Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of magazine is The Dolomite Review?
The Dolomite Review is a reader-centric magazine. We love a great story as much as you do. So, Readers (and writers) can expect high quality literature be it fiction, poetry or essays.
Can I find your magazine at a bookstore or library?
No, The Dolomite Review is only online. We publish only four times a year. There is no subscription, however, so you can read any time at TheDolomiteReview.com.
What should a writer consider when submitting to The Dolomite Review?
For any writer wanting to submit to a literary magazine, it is very important to read their previous issues. I cannot stress this enough. Every magazine has its own style, aims, voice and preferences. The Dolomite Review is no different.
What we seek is, of course, excellent writing. We are looking for literary forms. We don’t generally publish in a specific genre, or for a targeted audience, such as by age or gender. Our About page explains is more fully, but The Dolomite Review is, in a nutshell, Midwestern Storytelling. So writers should consider whether your writing meets that criteria.
Does that mean the writer needs to be living in the Midwest?
Absolutely not. It helps if the writer lives or lived in the Midwest, but The Dolomite Review highlights Midwestern sensibilities. The work does not even need to be about the Midwest, but some tie to the Midwest needs to be obvious to the reader.
Do you target a specific type of reader?
No. The Dolomite Review is for anyone who loves a great story. While some of our readers may also be writers, we are not aimed exclusively at writers. That’s why we don’t publish interviews, reviews, or publishing-industry news. Our focus is on strong storytelling that appeals to readers first. In short, our readers are hungry for stories.
What kind of stories does The Dolomite Review publish?
Great stories. In fiction, we want a captivating subject, interesting and relatable (and believable) characters. We want plot that appeals to Midwestern experiences. They might be entirely new experiences, like "Trapline," in our first issue. None of the staff of The Dolomite Review has trapped animals before, but what appealed to us about this story was the familiarity of the characters. These are people we might have gone to school with ourselves, their speech, their cadence, even the voice of the narrator, is unmistakably Midwestern.
What about essays and poetry?
I think readers will be surprised at the poetry published in The Dolomite Review. Storytelling is still, maybe more, primary in the poetry we aim to publish. Narrative poetry is particularly appealing to us. Read the two poems "Reuniting with My Brother" and "The Night Before." This is poetry that anyone can understand. Esoteric poetry is not our style. We don’t want the poems we print to have so many metaphors that the reader needs a placard to understand it. We generally won’t publish experimental or shape poetry either.
As for essays, this is a form where writers can really dig deep into the Midwestern perspective. We don’t mean folksy or overnice, although language is part of what makes Midwest literature unique. The Midwest experience is as diverse as any part of the world. Look at the two essays in our first issue, It Was the Kind of Day and Recipe. No two essay forms could be as different as these: one very poetic and the other straight narrative. Yet both of these essays reveal something of what it means to be the mother of a son in the Midwest.
Is there a subscription fee?
No. The Dolomite Review is absolutely free. We cannot promise it will always be that way, but we are a new magazine and know we need to prove ourselves before any of our readers make a commitment.