Welcome!
The Malahat Review acknowledges and respects the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the University of Victoria stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
The Editorial Boards welcome submissions in English of previously unpublished works of poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as translations in any of these three genres, by new, emerging, and established writers from Canada and abroad.
The Editorial Boards are pleased to receive submissions from all writers who wish to send their work for consideration and particularly welcome submissions from those writers who for reasons of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ability, geography, class, culture, or religion have been historically under-represented in Canadian literary contexts.
Although The Malahat Review publishes current work by contemporary writers, the Editorial Boards will consider translations of work by past writers who are unknown or little known in the English-speaking world and may therefore be of interest to contemporary readers. For all translation submissions, please include a copy of the original text and, for work still under copyright, a copy of a letter of permission from the original author and/or first-language publisher. The same limits and rules apply to translation submissions as to other submissions.
The best way to know what kinds of work we might publish is to order a print or digital issue or to subscribe.
Reading periods
- Submissions from Canadian writers are accepted for consideration from January 1 to June 30 each year.
- Submissions from international (including US) writers are accepted for consideration from February 14 to February 28 or until our submission cap is reached for the month. *Please note there will be a small submission fee of CAD$7 (approximately USD$5) per regular submission for international (including US) submissions.*
- We also run four contests per year, all of them open to Canadian and international writers alike, and these contests have their own separate guidelines. See below for the currently open contest or for further information go to our contests page.
Response time
We try our best to get back to writers as soon as possible. Due to the many submissions we receive, please allow for one to six months for poetry and up to nine months for fiction and creative nonfiction.
Submitting
Please scroll to the bottom of this page to find the appropriate button for each genre and current contest. We ask that you submit your work in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file, and list at the beginning of each piece the word count (for prose) or line count (for poetry). For regular submissions, please ensure that your name and contact info appear on the first page.
Cover letter
Ensure the name, mailing address, and email linked to your Submittable account are up to date. If any of this info differs, you can leave a note in the cover letter section. Please list the title(s) of the work submitted and include a short bio note.
Once per calendar year (per genre, contests excepted)
Excluding any of our contests and theme issues, we ask that writers submit only once per genre (poetry, fiction, cnf, translations) in each calendar year. Contest submissions are unlimited, provided you pay the contest fee(s).
Previous publication
We don’t publish any work that has previously been published, whether in print or online, even if the print run or online audience was small. No work that has been excerpted elsewhere is eligible for submission, nor is any work that has been revised since its original publication.
Simultaneous submissions
For regular submissions, please inform us if you’re making a simultaneous submission, and please update us as soon as possible with any changes to the status of your submission.For contests, we do not accept work simultaneously submitted for consideration elsewhere.
AI?
The magazine’s Editorial Boards are not interested in AI-generated work as such (e.g., machine-written work generated by a prompt). Given the increasing cultural presence and uses of AI, submitters will be asked in Submittable whether AI has been used in the creation of the work being submitted and, if the answer is yes, to explain the extent and nature of its use and what artistic ends it is meant to serve (this question does not refer to the use of simple word-processing spelling or grammar checkers).
Payment & copyright
We pay CAD$70 per published page plus a one-year print subscription and two copies of the issue in which your work appears. (Contest winners receive a cash prize instead of a per-page payment.) We purchase first world serial print and digital rights for publication in English; copyright remains with the author.
The Malahat Review invites entries for its biennial Novella Prize.
The contest is open to Canadian and international writers anywhere in the world.
Deadline: 11:59pm (PST) on February 1, 2026
One winner will receive a prize of CAD $2,000 and be published in the magazine's summer 2025 issue #235.
Judges:
- Rob Benvie
- Liz Harmer
(Please see the contest page on our website for full guidelines and payment info before submitting.)
Poetry submissions by Canadian writers are accepted for consideration from January 1 to June 30 each year. Poetry submissions by international (including US) writers are accepted for consideration from February 14 to February 28 or until our submission cap is reached for the month. Writers may submit their work only once per calendar year in any given genre (contests excepted).
- Please submit three to five poems in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file (up to 10 pages max, single-spaced, with each new poem starting on a separate page).
- Please include your name on the first page of your submission.
