The Sam Hill! Review Gold Star Program Gold Star We are an independent literary journal of historical fiction & poetry that inspires an urge to say: "Now that was good as SAM HILL!"Somebody made off with historical fiction & left the indie lit mags holding an empty bag. What in the SAM HILL?! We want it back. We want wild, funny, gorgeous, difficult, irreverent work that smashes the museum display case.Send us the past with the dust still on it. Send us the faces the microfilm reader washed out & mangled. Send us the voices nobody bothered to transcribe. History was never told in one voice, & neither is this journal: we especially want work from writers who've been historically in the margins -- BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, older, disabled, & neurodivergent writers, & anyone whose angle on the past we haven't heard yet. We welcome submissions from anyone and everyone.Quick Links to Open Calls:Historical Fiction (closing in 48 days) FreeHistorical Poetry (closing in 48 days) Free Historical Fiction Free Tip Jar Option OpenCloses on Saturday, October 31, 2026 11:59 PM EDT (in 48 days).Any era, any place, preferably up to 3,000 words. If you have something longer, we might consider it. Novel excerpts are welcome if they stand on their own. Whatever era, whatever form, whatever degree of fidelity to the historical record.Just make it good as SAM HILL.Guidelines et ceteraSend one submission at a time. Wait to hear back before sending another.Work should be original & previously unpublished. Posted it on social media? That’s fine. Just take it down if we accept it.Simultaneous submissions encouraged. Tell us if your piece lands somewhere else, so we can congratulate you.We respond in about four weeks, hopefully much sooner. If it’s been longer than three months, nudge us at [email protected].Cover letters are nice. DON’T explain your work or tell us how to read it. DO include a short third-person bio. DO tell us about the COOL HISTORY THING. You know what we mean. DO give us a heads up if your piece deals with any sensitive historical topics.We can’t pay (alas!), & we’re currently online only. There may be print collections in the future.If we accept your piece, our goal is to publish it within four weeks.You retain all rights to your work. Republish it anywhere. It is yours. All we ask is that you credit The Sam Hill! Review as where it first appeared.We prefer .docx or .doc, but we will also accept .rtf, .pdf, .txt., .pages, et cetera. We wouldn't not accept cuneiform tablets or handwritten papyri.Format your work in Times New Roman 12 pt, double spaced, with your name, email, & word count at the top of the first page.Don't use AI. It smells bad.We only accept submissions via Duosuma.SubmitHistorical Poetry Free Tip Jar Option OpenCloses on Saturday, October 31, 2026 11:59 PM EDT (in 48 days).History-Based Short Poetry — up to 3 poems, 10 pages maxSend up to three poems in one document. Any form: received forms, free verse, prose poems, & whatever you’re building that doesn’t have a name yet. We’re drawn to poems that know one specific thing — a trade route, a tool, a grievance — & decline to explain it to us.History-Based Narrative Poetry — 1 poem, 10 pages maxOne poem that tells something. Ballads, chronicles, epics with the middle missing, verse that reads like testimony. Go Homeric or go home.Just make it good as SAM HILL.Guidelines et ceteraSend one submission at a time. Wait to hear back before sending another.Work should be original & previously unpublished. Posted it on social media? That’s fine. Just take it down if we accept it.Simultaneous submissions encouraged. Tell us if your piece lands somewhere else, so we can congratulate you.We respond in about four weeks, hopefully much sooner. If it’s been longer than three months, nudge us at [email protected].Cover letters are nice. DON’T explain your work or tell us how to read it. DO include a short third-person bio. DO tell us about the COOL HISTORY THING. You know what we mean. DO give us a heads up if your piece deals with any sensitive historical topics.We can’t pay (alas!), & we’re currently online only. There may be print collections in the future.If we accept your piece, our goal is to publish it within four weeks.You retain all rights to your work. Republish it anywhere. It is yours. All we ask is that you credit The Sam Hill! Review as where it first appeared.We prefer .docx or .doc, but we will also accept .rtf, .pdf, .txt., .pages, et cetera. We wouldn't not accept cuneiform tablets or handwritten papyri.Format your work