Submission Guidelines
The Ilford Review is now closed for submissions for Issue One. Our submissions period for Issue Two will open later this year.
We will be seeking essays and creative non-fiction that run between 3,000 - 6,000 words in length. On occasion, we may consider longer pieces depending on the subject matter.
We pay £100 per piece.
As much as we would like to respond to each submission individually, we are a very small team and receive many pitches and submissions daily. As such, we can only respond if we are interested in publishing your piece. If you do not hear back from us within four weeks of submission, please take it as a sign that your work has not been selected on this occasion.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work has been accepted elsewhere. All submitted pieces must be original and previously unpublished.
Please only send us full submissions. We cannot accept pitches or previews at this time.
What We Want
Thoughtful, well-researched, investigative and/or critical and/or immersive long-form creative non-fiction and essays. Creative reviews that speak to something larger. Or smaller. Pieces that dive deep into a story or offer a unique perspective. Original angles and fresh voices. The personal, the panoptic, the precise, and the peculiar. Photo-essays. Essays and creative non-fiction that experiment with style and form.
What We Don’t Want
Stuffy. Snobbish. Unstructured stories. Long-form rants, or venting. Reports from the Left. Reports from the Right. Academic essays. University dissertations. Personal essays on self-discovery. Generalisations or grand narratives. Fiction. Arguments ad populum. Think-pieces on ChatGPT. Anything that has been written or edited using AI tools like ChatGPT.
