CONTEST SUBMISSION
RABBLE REVIEW turns FIVE years old this year. We published our first issue on September 17th, 2021. For five years we have been thrilled to share wonderful work from amazing artists from around the world. To those of you who have been with us from the beginning, or to those of you just now joining us, thank you.
We are celebrating our anniversary by having our first contest in flash and poetry! The details for the contest are below. The submission link is at the bottom of the page:
Theme:
We do not have a central theme for this contest. However, we are looking for entries that are consistent with the work we highlight and publish in RABBLE REVIEW:
"We like work that captures the experience of the working class, and dares to look ahead. We want to recognize our struggles — but also our joys; we want to hear about your shitty manager, but also about the feeling you get when you clock out, about the way the sunset looks on certain days, about an evening spent with friends, or about nothing all."
We publish work that is pro-labor, anti-capitalist, anti-war, and explicitly anti-fascist. Our 10 previous issues are free to read if you want a greater sense of the work we publish. You can find our past issues HERE.
Guidelines:
Below are the contest guidelines. Please read through it carefully:
Poetry: One poem, max. All forms accepted.
Flash Work: One piece-500 words max. Fiction/creative nonfiction, all genres accepted
Applicants must be 18 years of age or older.
File must be doc. or .docx
Include an author bio maximum 200 words, .doc or .docx
Previously published work is not allowed for this contest, but we do accept simultaneous submissions. Please indicate in the submission form if your submission is a simultaneous submission.
Please make sure your submission includes a working email. And please remember to include an author bio with your submission.
Submissions that promote racist, transphobic, sexist, or any other type of bigoted ideologies will be rejected.
Submissions created with the help of generative AI are not allowed. This includes (but is not limited to) Chat GPT, Claude, Grok, or any other generative AI. Any submission created with the use of AI will be rejected. Please note however that we also do not use AI checkers to verify the authenticity of a submission as they are unreliable. We just ask that you don't use AI to aid or create creative works.
Number of submissions: Only one submission per entry. Your submission must be poetry OR flash. If you would like to submit works for flash AND poetry then you will need to fill out a separate submission form and pay the submission fee again. The flash and poetry submissions will be judged seperately. Submissions over the posted limits in either flash or poetry will be disqualified.
Submission Fee: The submission fee is $5 (note: If you are experiencing financial hardship and would like to submit then please send an email to us: editor@rabblereview.com)
Prize: Winners in the poetry and flash category will each receive $50 and publication in RABBLE REVIEW No.11.
Judges:
We will have two judges for this contest. One for our poetry entries and the other for our flash entries.
Flash Judge: JJ Peña
jj peña (pronouns he/they) is the winner of Creative Capital’s State of the Arts Prize (2026), Magazine1’s Flash Prose Prize (2026), 92NY Discovery Poetry Contest (2023), Fractured Literature's Micro Contest (2021), Tinderbox Journal Editor's Prize (2021), Santa Clara Review's Flash Contest (2021), Mythic Picnic's Post Card Prize (2020), CutBank's Big Sky/Small Prose Contest (2019), & Blue Earth Review's Flash Non-fiction Contest (2019). jj is a 2021 Periplus Fellow, a 2022 Woody & Gayle Hunt Fellow for Aspen Summer Words, & a 2023 Editorial Fellow for Shenandoah Literary. jj holds a BA in both English and Anthropology, & an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. jj's work has been published widely & anthologized in places like Best Short Fictions of 2022, Best Micro-Fictions of 2020, & Wigleaf Top 50 Short-Shorts.
Poetry Judge: Misael Osorio Conde
Misael Osorio Condes a poet and translator. He earned his MFA at the University of Notre Dame and is currently enrolled in the Program for Writers at University of Illinois, Chicago. Some of his poems have appeared in the journals Protean Magazine, The Texas Review, and The Brooklyn Rail. Some were just the fragments, his first book, is out from Baobab Press.
Submission Deadline:
October 16th, 2026 at 11:59 PST
Submit your work through the submission form at one of the links below. Payment for the submission will be taken on the submission form itself. We will reach out to contest winners sometime in November.
