The Missouri Review
ABOUT
The Missouri Review was founded in 1978 at the University of Missouri and has grown into one of the most consistently respected literary quarterlies in the country, known for combining fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews with a strong track record of publishing emerging writers alongside established names. The magazine is closely associated with the Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize (fiction, poetry, and nonfiction) and the Perkoff Prize, and it maintains an active online presence with features like "Poem of the Week," "Blast" (flash prose), and author interviews under the Miller Conversations series. Speer Morgan, one of the magazine's founding editors, has remained editor-in-chief for most of its history, giving TMR unusual editorial continuity for a university-based journal.
Submissions are accepted year-round through an online portal (missourireview.com/submissions), a policy the magazine states explicitly rather than running narrow reading windows, which makes it more flexible than many quarterlies. The magazine pays contributors — a point of pride historically distinguishing it from many academic journals — though current rates aren't listed on the page scraped here and should be confirmed via submission guidelines. Separate contest tracks (the Editors' Prize and Perkoff Prize) carry their own entry fees and deadlines distinct from general submissions; poets should check the contests page directly rather than assume free entry. The print magazine appears on a quarterly schedule (four numbered issues per volume year, e.g., 49.1 through 49.4), with full issue content largely reserved for subscribers online.