RAIN TAXI SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

To submit a review | To submit a book

Reviewer Submissions

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING YOUR REVIEW TO RAIN TAXI

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. 

Please note that we do not accept submissions of original poetry or fiction.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Rain Taxi welcomes both pitches and finished submissions. If you are submitting a finished piece, please use this Google form: Rain Taxi Submission Intake. This will give us the information we need to know in order to consider your submission; it also includes guidelines for formatting. Due to increased volume, we are no longer accepting finished submissions over email or snail mail. 

We do not consider simultaneous submissions. If a piece has been submitted, published, or is under consideration anywhere else, we cannot consider it for publication.

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 if your pitch is accepted, please write to info[at]raintaxi[dot]com and 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 a day or two). 
  • If this is your first time pitching to Rain Taxi, we also encourage you to 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.

For all who wish to share literary insights with readers via Rain Taxi, please read our fuller guidelines below. Thanks for honoring your work and ours by engaging with these thoughts.

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 any connection with the author or press, please disclose it up front—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 serve as the go-between if any communication is necessary. If you feel it is essential that you contact the author or publisher, please check with us prior to doing so 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 reviews or essays composed using AI tools.
  • If you have published a different review of the same title anywhere, 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 when reviewing, but reviewers should provide page numbers or other location assistance for quotations, as our staff checks quoted material 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.com. Which format it will appear in 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, negative reviews that engage larger issues are certainly welcome.
  • 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 method 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 reviewers themselves in our most recent reviewer’s survey; we periodically conduct these surveys to ensure that we are serving the literary community as best as possible with the resources we have.

Publisher and Author Submissions

HOW TO SUBMIT A BOOK FOR REVIEW CONSIDERATION

Rain Taxi generally considers books in the categories of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, art, and graphic novels, unless there is a book in another genre with a significant literary connection. We review children's and young adult books, audio books, and chapbooks, though less frequently.

Please understand that we can review only a small percentage of the books we receive. We appreciate the opportunity to consider work from a variety of publishers, and all books are considered fairly. As a quarterly publication, we often take several months to consider a book; please do not send follow-up queries. We will notify you if your title is selected for review, and we always send tearsheets or links upon publication.

Also note that we DO NOT accept electronic files of any kind—only printed books (finished books or bound galleys) are accepted for consideration.

Publishers or authors who would like to have a new release considered for review are welcome to submit review copies and any relevant press information to our mailing address:

Rain Taxi
PO Box 3840
Minneapolis, MN 55403

Rain Taxi’s chapbook series does not accept unsolicited manuscripts at any time.