who has visited Madison and/or Wisconsin and/or her neighboring states and finds inspiration here.
In other words, any writer or artist that wishes to celebrate the imagination, energy, and human spirit of the Midwest Prairielands. We want to hear from you. Submit your work today.
Midwest Prairie Review does not accept responsibility for loss or damage to any unsolicited manuscript or visual image.
Send all correspondences to:
Midwest Prairie Review
Laurie Scheer, Managing Editor
UW Madison Continuing Studies Writing Programs
21 North Park Street, Rm. 7331
Madison, WI 53715
Or: lscheer@dcs.wisc.edu