Windhover is dedicated to promoting poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and discussions of craft that consider Christian perspectives and engages spiritual themes. In the spring of odd-numbered years, select authors have the opportunity to read their own work, attend award-winning authors' presentations, and attend workshops on campus at the biennial Windhover Writers' Festival.
Issues are released each August and each February. Submission periods for each issue are as follows:
February 1 to April 15: August issue
August 1 to October 15: February issue
When submitting your work, please follow these specifications:
- Send one prose piece or no more than five poems submitted in one document. (Works longer than 4,700 words are not considered.) Craft essays should be no more than 3500 words.
- Include a brief cover letter with your name, address, email, the title of your submission(s), and a third-person bio of fewer than 75 words.
- Include your name and email address on each page of your submission(s).
- All works for consideration must be submitted via our online submission manager.
- We do not consider previously published work.
- We do not consider e-mailed or postal submissions.
- Simultaneous submissions are acceptable provided that you let us if your work has been accepted elsewhere. (Please contact us via email and withdraw your submission from our online submission manager.)
- Please only submit one submission per person during each submission window.
- Do not resubmit something we have already rejected in a previous submission window.
From the editor, Toby F. Coley: “Send us your best. We are looking for writing that avoids the didactic, the melodramatic, the trite, the obvious. Eschew tricks and gimmicks. We want writing that invites rereading.”
We do not publish genre fiction (romance, horror, YA), so please do not send it. We are open to well-crafted, character-driven science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism.
We do not publish any writing that uses AI (artificial intelligence). All work generated should use human intelligence and creativity only.
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Submit up to five poems in one file.
Include the titles of poems in your cover letter.
Please include a third-person bio of fewer than 75 words.
Please also tell us how you heard about The Windhover!
Submit one short story of up to 4,700 words.
Please include a third-person bio of fewer than 75 words.
Please also tell us how you heard about The Windhover!
Have an honest and thoughtful book review to contribute? We’re looking for reviews that assess a work's content, value to writers and readers, and doesn’t shy away from honest evaluation. Reviews should be of books that have been published in the past two years. If you wish to review something older, contact the editor and ask if we are interested.
Please submit your review of up to 2000 words as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .odt file. Please include a third-person bio of fewer than 75 words.
No AI work accepted.
Please also tell us how you heard about The Windhover!
Do you have a good idea for teaching a craft technique? Do you have a unique perspective on some part of the process of writing fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry? The Craft Essays category is for informal, but substantive discussions of the craft of writing at any stage (from imagination to publishing), of how faith weaves into all that we do as writers.
The audience for these essays include working writers. Whether students in a writing class or longtime practicing writers, readers will find helpful ideas, practices, and theological explanations that grow their craft and passion. All talks should be in a personal voice using a relational approach. This is not the place for academic tone, but one that shares ideas with readers (think Tin House's The Writer's Notebook).
Submit one craft essay of up to 3000 words. Please include a third-person bio of fewer than 75 words. Not sure whether your idea will fit here? Send a query to windhover @ umhb.edu.
Please also tell us how you heard about The Windhover!
Submit one piece of creative nonfiction of up to 4,000 words.
Please include a third-person bio of fewer than 75 words.
Please also tell us how you heard about The Windhover!