University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Blue Mesa Review has a rotating editorial board, so each issue is fresh and unique. They are seeking strong voices and lively, compelling narratives with a fine eye for craft. Their spring contest offers payment of $500, $100, and $25 for first, second, and third places in each genre.

Blue Mesa Review was founded by Rudolfo Anaya in 1989. Anaya, a Creative Writing instructor at the University of New Mexico at the time, wanted a space for New Mexican and Southwestern writers to publish their work. As a landscape of intersectionality and diversity, the Southwest is the perfect place for beautiful intersectional art to grow, and Anaya charged Blue Mesa Review with tending those roots in our community. 

Today, we strive to continue to support and publish voices of the Southwest and the world at large, and to foster connections between our academic circle and the rich literary traditions of Albuquerque and New Mexico.

Blue Mesa Review is run by graduate students at University of New Mexico’s MFA program and assisted in our work by a faculty advisor and a team of graduate and undergraduate readers. In our thirty-four years and 40+ issues, our contributors have included Jimmy Santiago Baca, Sandra Cisneros, Joy Harjo, Sherwin Bitsui, and countless other exceptional writers.

Digital publications with stories chosen for Best of the Net anthologies. Selection indicates outstanding quality in the online fiction ecosystem. These journals demonstrate consistent excellence in identifying digital fiction that deserves wider recognition and readership.

Fiction Magazines Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Online publications with work selected (not just nominated) for inclusion in Best of the Net. The anthology chooses approximately 30 pieces annually across genres from hundreds of nominations. These journals consistently publish online work of exceptional quality that stands out in the digital literary landscape.

Lit Mags Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Online publications with essays selected for Best of the Net anthologies. The anthology typically includes 6-10 nonfiction pieces annually. These journals consistently publish digital essays and memoirs that exemplify the best of what's possible in online creative nonfiction.

Nonfiction Magazines Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Digital publications with poems chosen for Best of the Net anthologies. The anthology typically includes around 30 poems annually from hundreds of nominations. These journals consistently identify exceptional verse that represents the highest quality of poetry published online.

Poetry Magazines Featured in Best of the Net Anthologies

Blue Mesa Review

Fiction Spring Contest

Fall issue general call for fiction

We are looking for vibrant art from all mediums. We have a preference for landscape-oriented work due to the constraints of our website, but we're open to any art that moves us. Art with Southwestern themes is especially interesting to us, but that is never an exclusive preference. We'd be honored to engage with your work.

Spring issue call for art

General call

Submissions are now open for the Spring 2025 Blue Mesa Review Contest in Fiction, judged by Fernando Flores. First place winner receives $500, second place $100, and third place $25. All winners are published in the Spring 2025 issue of Blue Mesa Review.

Blue Mesa Review Spring Contest

Submissions are now open for the Spring 2025 Blue Mesa Review Contest in Poetry, judged by Sara Daniele Rivera. First place winner receives $500, second place $100, and third place $25. All winners are published in the Spring 2025 issue of Blue Mesa Review.

Submissions are now open for the Spring 2025 Blue Mesa Review Contest in Nonfiction, judged by Jenn Shapland. First place winner receives $500, second place $100, and third place $25. All winners are published in the Spring 2025 issue of Blue Mesa Review.

Fast Response

Fernando Flores is the guest judge for Blue Mesa Review's Spring 2025 Contest. We are looking for short fiction under 6,000 words that disturbs, delights, disarms, and demands. 

Sara Daniele Rivera is the guest judge for Blue Mesa Review's Spring 2025 Contest. We are looking for poetry that disturbs, delights, disarms, and demands. Submit up to three poems per submission packet.

Jenn Shapland is the guest judge for Blue Mesa Review's Spring 2025 Contest. We are looking for creative nonfiction under 6,000 words that disturbs, delights, disarms, and demands. 

