Welcome.
We want to read your work! We value and encourage both emerging and experienced creators. Our goal is to engage readers and create a space for great art to bring us closer together.
The Headlight Review is deeply committed to diversity, inclusion, and equity amongst the staff and its contributors. We value varying editorial experience levels and consider aspects of identity, including race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, veteran status, or disability status, a pivotal part of artistic work. We encourage submissions from marginalized and underrepresented communities and perspectives, including emergent creators of color and those from the LGBTQIA+ community.
We are open to submissions in all genres for publication in our biannual issues. Please submit your manuscript with a short (1-3 sentences), third-person bio in the comment section. For all submissions, please ensure that you do not include your name or other identifying information on your submission attachment. We reserve First North American electronic serial rights only; all rights revert back to the author upon publication. We ask that any reprints include the acknowledgment of first publication in The Headlight Review.
Current students and recent graduates of Kennesaw State University, contest judges, and masthead members are not eligible to submit. KSU graduates become eligible to submit once 2 years have passed since graduation.
Please Note
Submissions are open year-round. The Headlight Review staff reads for our Fall/Winter issue in August – November and the Spring/Summer edition in February – May of each year. Please expect responses to occur within those reading windows.
We accept submissions via Submittable. Simultaneous submissions are accepted when noted in your cover letter. Thank you for your interest in The Headlight Review!
Fiction
Please send only one story per submission. Manuscripts should be no longer than 5,000 words, double-spaced, and in standard MLA manuscript format. All genres are welcome except erotica, gore, and violence.
Poetry
Our journal prefers work that pushes the envelope conceptually, technically, or visually, challenges our perspectives, and meets us at the intersections of genres, artistic disciplines, and modes of thought. From subtle to paradoxical, we want to publish work that captures and reimagines the world in moving ways.
Please send only three poems maximum per submission, formatted however the poem needs to be formatted to achieve the effect you desire. We’ll do our best to reproduce it, or we will work with you to readjust the format for our platform. All genres are welcome.
Visual Art
We’re looking for artwork that tells a story that includes emotional texture and character. We accept up to 6 images of photography, comics, digital artwork, or scanned images of traditional artwork such as paintings, drawings, or sketches.
Submissions must have a minimum of 300 dpi resolution, regardless of format. Three-dimensional artwork requires a minimum of two photos taken from different angles, taken in front of a neutral background (black, white, or gray preferred). Artwork must include the name of the artist, the title, the medium, the size of the work, and the year created to be considered.
Book Reviews
Interested in writing a book review to be published in The Headlight Review?
Book reviews should be between 400 and 800 words written in MLA style. When quoting from the book, cite the page number in parentheses directly after the quote. Please include a “works cited” line for the book (e.g., “Smith, Joe. A Great Book. Penguin, 2023.).
Guidelines:
Include a brief synopsis of the book and its place in the writer’s oeuvre.
The review should also consider the book’s place in larger context and offer an honest (but not overly hostile) critique.
The reviewer may comment on the book’s factuality concerning historical or cultural content or significance, but, again, not overly hostile in nature.
Include a statement about whether you would or would not recommend the book. Support your claim thoughtfully.
Submit your book review (or questions) to our Book Review Editor, Jenny Rissen.
Creative Nonfiction
We welcome literary nonfiction stories or essays that have a distinctive personal voice, attentiveness to language, rich details, and lyrical phrasing. We want to read a story that introduces us to a fresh perspective. We do not publish political rhetoric or academic essays.
Please send one story or essay per submission. Manuscripts should be no longer than 5,000 words, double-spaced, and in standard MLA manuscript format. All genres are welcome.