While we have strong roots in promoting western-themed writing, we do not make it our primary focus. We encourage submissions of quality work regardless of theme or location. Please read our submission guidelines before submitting, and please do give us plenty of notice if you are submitting simultaneously. Since we publish only unpublished work, we do need to know if the piece is accepted elsewhere. We highly recommend submitting online for these reasons. Thank you!

The theme is chosen in-house by editorial staff and will be announced when submissions open. Accepted authors will receive a limited edition, hand-bound copy of the issue they are in as well as $10.00 USD. Whether accepted to the issue or not, all authors will receive an email.

Please read our submissions guidelines for full details. Submissions must be sent via the form on our website - work submitted to email addresses will not be accepted. We encourage bold/striking interpretations of the theme (GREEN); if the link isn’t clear, include a few lines in your bio/at the start to provide context.

SCR publishes fiction and poetry primarily, but will also consider creative nonfiction, scholarly essays, and book reviews. We prefer electronic submissions (in PDF format only), though printed manuscripts may be mailed in accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. No previously published work, work accepted elsewhere, or multiple submissions accepted. Please note that we cannot acknowledge receipt of manuscripts and that we cannot return manuscripts under any conditions.

We seek work that engages or repurposes America's complex cultural history—original & unpublished fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book/chapbook reviews, interviews, music, photography, & art. Give us fiction that dramatizes old folk songs or steals their characters. Give us love poetry with language cribbed from The Federalist Papers. Recent features: fiction on the 2008 financial crisis via Bartleby the Scrivener; essay on the family legacy of tomato-growing.

Please consider each issue's theme carefully in deciding what to submit. Also be aware that we receive profuse numbers of poetry submissions and can only accept a few each quarter. We would like to receive more submissions of personal essays and creative non-fiction.