Submission Guidelines

The Ampersand Review is a literary magazine published by Sheridan College’s Honours Bachelor of Creative Writing & Publishing program.

The Ampersand Review accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and essays. We seek to publish literary works of the highest quality. To us, this means work that engages thoughtfully with its subject matter and displays formal excellence and innovation. We are now seeking review pitches for Issue No. 8.

We welcome literary works in any genre or form, and from writers of all backgrounds and identities. We’d love to hear from voices who haven’t been heard before and we are committed to providing a platform that meaningfully publishes stories, ideas, and opinions yet to be shared.

In keeping with our mandate to foster literary culture in communities within Canada, we only accept submissions from writers who reside in Canada.

 

GENERAL GUIDELINES

Our reading period for Issue #8 runs from December 1st 2024-January 31st, 2025. If your work is still under consideration, please do not submit again until you’ve received a response. We will not be able to consider multiple submissions from one author; please only submit one submission in a single genre per reading period. If you send multiplue submissions in multiple genres, only the first submission we recieve will be considered.

The following submissions will not be read:

·       Submissions sent while a previous submission is still being considered.

·       Mail submissions.

·       Submissions sent outside of our reading period.

·       Submissions that blatantly disregard our guidelines.

·       Submissions generated (wholly, or in part) by AI.

We accept only previously unpublished work. Simultaneous submissions are accepted but we kindly ask that you notify us immediately if any part of your submission has been accepted elsewhere.

Please note that we do not consider or publish work written by current students, staff, and faculty at Sheridan College.

PREPARING YOUR SUBMISSION

We will now be accepting submissions via Google Forms. Please use the Google Form at the link below to provide the title and genre of your submission, contact information, and a brief third-person bio. You will also be asked to upload your submission as a Word Document. Please include the name and the genre of your work in the file name (i.e., JohnDoe_Poetry.doc). We do not accept PDFs with the exception of poetry submissions.

 

Poetry

  • Poetry submissions should not exceed five poems.

  • Please submit a PDF in addition to your word document if your poem makes use of atypical formatting. Use the space bar, not Word tabs, to space your poems.

Fiction

  • For short fiction, submit only one piece up to a maximum of 3000 words.

Non-Fiction

  • We accept polished drafts of essays and memoir as well as standalone excerpts.

  • Submit only one piece at a time up to a maximum of 4000 words.

  • We accept review pitches for fiction, poetry, and non-fiction books written by Canadian authors and published by Canadian publishers within the last 12 months, or that are forthcoming. 

  • Review pitches will be considered on a rolling basis by the Reviews Editor. 

Reviews

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We aim to respond to all submissions within four months. If you haven’t heard from us by then, please query via email.

The Ampersand Review buys first North American serial and limited, non-exclusive digital rights for all accepted submissions. All rights revert to the author at the time of publication.

 Payment rates are as follows:

  • Poetry: $50 per poem/page to a maximum of $100.

  • Fiction: $100 per story.

  • Non-fiction: $100 per piece.

  • Reviews: $100 per review.

Thank you for reading our guidelines. Please query at ampersandreview@sheridancollege.ca