Cherry Tree welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade. We are open to submissions for Issue 11 from August 1 to October 1. Cherry Tree only considers original, unpublished work. For accepted work, we purchase First North American serial rights. Payment is $20 per contributor and two contributor's copies.

The $3 reading fee helps us to pay contributors and defray publication costs. 10% of these fees will be donated to Minary's Dream Alliance, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization which transforms the lives of youth, families, and communities through education, resource development, and community engagement with programs in youth mentorship and support. The editors will personally match the donation (up to $500).

Submissions are only accepted via Submittable (except for currently incarcerated writers). Please familiarize yourself with our mission statement and guidelines before submitting.

Please send no more than 5 poems, 5 flash prose pieces, or 20 total pages of prose uploaded as a single file.

Simultaneous submissions are fine. If any of the submission is accepted elsewhere, please notify us by adding a note to your submission in Submittable. We will happily consider the remaining work in your original submission.

Use the comments section to enter a cover letter, then click submit. Please include contact information, including email address and phone number.

Cherry Tree does not allow any revisions to submissions during the reading period. Rest assured that typos and other minor mistakes will not deter us from accepting otherwise outstanding work. If your work is accepted, you will be allowed to make necessary corrections prior to publication. 

You are able to withdraw a part of your submission (a poem or flash piece, for instance) by making a note in Submittable. If you want to withdraw an entire piece, you are welcome to submit again in that genre, though each submission will incur a separate reading fee.

We welcome work in translation that has not yet been published in English. It is the translator’s responsibility to secure all necessary permissions before submitting.

Submissions that make use of an AI tool must also meet the standard of significant imaginative or intellectual transformation as laid out in fair use laws. We require that submissions which use AI be accompanied by a description of the process, include links to source material, delineate clearly human and AI contributions, and be as explicit as possible about the origins of the AI in question. Work entirely generated by AI will not be accepted. We generally will reject on the grounds of plagiarism a work which borrows too heavily from other published authors.

If your work has been published in a previous issue of Cherry Tree, please wait 2 years before submitting again. For example, if you were published in Issue 10, please wait to submit again until we are reading work for Issue 12.

Further queries may be directed to managing editor Amber Taliancich (aallen5@washcoll.edu). All submissions will receive a response by the end of November.

Writers currently incarcerated may send paper submissions to: James Allen Hall c/o Rose O'Neill Literary House, 300 Washington Ave., Chestertown, MD 21620 or via email to lit_house@washcoll.edu. Please state this in your letter. 

Current Washington College students and those who have graduated in the past 4 years are not eligible to submit to Cherry Tree.

Subscriptions are $15 for 1 issue (1 year) and $26 (2 years). Back issues are available for $10 each, or $25 for a bundle of 3. Cherry Tree can be purchased at our online store, where we also sell letterpress broadsides, chapbooks, and swag items.