Welcome to SHARK REEF

SHARK REEF endeavors to give voice to serious writers who are committed to producing original writing of high quality. We are particularly passionate about publishing work revealing the rich experiences of ordinary people, whether as fiction, non-fiction, drama, or poetry.


SHARK REEF is not currently a paying market, but how we wish we were! Our magazine is available online at no cost to readers, and we don’t have any advertising revenue. We’re all volunteers: editors, writers, visual artists, publisher, and editorial assistants. With the publication of each issue, we make a concerted effort to promote the work of our contributors via Facebook and Instagram.

Please note that we do not consider genre fiction: fantasy, thriller, sf, horror or erotica. We prefer work that does not employ extreme violence or graphic sexuality in order to get its point across. Also, we only accept work not previously published (including on a personal website).

As all evaluation of art is subjective, we make no bones about the fact that our selections are informed by our own tastes, whims, and fancies. We encourage you to review past issues of SHARK REEF to get a sense of our editorial preferences.

We ask writers to submit in one genre only. Poets may submit up to three poems per issue and prose submissions may be up to 3,000 words in length. We are at this point accepting flash fiction pieces of 700-1000 words on a trial basis. For flash fiction, please submit no more than three pieces in a single document, though we may accept only one. If we DO accept your submission, we ask that you not submit again for a year.

SHARK REEF is published in January (submission deadline September 30) and July (submission deadline USUALLY March 31). Simultaneous submissions are considered; please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. Submissions received after the spring and fall deadlines will be held for consideration in the following issue.

We are now using the Submittable submissions service for all of our submissions. There are three categories for submissions: Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction. There is a $3.00 fee for each submission.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR LAST NAME IN THE TITLE OF YOUR SUBMISSION AND INCLUDE YOUR BIO ON THE FIRST PAGE OF YOUR MS..

Click the button below to see specific submissions guidelines and to submit your work:

Contact Us

We’d love to hear from you. Send comments to gro.feerkrahsnull@rotide.