Mid-American Review

ABOUT

Mid-American Review has been published by Bowling Green State University's Department of English and Creative Writing Program since 1981, making it one of the longer-running academic literary journals in the U.S. It has printed poetry and prose from writers including Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Rita Dove, Maggie Smith, Carl Dennis, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Stephen Dunn, Cate Marvin, Michael Martone, David Kirby, and Camille Dungy, and work first published there has gone on to Best American Poetry, Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Pushcart Prize anthologies, O. Henry Prize Stories, New Stories from the South, Poetry Daily, and Harper's Magazine. Its most distinctive ongoing feature is a translation chapbook series that has introduced English-language readers to poets such as Wisława Szymborska, Salgado Maranhão, and Circe Maia, via translators including Jesse Lee Kercheval and Alexis Levitin.

The journal is entering a announced two-year hiatus after publishing volume 44 in May 2026, tied to curricular changes in BGSU's Creative Writing Program, so poets should not expect open submissions or new issues during that window; the site directs writers to its social media for updates on when reading periods resume. No current submission fees, pay rates, or named editors are listed on the site itself — as with many university-housed journals, editorial staff rotates with the graduate program, and specific submission mechanics (Submittable link, reading periods, response times) will need to be confirmed once normal operations resume.