in Times New Roman 12 pt, spaced however, with your name, email, & line count at the top of the first page.Don't use AI. It smells bad.We only accept submissions via Duosuma.SubmitFlash Histories I: Fiction Temp ClosedFor our inaugural call for submissions, we're looking for short fiction where the setting matches the word count.UPDATE: Now accepting any year from history (within reason).Here's how it works. Pick any year from history. That's the year your story should be set in, and it is also your exact word count. For example: a story set in 612 BCE should have exactly 612 words; a story of 1,859 words MUST be set in the year 1859.No rounding, no mercy, & yes we count. Some years we would be glad to see:771 BCE -- the Western Zhou world collapses612 BCE -- Nineveh falls, & the Assyrian Empire with it539 BCE -- Cyrus the Great takes Babylon525 BCE -- Persia conquers Egypt420 BCE -- Alcibiades is elected Strategos; a Quadruple Alliance ensues420 CE -- Adbas burns down a fire temple, is executed426 CE -- K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ founds a new dynasty at Copán525 CE -- Aksum crosses the Red Sea into Himyar536 CE -- volcanic ash dims the sun; famine follows, & a cold that lasts a century628 CE -- Brahmagupta writes down the rules for zero711 CE -- armies cross from North Africa into Visigothic Iberia while the Umayyads push into Sindh868 CE -- the Diamond Sutra is printedOr choose some other year. Major historical events don't need to be central to your work, or even mentioned. Give us the ordinary day, the rumor going around, the aftermath of something that happened three villages over, the thing nobody bothered to write down. The year is a setting, not a subject.For this call, we want original & previously unpublished only. We prefer .docx or .doc, but we will also accept .rtf, .pdf, .txt., .pages, et cetera. We wouldn't not accept cuneiform tablets or handwritten papyri.Format your work in Times New Roman 12 pt, double spaced, with your name, email, & word count at the top of the first page.(Don't use AI. It smells bad.)We only accept submissions via Duosuma. If you have questions, email us [email protected]Not OpenFlash Histories I: Poetry Temp ClosedFor our inaugural call for submissions, we're looking for short poetry where a time in history exactly matches the word count. Yes, we realize asking for word counts in poetry is unconventional.UPDATE: Now accepting poems responding to any year in history.Here's how it works. Pick any one year between 1000-400 BCE or 400-1000 CE. That's the year your poem should engage with, and it is also your exact word count. For example: a poem about the year in 420 CE should have exactly 420 words (in any number of lines or configurations); a poem of 1,732 lines should respond to events in the year 1732.No rounding, no mercy, & yes we count. Some years we would be glad to see:771 BCE -- the Western Zhou world collapses612 BCE -- Nineveh falls, & the Assyrian Empire with it539 BCE -- Cyrus the Great takes Babylon525 BCE -- Persia conquers Egypt420 BCE -- Alcibiades is elected Strategos; a Quadruple Alliance ensues420 CE -- Adbas burns down a fire temple, is executed426 CE -- K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ founds a new dynasty at Copán525 CE -- Aksum crosses the Red Sea into Himyar536 CE -- volcanic ash dims the sun; famine follows, & a cold that lasts a century628 CE -- Brahmagupta writes down the rules for zero711 CE -- armies cross from North Africa into Visigothic Iberia while the Umayyads push into Sindh868 CE -- the Diamond Sutra is printedOr choose some other year. Major historical events don't need to be central to your work, or even mentioned. Give us the ordinary day, the rumor going around, the aftermath of something that happened three villages over, the thing nobody bothered to write down.For this call, we want original & previously unpublished only. We prefer .docx or .doc, but we will also accept .rtf, .pdf, .txt., .pages, et cetera. We wouldn't not accept cuneiform tablets or handwritten papyri.Times New Roman 12 pt single spaced is nice, but format it however you need with your name, email, & word count at the top of the first page.Don't use AI. It smells bad.We only accept submissions via Duosuma. If you have questions, email us [email protected]Not Open Cookie Consent: This site uses secure first-party cookies for essential, preference-setting, and statistical purposes. We do not use any marketing, advertising, or third-party cookies. Read our full cookie policy. Accept All Cookies Allow Essential Cookies Only