Upcoming Issue:

We are currently accepting submissions for our Fall ‘24 issue. The theme is spirit.

Spirit: soul, essence. Breath, life. Liveliness, with a shadow of afterlife, of death, of the close unknown.

We eagerly await your submissions. The deadline is October 4th, 2024, 11:59pm CT.

Submission Guidelines

We accept translations of poetry, short or excerpted fiction, plays, and literary nonfiction into English.

A critical component of your submission is the Translator’s Note.  Please use this opportunity to speak to the source and receiving contexts of the work and any unique challenges faced in the act of translation itself. Take care here—the Translator’s Note is often a deciding factor in our review process.

We happily accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.

To be considered for publication, submissions must include:

• Both the original text and the translation in a copy-pastable text file format. Please, no .pdfs. If you absolutely must submit a .pdf in order to make the submission deadline, please notify us of this in your submission, and be prepared to supply a copy-pastable text file in advance of publication.
• Brief biographies (100-150 words each) of both author and translator.
• A Translator’s Note (150-500 words, approximately) in which you reflect on the translation process or another important aspect of your work that will help readers to contextualize, appreciate, and understand your piece.
• Proof of permission from the original’s rightsholder(s) for publication of the original text on the internet.

To submit, please collate all of the above in a single .doc or .docx attachment with the file name format translator’s surname_author’s surname_original language_genre.doc (e.g. Schmidt_Do_Arabic_fiction.doc) and email to studorg-exchanges@uiowa.edu. Submissions lacking any or multiple of the above components will not be accepted for publication.

When you send your submission, the subject of your email must be: TRASUB-Translator’s name, Author’s name (e.g. TRASUB-Juan Schmidt, Jane Doe). Emails with alternate subject lines are likely to be filtered or lost.

If your work has appeared previously in Exchanges, we encourage you to wait at least one submission cycle before submitting again.

Submission Length

• POETRY: no more than 7 poems.
• FICTION: no more than 4,000 words.
• DRAMA: no more than 15 pages.
• LITERARY NONFICTION: no more than 4,000 words, or 2,500 words of translated criticism.
• REVIEWS OF A SINGLE WORK: no more than 1,000 words.
• REVIEWS OF MULTIPLE WORKS: no more than 2,000 words.
• INTERVIEWS: no more than 2,500 words.
• ESSAYS ON TRANSLATION: no more than 2,500 words.

Compensation and Rights

Unfortunately, Exchanges has no funds with which to compensate translators, authors or artists. We ask for first serial rights, after which the rights for all work revert to the author and translator.

Translating from an Ancient Language?

Please consider submitting to our sister publication, Ancient Exchanges. Submission dates and guidelines can be found at https://exchanges.uiowa.edu/ancient/submissions/

Reviews, essays, and interviews

Exchanges considers English-language interviews, essays and other writing on translation and translation studies for publication in our features column. Writers should query the features editor at studorg-exchanges@uiowa.edu, subject line “Feature pitch.” Please note there is currently a 3-6 month response time for feature and review pitches.

Exchanges is excited to start publishing more regular reviews of literature in translation. We are currently looking for reviewers for books translated into English, published during the calendar year 2023. To pitch a review, query the reviews editor at studorg-exchanges@uiowa.edu, subject line “Review pitch.”

Features and reviews are considered and published on a rolling basis,  so please contact us any time.