Submissions Guidelines

Canary is published four times a year to welcome each new season on the solstices and equinoxes. We have changed our Submissions schedule due to an overflow of really good work and will henceforth be open for submissions only during February, May, August and November. These are the months prior to each issue month and will give us time to finish reading all the submissions for the period. Occasionally the issue will fill up before the submission period is scheduled to end, and in that case we will close submissions early. Always check here to see when submissions will close.

We're sorry but Canary will not be open during the month of February for submissions for the Spring Equinox 2025 issue. We already have a plump issue in the queue. We will be open May 1-30 for submissions to the Summer 2025 issue.

The reason this happens is that so many people submit seasonal work for other issues, and if accepted, we hold the work for the appropriate issue. It's hard to return a good piece submitted in the wrong season. So our advice, I guess, is to submit whatever work you like if you don't mind having it held a long time. If you submit seasonal work for the appropriate issue, and it's accepted, you will have the immediate gratification of seeing it published right away. Thanks for your patience with our process.

Please submit no more than 5 poems, or essays/short stories of not more than 1500 words. We look forward to reading your work on your experience of the losses to the natural world in your home environment and the joys of that natural world that we stand to lose.