Submission Guidelines

Submit only previously unpublished works.

Stories or essays should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated, with your name, address, and phone number on the first page, title on subsequent pages.

Poems (one to five per submission) should be typed with your name, address, and phone number on the first page of each.

We are unable to read entire manuscripts, novellas, of submissions of more than one story (roughly 7,000 words) at a time.

Please do not submit material to the magazine electronically.

Send submissions addressed to Fiction Editor, Nonfiction Editor, or Poetry Editor. Enclose a SASE with your submission and with any subsequent inquiries. Also include with your submission a cover letter listing previous places of publication, if any.

Response time is typically 4-6 months. Please do not send multiple submissions in a single genre. We will read only one submission per author at a given time.

Manuscripts received between May 1st and August 15th will be returned unread.

Payment for work accepted by the journal may vary, but is typically $50 per poem, and $100 per short story or essay.


Send Submissions To:
Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Art
Department of English
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3013