Indigenous Issue

The Malahat Review invites writers who identify as Indigenous to submit their unpublished work to an issue on contemporary Indigenous writing in Canada.

To be published in January 2017, “Indigenous Perspectives” will celebrate the aesthetics, concerns, contributions, and achievements of Indigenous authors living in or from “Canada,” recognizing their crucial role in providing a truly complete picture of what it is like to be alive in North America in the past, future, and especially today.

Submissions are welcome from all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit writers. Recognizing that the current international boundaries imposed on the continent are not necessarily compatible with Indigenous people’s own sense of place, we invite “non-Canadian” Indigenous writers with close connections to Indigenous communities within “Canada” to submit their work or to query in advance.

“Indigenous Perspectives” is being guest-edited by Philip Kevin Paul (poetry), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (creative nonfiction), and Richard Van Camp (fiction). The guest editors are interested in submissions of exciting contemporary Indigenous writing by poets and short-story and creative-nonfiction authors whose work makes vivid their experience of being alive in the world.

Read about all three of the guest editors on the Indigenous Issue Editors page.

The issue will also feature reviews of new books by Indigenous authors as well as the winner of the Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize, which is open to all writers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous The final judge of the prize is Lee Maracle.

The Malahat Review, a literary quarterly published by the University of Victoria, acknowledges that it operates on the unceded territory of the Coast and Straits Salish people, including the Lekwungen family group, Checkonien, and Sungayka village.

Submission Guidelines

  • Poetry submissions may consist of three to five previously unpublished poems on any subject and in any style.
  • Submissions of previously unpublished short fiction may be up to 6,000 words in length, on any subject or any style. Unless the stories are very short (i.e., less than 1000 words long each), no submission may consist of more than one story.  
  • Previously unpublished submissions of creative nonfiction may range from 1,000 to 6,000 words in length on any subject or in any style.
  • If you feel your literary work falls outside these three categories, please feel free to send a query to the editor at malahat@uvic.ca. Your query will be forwarded to the appropriate guest editor.
  • The Malahat Review seldom publishes unsolicited book reviews. Please query first.
  • Eligible writers must self-identify as Indigenous, be Canadians, Canadian residents, or “non-Canadians” with close connections to Canada. Brief biographical notes must be enclosed in all submissions.  
  • Language of composition: All submissions must be written in English or translated into English.
  • Works by eligible writers in all genres translated into English from any Indigenous language or French will be considered. Translators may be Indigenous or non-Indigenous. When submitting a translated work, please include a copy of the original text and a copy of a letter of permission from the author or copyright holder and/or first-language publisher.
  • Contact information, (full, name, mailing address, and email address) must appear on the first page of all submissions.
  • All submissions must be paginated.
  • Poetry submissions must be single-spaced; fiction and creative nonfiction submissions must be double-spaced.
  • For fiction and creative nonfiction, please include the word count on the first page of your submission.
  • All submissions must be sent to The Malahat Review via the following email addresses:
    • Poetry: ippoem@uvic.ca
    • Fiction: ipstory@uvic.ca
    • Creative Nonfiction: ipnonfic@uvic.ca
  • No submissions in any genre sent by regular mail will be considered. 
  • Required file formats: doc, docx, and pdf.
  • Poetry submissions must be saved in a single file; please do not submit each poem in your submission in a separate file.
  • For all genres, please include your cover letter as the first page of your submission.
  • Previous publication is considered to be any appearance in print or online, including on or in a newspaper, newsletter, magazine, anthology, chapbook, book, e-book, website, electronic magazine, personal blog, Twitter, Facebook, or other social-media platform. Please note that even if the print run or circulation of the print publication where the work has previously appeared is small, this is still considered previous publication. No work that has been excerpted elsewhere is eligible for submission; nor is a work that has been revised since its original publication.
  • The Malahat Review discourages simultaneous submissions.
  • The Malahat Review purchases first world serial print and digital rights and, upon acceptance, pays $60 CAD per published page plus a one-year subscription starting with the issue after the one in which the accepted work has appeared. Two copies of the issue in which the accepted work has appeared are sent to each contributor. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication.

Queries*: malahat@uvic.ca

Submission Deadline: August 19, 2016

          *All content-related queries will be forwarded to the appropriate guest editor.