For all our submissions, themed or otherwise, we welcome especially work by writers who are part of marginalized groups: immigrant and indigenous writers; writers of color; women, non-binary, LGBQIA and trans writers; writers with disabilities both visible and invisible. Send us your best work!

General Guidelines

The Fourth River publishes print and online issues. Submissions are accepted July 15-September 15 and November 15-January 15. We will occasionally run special calls for theme issues as well. 

Submissions for the web series, Tributaries, is rolling, though we will sometimes close for a short time to catch up on reading.

There is a $3 submission fee for our issues, however we will announce FREE submission days occasionally over social media, so be sure to follow us!

Submissions to Tributaries are always free.

We wish it were otherwise, but The Fourth River is not a paying market at this time. Contributors to our print issues will be offered one copy of the issue in which their work appears. Digital contributors will be offered either one back issue or a copy of the upcoming print issue. 

We welcome submissions of previously unpublished poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art, that explore the relationship between humans and their environments, both natural and built, urban, rural or wild. We are looking for writing that is richly situated at the confluence of place, space and identity—or that reflects upon or makes use of landscape and place in new ways. 

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Call for Spring 26 Print Issue: 

INNOVATION

This past June, Chatham University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program held the inaugural run of the Fallingwater Residency in Nature & Place-Based Writing. The Residency is held in partnership with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, a modern architectural masterpiece and UNESCO World Heritage site located just 60 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Frank Lloyd Wright was a pioneer of organic architecture who emphasized harmony between buildings and their natural surroundings. His designs pushed the boundaries of conventions and changed the landscape of architecture for generations to come. Wright’s legacy is one of beauty, harmony, and magnificence, but most especially, it is one of innovation.

In honor of Frank Lloyd Wright and Chatham MFA’s new partnership with Fallingwater, The Fourth River is seeking submissions for our spring 2026 print issue that illustrate the theme of Innovation.

For this issue, we welcome fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art that engages innovative ways of relating to nature, place, and identity. We encourage work that utilizes the concept of change, whether prompted by need, natural process, or simple curiosity. Bring a new spin on something old, or a fresh perspective to something outdated. Build a new environment and put us in it. Whether rooted in realism, speculation, or history itself, we want to see work that embodies the spirit of innovation.

Here’s a prompt to get the gears turning:

In what ways does innovation interact with and influence concepts–and realities–of nature, place, space, culture, and identity?

We look forward to reading your work!

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Recent authors we’ve published include Barbara Hurd, Susan Cohen, Todd Kaneko, Mia Ayumi Mahlotra, Ira Sukrungruang, Lisa Summe and Bk Loren.  Contributors to The Fourth River have received Pushcart Prizes, NEA Fellowships, and The Drue Heinz Literature Prize. The Fourth River’s contributors have been published in Glimmer Train, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Missouri Review, The Best American Short Stories, The O.  Henry Prize Stories, and The Best American Travel Writing.