The reading period has begun, and submissions are already trickling in. Keep checking the website for special requests for our 20th anniversary edition. For now, we’re simply looking for the best writing out there. Here are a few guidelines for fiction submissions:

1. Format: we have a lot of information about the publishing business here, and guidelines for submissions are here. We need some way to contact you, so be sure to double check that you’ve included a SASE with your submission. An email address is also helpful so we can quickly secure your story for publication.
2. Length: we don’t advertise specific length requirements, but our magazine is trim and readable and has consistently been under 150 pages. A lot of great stories are long (stories by Alice Munro and Edward P. Jones are proof ), but a very long submission means the writer is asking us to dedicate a lot of our space to his or her work. Submissions over 25 pages (roughly 7500 words) have a much slimmer chance of acceptance. On the other end, very short stories are nice because it means we can publish more writers, as long as their brevity isn’t a gimmick.
3. In his essay, “On Writing,” Raymond Carver advertises, “No Tricks. Period.” Sound advice, I’d say. I also think everything a fiction writer needs to know is in Flannery O’Connor’s collection of essays, Mysteries and Manners. In it, she disparages formulaic technique and praises vision: "In fact, so many people can now write competent stories that the short story as a medium is in danger of dying of competence...What is needed is the vision to go with it..."
   
4. The best way to figure out what makes “good writing” is to read, both Sycamore Review for our specific tastes as well as other reputable journals. Personally, I identify with stories whose tension is closely linked to a character’s obsession, especially if that obsession is related to a sense of place or a conflict over one’s home. I read a lot of southern writers, and would recommend the annual New Stories from the South collection. However, this tension is not limited to a particular region: writers such as Stuart Dybek, Cathy Day, Sherman Alexie, and Sandra Cisneros all deal interestingly with place and home.
5. Our number one goal for the magazine, however, is quality regardless of subject matter.