Submission Categories

The Shanghai Literary Review accepts submissions for web and print on a rolling basis. We are currently closed for TSLR8 submissions for summer 2023, and will announce here when we reopen for submissions in early autumn. We only accept submissions via our online submission manager. There is no fee for submitting your work to TSLR.

We are interested in art and criticism about urbanism, globalism, identity, and transnationalism, though by no means should submissions be limited to those topics. We'll publish a good story about cats in Africa if it floors us. Selected works will be published in print, and with a delay, also online. We strongly urge submitters to check out our TSLR Online section on this site or view back issues of the magazine to get a sense of what we are looking for.

We publish: 

  • Fiction - around 5,000 words

  • Poetry - 5 poems submission limit per person

  • Nonfiction & Essay - around 5,000 words

  • Flash Fiction or Nonfiction - less than 1,000 words

  • Visual Art - photography, video, photo essay, collage, painting, sketch, etc.

  • Translation* - translation into English of any poetry, essay or short fiction from any language, along with the original text

  • Book Review - pitch book review ideas to us, on fiction or non-fiction from or about Asia

 

Submission Guidelines

To submit online, please visit our online submissions manager. 

We will only publish previously unpublished pieces. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Please just let us know promptly if your submission has been accepted elsewhere by logging into your Submittable account, going to your Submissions, and adding a message to us. All published authors of the print edition will be mailed a hard copy of their magazine at no cost.

*Translators, please provide documentation of authorization to translate and publish from the writer whom you are translating.

If you have already contributed to a print issue of TSLR, we ask that you please wait to send in your next submission after 2 further issues have been published. We ask this only because our genre sections are small, our magazine’s periodicity infrequent, and we must be vigilant about showcasing new work as well as making sure we stay as objective as possible in our selection process. 

We are an English-language magazine. All original work submissions must be in English. Sorry, we cannot print your story that’s been written in Chinese, French, Korean, Arabic... 

We will not publish self-translations of original work from another language. Translations must be submitted by the separate translator of the work. We emphasize again that all translations must submit proof (written documentation) of approval from the author to translate and publish the work in English.