Our mission is discovery.
Since its founding in 1956 at The University of Tulsa, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry’s mission has been the discovery, development, and promotion of new writing.
Nimrod is published twice a year and features the best new poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. Our spring issue is thematic and often dedicated to writers from one region of the world; we have devoted issues to China, India, Australia, Vietnam, the Celtic Fringe, and Mexico, as well as many other regions and countries. The spring issue also features the winners and finalists of our newest prize: The Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, which recognize fiction and poetry by writers at the beginning of their writing careers. Our fall issue features the winners and finalists of The Nimrod Literary Awards: The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. Selections from Nimrod have been included in The Best American Short Stories, Best Stories from the South, New Voices in American Fiction, Best New Poets, Best American Poetry, and many other noted anthologies.
Since its beginning, Nimrod has attracted original work from such renowned writers as Michael Blumenthal, Mahmud Darwish, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, S. E. Hinton, Sue Monk Kidd, Maxine Kumin, Stanley Kunitz, Ursula K. LeGuin, Denise Levertov, Pablo Neruda, Alicia Ostriker, Linda Pastan, Octavio Paz, Isaac Bashevis Singer, William Stafford, and Mark Strand, among many others.
Nimrod supports and defends the literary tradition of small magazines, spotlighting lesser-known poets and writers and providing foundations for their literary careers. We promote a living literature, believing that it is possible to search for, recognize, and reward contemporary writing of imagination, substance, and skill.
- On a national and international scale, Nimrod helps new writers find their audiences through publication in our semiannual journal. We offer new and promising work that may be unfamiliar to readers, such as writing from countries not well represented in the American mainstream, writing in translation, and writing from people of under-represented ages, races, and sexual identities.
- On a local scale, we sponsor writing workshops, readings, and classes to help illuminate the writing craft, and to allow readers direct contact with writers both well-known and newly-discovered. Our strong base at The University of Tulsa allows us to partner with other national and local organizations in many of our programs, reaching writers and readers of all demographics.
- On a personal scale, we continue our longstanding dedication to a full review of every submission to Nimrod by at least two readers from our Editorial Board. We also remain committed to responding personally to the hundreds of submissions we receive, often offering direct editorial feedback geared to helping writers expand their craft.
We hope you will join us in our mission as a reader, donor, or submitter—or all three.
A message to our friends regarding Nimrod operations during COVID-19
As the world faces the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to let you know how Nimrod is being affected and what our staff is doing during these uncertain times.
Nimrod operations are still open—we’re reading manuscripts, responding to emails, sharing information online, and more. Like many of you, however, our small staff is doing this mainly from home, as the University of Tulsa is currently an almost entirely remote campus. This means that some of our normal operations, such as sending out purchased copies of the magazine, may be delayed until we can get back onto campus for good. If you have purchased an issue or subscription, you will receive your issues—it just may take us a little longer to get them to you. We ask you to bear with us if we are slower than usual to respond to any request or need. We also recommend that anyone wishing to submit to the magazine do so online if at all possible, though we will, of course, still read all submissions sent by mail.
This is a difficult and scary time for us all. One of the great gifts available to us while we hunker down at home or keep up our social distance, however, is literature. Stories and poems can take us anywhere—to distant places and times or even to realms that have never existed. They bring us laughs, distractions, and comfort when we need them. They remind us of our shared humanity, of the way that we are all in this together. Because of the great power of stories in times of crisis, we’re hoping to add some temporary content to our website and share work by our contributors as a small way to do our part to bolster spirits through words.
Readers, look for solace in the pages of books. Writers, keep writing—we need your stories more than ever. Friends of all kinds, please stay safe and well.
Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry
800 S. Tucker Drive
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104
918-631-3080