We only accept submissions online via Submittable. We do not accept submissions via email or postal mail (with the exception of incarcerated writers). Any submissions received by means other than Submittable will be returned to the submitter unread or recycled if a stamped, self-addressed envelope was not provided. We do not consider work that has been previously published in print or online. Please do not submit anything that has been published on your blog, through your Facebook page, in other magazines including those online, or in an anthology or chapbook. We gladly accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately and withdraw your submission through the Submittable system. If a poem in a packet is accepted elsewhere, add a note identifying the piece that is no longer available. We encourage you to read past issues of Blue Mesa Review before submitting so you have a sense of the type of work we publish. Keep in mind that our editorial staff changes year-to-year, so variance in style, point of view, and themes is to be expected. Our editorial team often creates Staff Writes posts about the types of work we’re interested in publishing. We recommend you explore the Staff Writes for further insight into what catches our eye. You may submit to more than one genre. However, please submit no more than one submission in a given genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction). Multiple submissions in the same genre will be disregarded. Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, response time can be longer than our standard two-to-six months. Please be patient. If you have not heard from us in six months, you can contact us here. “Submission Query” should be the subject line. Individuals previously affiliated with the University of New Mexico (students, staff, and/or faculty), cannot submit to Blue Mesa Review until they have been unaffiliated for five years. If you have been published with Blue Mesa Review, please wait two years before submitting to us again. Submissions should be saved in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx). Prose submissions should be double-spaced. Poetry can be single-spaced. Please use a standard typeface and font size (12 pt). Pages should be numbered.

EXTENDED to 11/09: Poetry General Submission (Fall 2025)

We only accept submissions online via Submittable. We do not accept submissions via email or postal mail (with the exception of incarcerated writers). Any submissions received by means other than Submittable will be returned to the submitter unread or recycled if a stamped, self-addressed envelope was not provided.
We do not consider work that has been previously published in print or online. Please do not submit anything that has been published on your blog, through your Facebook page, in other magazines including those online, or in an anthology or chapbook.
We gladly accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately and withdraw your submission through the Submittable system. If a poem in a packet is accepted elsewhere, add a note identifying the piece that is no longer available.
We encourage you to read past issues of Blue Mesa Review before submitting so you have a sense of the type of work we publish. Keep in mind that our editorial staff changes year-to-year, so variance in style, point of view, and themes is to be expected.
Our editorial team often creates Staff Writes posts about the types of work we’re interested in publishing. We recommend you explore the Staff Writes for further insight into what catches our eye.
You may submit to more than one genre. However, please submit no more than one submission in a given genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction). Multiple submissions in the same genre will be disregarded.
Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, response time can be longer than our standard two-to-six months. Please be patient. If you have not heard from us in six months, you can contact us here. “Submission Query” should be the subject line.
Individuals previously affiliated with the University of New Mexico (students, staff, and/or faculty), cannot submit to Blue Mesa Review until they have been unaffiliated for five years. If you have been published with Blue Mesa Review, please wait two years before submitting to us again.
Submissions should be saved in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx). Prose submissions should be double-spaced. Poetry can be single-spaced. Please use a standard typeface and font size (12 pt). Pages should be numbered.

EXTENDED to 11/7: Creative Nonfiction General Submission (Fall 2025)

Sara Daniele Rivera is the guest judge for the Spring 2025 Blue Mesa Review contest in Poetry.

Poetry Spring Contest

Jenn Shapland is the guest judge for the Spring 2025 Blue Mesa Review contest in nonfiction.

Nonfiction Spring Contest

We welcome submissions of visual art for publication in Blue Mesa Review. Due to the layout of our online magazine, we have a strong preference for artwork oriented in a landscape or square mode. However, we will take the occasional exceptional portrait-oriented art.
If possible, please submit your artwork at 72 dpi resolution, at least 900 pixels in width, and a file size of at least 1 MB.
General Submission Guidelines: 
We only accept submissions online via Submittable. We do not accept submissions via email or postal mail (with the exception of incarcerated writers). Any submissions received by means other than Submittable will be returned to the submitter unread or recycled if a stamped, self-addressed envelope was not provided.
We do not consider work that has been previously published in print or online. Please do not submit anything that has been published on your blog, through your Facebook page, in other magazines including those online, or in an anthology or chapbook.
We gladly accept simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately and withdraw your submission through the Submittable system. If a poem in a packet is accepted elsewhere, add a note identifying the piece that is no longer available.
We encourage you to read past issues of Blue Mesa Review before submitting so you have a sense of the type of work we publish. Keep in mind that our editorial staff changes year-to-year, so variance in style, point of view, and themes is to be expected.
Our editorial team often creates blog posts about the types of work we’re interested in publishing. We recommend you explore our blog for further insight into what catches our eye.
You may submit to more than one genre. However, please submit no more than one submission in a given genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction). Multiple submissions in the same genre will be disregarded.
Due to the high volume of submissions we receive, response time can be longer than our standard two-to-six months. Please be patient. If you have not heard from us in six months, you can contact us at https://bmr.unm.edu/contact/. “Submission Query” should be the subject line.
Individuals previously affiliated with the University of New Mexico (students, staff, and/or faculty), cannot submit to Blue Mesa Review until they have been unaffiliated for five years.

Blue Mesa Review

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