Welcome to The Good Life! 🍯
🌈 June 2026 Update: Submissions for the Autumn issue are open for all genres (poetry, short cnf, & short fiction are $4, flash is $2.50). 🌈 Micro Monday subs are open for prose only (fee of $ 2.50). 🌈 Artwork is temporarily closed while we select pieces for our summer issue. 🌈
The Good Life Review is an online literary journal committed to exploring the overlooked. Based out of Omaha, Nebraska—astride the oft-unnoticed—we recognize that there are a myriad of voices that call the regions surrounding us home. Our mission is to lift up the strange, the daring, and the underrepresented to reveal complexities hidden in the heartland and beyond.
We nominate for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfictions, and the Pen/Dau Short Story Prize. We pay $60 for writing published in our seasonal issues, and $25 for Micro Monday features and cover art.
General guidelines are as follows:
- Simultaneous submissions are cool, cool. Withdraw in Submittable.
- The Good Life Review acquires First North American Serial Rights and the right to maintain an archive copy of the work online. All other rights revert to the author upon publication, with a request that if the work is reprinted, appropriate acknowledgment to The Good Life Review is made.
- We do not publish offensive work or pieces that exhibit hatred directed toward a particular gender, race, ethnicity, ability, sexual identity, age, socioeconomic class, or disability. In other words, if you are an asshole, we don’t want your writing or your money.
- If there is a content warning, please include it in the submitted document before the work.
- We prefer to read blind, so please remove your name from the submitted document.
- Your submission will NOT be disqualified if it was submitted incorrectly. We will not penalize you for a mistake, and if we have a question or concern about your submission, we will contact you. Please know that we are on your side. Thank you for trusting us with your work.
- Work must be original and previously uncurated. Work appearing on a personal blog or social media is fine. Please reference this thoughtful article by Tim Green on curation. We want your very best!
Currently Supported Genres:
Poetry, short fiction, flash fiction, micro fiction, short cnf, flash cnf, micro cnf, and any of the aforementioned translated from Spanish to English (with the original author's permission). We are also dipping our toes into the wonderful world of spoken word. Details available under our open call for the upcoming issue.
Reading Periods:
The Good Life Review is always open. Reading and selection for our seasonal issues is based on the following schedule:
January 21 – April 20 (Summer Issue). Final decisions in May.
April 21 – July 20 (Autumn Issue). Final decisions in August.
July 21 – October 20 (Winter Issue). Final decisions in November.
October 21 – January 20 (Spring Issue). Final decisions in February.
The Honeybee Poetry Prize: October 21 – April 20. Finalists are selected in May, and the winner in June.
We publish micro pieces on a semi-monthly basis on TGLR Buzz ~ Micro Monday. Work submitted to any category/project that meets the micro requirement (under 400 words) will also be under consideration for this segment.
If a project is not listed / available, it means we have reached our submission cap and our editors are busy working through the queue.
To get a sense for the kind of work we publish, please visit thegoodlifereview.com
Work submitted here will be considered for our Micro Monday feature -- a twice-monthly release of micro pieces that appear onThe Buzz and our home page. These pieces are also sent to our subscribers, shared on social media, and sometimes promoted on our Substack. Payment for a spot in Micro Monday is $25 per published piece.
Genre guidelines are as follows...
- Send one piece per submission.
- We consider original, previously unpublished stories and essays up to 400 words.
- Prose should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated with one-inch margins and a 12-point serif font, preferably Times New Roman in Word or PDF format.
- If there are content warnings, please include those in the submitted document preceding the piece.
- We prefer to read blind, so please remove your name from the submitted document.
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For longer work, please use the short or flash categories/portals instead.
We are not currently accepting micro poetry via this portal. Bummer, but it is what it is.
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We also support Spanish translations, provided the rights to translate have been previously acquired. Be sure and check the box for translation on the form.
A comprehensive set of guidelines can be found on the submission page of our website.
We will respond to work submitted here within 3 months. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Work submitted here will be considered for our Autumn 2026 issue (online).
Payment for prose is $60 per published piece. Payment for poetry is $60 per poem, $75 for two.
This submission portal is for short fiction, short creative nonfiction, and poetry. For flash pieces (prose 400-1000 words), please use the submission portal "Flash Fiction and Creative Nonfiction." For micro pieces (prose under 400 words), please use the submission portal "Open Call for Micro." Thanks!
General Guidelines...
- Original, previously unpublished work only.
- If there are content warnings, please include those in the submitted document preceding the piece.
- We prefer to read blind, so please remove your name from the submitted document.
For fiction and creative nonfiction...
- One piece per submission, between 1000 and 5000 words. Please select the correct category on the form so the submission can be routed to the correct editorial team.
- Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated with one-inch margins and a 12-point serif font, preferably Times New Roman in Word or PDF format.
For poetry...
- There is no length limit on individual poems, but please send no more than 5 poems per submission and no more than 10 pages in total.
- Begin each poem on a new page. Page numbers are appreciated.
- Poems should be typed with at least one-inch margins and a 12-point serif font, preferably Times New Roman in Word or PDF format. We do our best to format poems to the exact specification desired.
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We also support Spanish translations, provided the rights to translate have been acquired in advance.
Multiple submissions are allowed, but the fee will apply to each.
A comprehensive set of guidelines is available on the submission page of our website.
We will respond to work submitted here within 2-3 months. Thank you in advance for your patience.
Work submitted here will be considered for our Autumn 2026 issue (online).
Payment for work published in our seasonal issue is $60 per published piece.
This submission portal is for flash fiction and flash creative nonfiction. For longer prose pieces (1000 - 5000 words) or poetry, please use the submission portal "Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, & Poetry." For micro pieces (prose under 400 words or a single poem, 1 page max), please use the submission portal "Open Call for Micro." Thanks!
Guidelines...
- Original, previously unpublished work only.
- If there are content warnings, please include those in the submitted document preceding the piece.
- We prefer to read blind, so please remove your name from the submitted document.
- One piece per submission, between 400 and 1000 words. Please select the correct category on the form so the submission can be routed to the correct editorial team.
- Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated with one-inch margins and a 12-point serif font, preferably Times New Roman in Word or PDF format.
-------------------------
We also support Spanish translations, provided the rights to translate have been previously acquired.
A comprehensive set of guidelines can be found on the submission page of our website.
We will respond to work submitted here within 3 months. Thank you in advance for your patience.