Submission Guidelines

Palmetto Row is open according to course rotation in Columbia College’s Creative Writing minor program. Each issue typically focuses on one of three genres: poetry, fiction, or literary nonfiction.

Our current call for poetry will close on November 3rd, 2026.

Once you have reviewed the guidelines below, please use this form to submit! We look forward to reading your work!

General guidelines

We seek original, unpublished works from writers all over. We do not consider works created or modified with any generative AI, nor can we, as a Methodist-affiliated institution, consider works that promote perspectives that dehumanize or aim to shock merely for shock’s sake. We’re open-minded, but please be cool. We also cannot accept work from any current Columbia College (SC) students or faculty. We encourage those students to submit to The Criterion, our undergraduate journal! In general, works should be in English and written for an English-reading audience, but we’re open to multilingual language play.

We accept simultaneous submissions so long as you promptly withdraw if your work finds another home. Please submit only once per issue. If your work gets picked up elsewhere, please notify us by email at palmettorowliterary@gmail.com

Please include a professional 50-ish word biography in third person with your submission. These may be subject to editing for space or content.

Format submissions in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) in a readable font like Times New Roman, 12 point. Double-space prose. Number pages and use reasonable margins, etc. Place your name, email address, and word count in an upper corner of the first page.

We acquire exclusive first-time Internet rights only. All other rights revert to the author at publication. Works are also archived online. Submissions are free. We cannot currently guarantee pay for all published authors, but we offer a $50 editor’s prize for one selected work per issue. We ask that whenever an author reprints the work that first appeared in our pages, Palmetto Row be acknowledged.

We intend to reply within a month of the end of the final month of the current US academic semester. For our summer issue, we intend to reply by the end of September.

Specific guidelines for each genre are as follows:

Fall/Winter 2026 Issue: Poetry!

Submit up to five poems in a single Word document.

Our sole criterion is quality. Our tastes are eclectic, but a few poets the current editors enjoy include Terrance Hayes, Mary Karr, Matt Rasmussen, and Sarah Freligh.

One $50 editor’s prize will be awarded for our favorite piece this issue