We are open for our 2023 contests! All contests open on May 15th and close on August 15th. $500 prize for first-place winner in each contest. Publication in Hunger Mountain for first-place winner and runner-up. Your name or any other information that would allow someone to identify you (email address etc.) should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Contact information should only be included in the Submittable form.

Hunger Mountain Review seeks to provide a platform for traditionally silenced voices, to expand representation in literature, and to examine culture with a critical eye. We pursue this mission through the work we both solicit and select from submissions.

We want writing that explores, questions, and challenges. We want writing that remains open. We want work that thinks about what it’s trying to do for others and the world.

Writing submitted to us will be thoroughly and open-heartedly read, and unlike many literary journals we reserve roughly 50% of each issue for unsolicited work.

While a cover letter is not required, feel free to submit one along with your work. If you choose to include one, please tell us whatever we need to know about you and how you identify in order to meet your work on its own terms.

While we have no problem with simultaneous submissions, if your work is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you notify us as soon as possible. For us, this means within 24 hours in most cases. Please withdraw through Submittable, not by sending us an email.

Current students and faculty in the MFA in Writing Program cannot submit to the magazine. Alumnx must wait two years after the date of graduation to submit.

Due to copyright laws, please DO NOT SUBMIT pieces that contain song lyrics. 

$20.00

Submissions will open on February 15, 2023 and close on August 15, 2023. $500 prize for first place winner in each category. Publication in Hunger Mountain for first-place winners and runner-ups.

Please enter one original, unpublished story under 6,000 words per submission fee. Submissions should be anonymous. Your name or any other information that would allow someone to identify you (email address etc.) should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Contact information should only be included in the Submittable form. Manuscripts should be submitted double spaced and in 12 point type. This year’s judge is Fernando A. Flores, author of Tears of the Trufflepig and Valleyesque.

We ask that you do not include song lyrics or any other copyrighted material in your submissions.

Please read the general guidelines before submitting. If you have questions, please email hungermtn@vcfa.edu.

$20.00

Submissions will open on February 15, 2023 and close on August 15, 2023. $500 prize for first place winner in each category. Publication in Hunger Mountain for first-place winners and runner-ups.

Please submit up to three original unpublished poems in one entry (all three poems in one Word document or PDF). Submissions should be anonymous. Your name or any other information that would allow someone to identify you (email address etc.) should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Contact information should only be included in the Submittable form. This year’s judge is Hunger Mountain Poetry Editor, Tarfia Faizullah, author of Registers of Illuminated Villages and Seam.

We ask that you do not include song lyrics or any other copyrighted material in your submissions.

Please read the general guidelines before submitting. If you have questions, please email hungermtn@vcfa.edu.


$20.00

Submissions will open on February 15, 2023 and close on August 15, 2023. $500 prize for first place winner in each category. Publication in Hunger Mountain for first-place winners and runner-ups.

Please enter an original, unpublished piece under 8,000 words. Your entry may be a short story or a book/novel excerpt, but if it's an excerpt it should stand alone. Submissions need not be anonymous.

Please let us know if this piece is intended for Young Adult, Middle Grade, or younger audiences. 

We do accept (but we don’t require) illustrations along with picture book manuscripts. 

This year's judge is Ann Dávila Cardinal, author of Breakup from Hell and The Storyteller’s Death.

Please read the general guidelines before submitting. If any of your questions haven't been answered, please email hungermtn@vcfa.edu.

$20.00

Submissions will open on February 15, 2023 and close on August 15, 2023. $500 prize for first place winner in each category. Publication in Hunger Mountain for first-place winners and runner-ups.

Please enter one original, unpublished piece of creative nonfiction, no more than 6,000 words. Submissions should be anonymous. Your name or any other information that would allow someone to identify you (email address etc.) should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Contact information should only be included in the Submittable form. Manuscripts should be submitted double spaced and in 12 point type. This year’s judge is Negesti Kaudo, author of Ripe.

We ask that you do not include song lyrics or any other copyrighted material in your submissions.

Please read the general guidelines before submitting. If any of your questions haven’t been answered, please email hungermtn@vcfa.edu.

Hunger Mountain Review