Our literary quarterly provides a forum for the sharing of ideas about books, particularly those that may be overlooked by mainstream review media or marginalized for presumed strangeness, difficulty, or other othering. Our Print Issues appear in March, June, September, and December; an accompanying Online Edition with additional, unique material is posted after each print issue. 

While Rain Taxi focuses on reviews of current book releases (generally those published within the previous nine months), it also devotes space to interviews, essays, and critical reflections on older books that continue to resonate. Because we are focused on the kind of writing that has been historically underrepresented, we are especially interested in book coverage written by and/or about BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women authors. 

Rain Taxi publishes work by writers in all stages of their careers. Submissions are accepted year-round, except for the months of June and December. 

To submit a book review, please click the button below. Before submitting, please note:

• We do not consider simultaneous submissions. If a piece is under consideration or has been published anywhere else, we cannot consider it for publication.
• We do not accept submissions of original poetry or fiction.
• We do not accept AI-generated reviews.
• We require disclosure of any connections to the author or publisher of the book being reviewed.

If you do not have a finished piece ready but you would like to pitch a review and have a strong drive to complete it within a reasonable time frame, write to us at info [at] raintaxi [dot] com. Please include the following in your message.

• The book’s title, author, publisher, and publication date.
• How you acquired (or plan to acquire) a copy of the book.
• An explanation of any professional or personal connections you may have with the author or publisher of the book.
• Confirmation that you are not pitching this elsewhere until we respond (typically within three days).
• If this is your first time pitching to Rain Taxi, tell us a bit about your background, reading interests, favorite authors, and other publications (if any).

If pitching an interview, please send the information above, along with how and when you plan to conduct the interview and any initial sense of its scope or focus.  If we choose to move forward, we’ll share additional interview guidelines with you.

If pitching a different type of piece (i.e. essay, feature on an older book, etc.), please provide any background information that may help us evaluate your proposal.

ETHICAL AND EDITORIAL GUIDELINES:

• Rain Taxi is dedicated to publishing reviews written by readers unaffiliated with the author or publisher of the book they are reviewing. If you do have some connection with the author or press, please disclose it upon submission—not all relationships constitute conflicts of interest, but we respectfully request your candor.

• We discourage reviewers from having direct contact with the author or publisher prior to submitting a review—our editorial staff will communicate with them as necessary. If you feel it is important to contact the author or publisher, please tell us so that we can help design a best course of action.

• Rain Taxi publishes only original work that has not appeared previously in any other public venue, including magazines, newspapers, personal web sites or blogs, and social media.

• Rain Taxi does not accept work of which any part is plagiarized, including from a book’s publicity materials, and we do not consider pieces composed using AI tools.

• If you have published or shared a review of the same book anywhere, including on social media, we are unlikely to consider a new piece for publication in Rain Taxi. In a time when so many worthwhile books are being published, we encourage reviewers to spread their critical wings widely.

• We reserve the right to edit, though our editing suggestions are always discussed with the writer before publication. We also reserve the right not to publish work that we feel does not meet our editorial standards or is in conflict with our mission and aesthetic.

• Rain Taxi encourages quoting passages from books in reviews; reviewers should provide page numbers or other location assistance for quotations so our staff can check them for accuracy prior to publication.

• Once edited and approved for publication, your piece will be published in either an upcoming print issue of Rain Taxi Review of Books or in our Online Edition at www.raintaxi.org—this is up to our discretion, but let us know upon submission if you have a strong preference for either.

• While we generally prefer to use our limited space for discussion of books that have a high level of artistic merit, we also consider negative reviews that are respectfully written and provide substantive context.

• Rain Taxi holds the copyright to all articles published. Copyright reverts to the author one year after publication, though Rain Taxi should always be credited as the original source. Please discuss with us any reprint plans.

• As a small nonprofit organization, Rain Taxi does not issue payments on a per-piece basis, but instead sends honoraria to writers who have contributed multiple pieces over the course of the preceding fiscal year. This allows us to invest our resources in maintaining our high circulation and good reputation, thus making Rain Taxi a place where writers will be widely read and are proud to be published. This method has been endorsed by our reviewers—we periodically conduct contributor surveys to ensure that we are serving the literary community as best as possible with the resources we have.