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"Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle, and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy."  

"Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them.  A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge.  A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary."

from Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. Aunt Lute Books, 2007. 

From the first known fortified barrier built by the Sumerians to keep the Amorites out of Mesopotamia to the present day endless news cycle decrying an immigration crisis, the abstraction of borders has pounded out the shape of our experience. The compulsion to create them, to demarcate areas and ideas, parse lands and categorize them as “ours'' and “not yours,” to internalize this metaphor and map territories in our own psyches, is devastatingly human. Borders define us. They certainly divide us from others. They imply the notions of lack and security, violence, stability. They tell us that there is a place on the other side in which laws, the economy, language and culture might swing wildly beyond our comprehension. They contain us with vague promises of belonging and safety. But married to this compulsion towards border creation is the desire or need to cross the line.

West Trade Review invites submissions of your best poetry, fiction, essays, and hybrid work that delves into the concept of borders in all their incarnations: the often invisible boundaries between countries and cultures, the geographically clear line of the forest’s edge or sheer rockwall in a canyon, the internal lines we draw around our personality traits and behaviors. Think purely metaphorical, as in Alberto Rios’The Border: A Double Sonnet, or as heartbreakingly literal, as Mahtem Shiferraw gets in her poem “Crossing Borders,” where she writes. “We are given new names, new sounds for our sorrows. We are told new stories that somehow still do not belong to us.” What role do borders play in our lives? Why do we maintain them? What do we gain or lose by crossing them? We want to read what happens to the body and mind when it adheres to or transgresses this abstraction.

Guidelines:
 

- Only previously unpublished work will be considered.
       - Submit up to 5 poems as one submission in a single Microsoft Word  file (and list the title of each poem for the title of your group  submission) or a single prose piece of up to 6,000 words.
       - Include a clear title for each submission and indicate genre in your cover letter and at the top of your document (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid).
       - Please single space poems and double space prose.
      - Include a cover letter and a short 3rd person biography of no more  than 150 words. In your cover letter, explain how your submission  engages with the theme of ecstasy.
       - Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know immediately if the work is published elsewhere.
       - Writers may not submit more than once per reading period.
 

 Submissions that do not meet guidelines or eligibility requirements will not be considered.
 

WTR seek poems that perform Olympic feats with language that leave a reader in wonder while still referring back to the basic things that make us human. We want powerful imagery and enjoy the juxtaposition of images in interesting and unexpected ways.
          We want poems that make the reader think and feel, work that humbles us with its joy, humor, embarrassment, anger, hope, grief, or all of the above, and gravitate toward writing that has something important to teach us--something that readers really need to know but might not have understood this was a need until the last word of the work.




NOTE: Submissions which do not meet the following guidelines will not be considered:
 

• All submissions must be previously unpublished and are limited to five poems per reading period and must be accompanied by a cover letter and a biography of no more than 150 words. Work submitted without a biography will not be considered.
• In your cover letter, please mention your social media handles (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter).  If you have a website dedicated to your writing, please include the link in your letter.
• Include a clear title for each poem.
• Submit poems as one reading packet and place what you consider your stronger work at the front of the group.
• Enter the title of each poem as your packet's submission title.
• Work must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file. 

Submit only once per reading period.  


While we offer free submissions the first week of each month (April to December), general submissions are typically $3 (to cover administrative costs).  

You may also choose to receive a quick decision about your work for $10, and may also receive a quick decision about your work along with personalized feedback from the editors for $25 (1.5-2 pages).   The response time for both expedited and personalized options is approximately 2 weeks.


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You'll also find us on Threads and Bluesky.

We look for fiction with a literary focus and prioritize characterization and psychological depth. No genre pieces considered.

​We  want stories that make the reader think and feel, work  that humbles us with its joy, humor, embarrassment, anger, hope, grief,  or all of the above, and gravitate toward writing that has something  important to teach us--something that readers really need to know, but  might not have understood this was a need until the last word of the work.

Manuscripts are read between April 1 and August 1 & August 15 to December 15.

NOTE: Submissions which do not meet the following guidelines will not be considered:

• All submissions must be previously unpublished and are limited to one entry per submission period.
• While we have no hard limit regarding story length, most pieces we accept are typically less than 5,000 words.
• Work must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file and include a clear title of the work
• Submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter and a biography of no more than 150 words. Work submitted without a biography will not be considered.
• In your cover letter, please mention your social media handles (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter).  If you have a website dedicated to your writing, please include the link in your cover letter as well.

Submit Only Once Per Reading Period.

While we offer free submissions the first week of each month (April to December), general submissions are typically $3 (to cover administrative costs).  

You may also choose to receive a quick decision about your work for $10, and may also receive a quick decision about your work along with personalized feedback from the editors for $25 (1.5-2 pages).   The response time for both expedited and personalized options is approximately 2 weeks. 

Please take a moment to follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter.

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

You'll also find us on Threads and Bluesky.

We are interested in personal essays, memoir, travel essays, and lyric essays of up to 6000 words that blend style with substance and reach beyond the personal to tell us something new about the world.

We  want creative nonfiction that make the reader think and feel, work that humbles us with its joy, humor, embarrassment, anger, hope, grief,  or all of the above, and gravitate toward writing that has something  important to teach us--something that readers really need to know, but  might not have understood this was a need until the last word of the work.

Manuscripts are read between April 1 and August 1 & August 15 to December 15.

NOTE: Submissions which do not meet the following guidelines will not be considered:

• All submissions must be previously unpublished and are limited to one entry per submission period.
• While we have no hard limit regarding CNF length, most pieces we accept are typically less than 6,000 words. We do accept flash nonfiction, but we find pieces are often undeveloped or unfocused.
• Work must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file (.doc or .docx). We have had issues with Apple Pages and Google docs. Follow conventional formatting (12pt readable font, double spacing, 1" margins).
• Include a clear title of the work, a brief cover letter, and a short biography no more than 150 words.  Work submitted without a biography will not be considered.  
• Please mention your social media handles in your cover letter.  If you have a personal website for your writing, please provide the link in your cover letter as well.

Submit Only Once Per Reading Period.
 

While we offer free submissions the first week of each month (April to December), general submissions are typically $3 (to cover administrative costs).  

You may also choose to receive a quick decision about your work for $10, and may also receive a quick decision about your work along with personalized feedback from the editors for $25 (1.5-2 pages).   The response time for both expedited and personalized options is approximately 2 weeks. 

Please take a moment to follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter.

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

You'll also find us on Threads and Bluesky.