- For translated poems, translators should include a copy of the original(s) with the submission and supply (or be able to supply) evidence of permission to publish their translations.
- In the Title field enter "# Poems" (where # is the number of poems being submitted: e.g., 4 Poems). For translations, enter "# Translated Poems" (e.g., 4 Translated Poems).
- In the Cover Letter field, please include your name; the title of each submitted poem with a line count in parentheses after the title (counting from the first line and including stanza or section breaks); and a short biographical note. For translations, please also note whether you are supplying (or are able to supply) evidence of permission to publish your translations. For statistical purposes, please make sure to indicate your province/state and/or country of origin.
Response times will normally vary from one to six months after the date of submission.
Fiction submissions by Canadian writers are accepted for consideration from January 1 to June 30 each year. Poetry submissions by international (including US) writers are accepted for consideration from February 14 to February 28 or until our submission cap is reached for the month. Writers may submit their work only once per calendar year in any given genre (contests excepted).
- Submissions of previously unpublished short fiction may be up to 8,000 words in length for Canadian writers and up to 4,000 words for international writers.
- No submission may consist of more than one story, unless you are submitting flash fiction.
- Up to three flash fictions (each no longer than 750 words) may be submitted in one submission, and they must be submitted in a single file.
- For translated stories, translators should include a copy of the original(s) with the submission and supply (or be able to supply) evidence of permission to publish their translations.
- Submit your story (stories) in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file (double-spaced and paginated).
- On the first page specify the number of words in the story, or stories, submitted.
- Please also include your contact information (name, email address, telephone number) on the first page of your submission.
In the Title field please insert the title of your story (e.g., Head to Toe) or, in the case of flash fiction, the number of stories followed by "flash fiction(s)": e.g., 1 flash fiction; 3 flash fictions. For translations, please include "(in translation)" after the story's title or after the number of flash fictions: e.g., The Nose (in translation) OR 2 flash fictions (in translation).
In the Cover Letter field please also include your name; the title(s) of the story or stories submitted and a word count (for each); and a short biographical note. For translations, please also note whether you are supplying (or are able to supply) evidence of permission to publish your translations. For statistical purposes, please make sure to indicate your province/state and/or country of origin in your cover letter.
Response times will normally vary from one to nine months after the date of submission.
Creative nonfiction submissions by Canadian writers are accepted for consideration from January 1 to June 30 each year. Poetry submissions by international (including US) writers are accepted for consideration from February 14 to February 28 or until our submission cap is reached for the month. Writers may submit their work only once per calendar year in any given genre (contests excepted).
The Malahat Review takes creative nonfiction to be literary writing based in fact; style matters no less than substance, whatever form the writing may take (e.g., the personal essay, memoir, biography, travel writing, historical account). We are interested in work that offers something more than a straightforward expository essay typically does. We do not accept submissions whose primary purpose is to argue a case, review a literary or art work, or offer an opinion or commentary on someone or something.
- Submissions of a single previously unpublished work of creative nonfiction may be up to 5,000 words in length.
- Or you may submit one to three pieces of up to 1,000 words each (short creative nonfiction).
- For translated creative nonfiction, translators should include a copy of the original(s) with the submission and supply (or be able to supply) evidence of permission to publish their translations.
- Please make your submission in a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file (double-spaced and paginated).
- On the first page specify the number of words in each piece submitted.
- Please also include your name (or in the case of translation the author's and translator's names) on the first page of your submission.
In the Title field please insert the title of your story (e.g., Swimming in Sand) or, in the case of shorter submissions, the number of pieces followed by "flash cnf(s)": e.g., 1 flash cnf; 3 flash cnfs. For translations, please include "(in translation)" after the work's title or after the number of flash cnfs: e.g., On Unpacking My Library (in translation) OR 2 short cnfs (in translation).
In the Cover Letter field please include the following information: your name; the title(s) of the piece(s) submitted with a word count (for each), and a short biographical note. For translations, please also note whether you are supplying (or are able to supply) evidence of permission to publish your translations. For statistical purposes, please make sure to indicate your province/state and/or country of origin in your cover letter.
Response times will vary from one to nine months after the date of submission.