
Editorial Focus
The editors of Bear Review are open to a wide variety of poetry, and they read submissions all year. The magazine publishes two issues a year: one in the fall, and one in the spring.
Tips From the Editor
We’re big readers, so we admire pieces that make the old new. We also dig aesthetic competence and a poet's understanding of how their piece is situated within or outside of genre and literary tradition. That said, we really do admire experimentation and blurred genres, so long as the writer brings the heat.
Our only criteria when reviewing poetry: your writing is alive on the page, is clear enough for the reader, has urgency or something at stake.