Boudin: The Spicy Online Cousin of The McNeese Review
Boudin, the Spicy Online Cousin ofThe McNeese Review, features fiction and poetry, but welcomes hybrids and other forms of creative work. Recent issues have featured Angela Ball, Michael Czyzniejewski, Michael Martone, Sherrie Flick, Meg Pokrass, Grant Faulkner, and Lee Upton. Read more here.
In all genres, we are particularly interested in seeing work from women, people of color, LGBTQ writers, non-binary writers, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups.
_______
Submitting to Boudin
No material published in Boudin may be reprinted or reproduced, in whole or in part, without the permission of the authors. Writers retain all rights to their work. We ask only that Boudin be credited with first publication. Unfortunately, we are not a paying market; contributors to Boudin will receive our thanks and the promise that we’ll promote your work.
We encourage you to simultaneously submit your work while it’s under consideration at Boudin. If your submission is accepted by another publication, please withdraw your work via Submittable.
Please only submit original work. Let us know if your writing borrows from or quotes another writer.
Please indicate the genre of your submission in your cover letter (fiction, CNF, poetry, visual art).
Please limit your submissions to four issues per calendar year.
McNeese State University students and employees must be separated from the university for at least three years to qualify to submit to Boudin.
We are proud members of CLMP!
The McNeese Review Issue 61 (2024) is available for purchase! Back issues, as well as 2-Year, 3-Year, & 5-Year Subscriptions, are also available.
2026 Boudin Novelette Chapbook Contest
Final judge: Robert Olen Butler
Deadline: September 15th, 2026
Prizes: The winner will receive $1,000, 25 author copies, an author-signing at AWP 2027, promotion in Boudin (“the spicy online cousin of The McNeese Review”), and a three-year subscription to The McNeese Review. The winning manuscript will be published as a special issue of The McNeese Review and distributed by TRP: The University Press of SHSU.
Two runners-up will be offered publication of individual pieces in Boudin.
Fee: $20
Manuscript details: 25-40 manuscript pages of a single story in a readable font like 12-point Times New Roman. Unpublished and original work only. Include only a title page.
Your name and contact info should NOT appear anywhere on the manuscript. Please include a cover letter and third-person bio on the Submittable submission form.
Judging: The first rounds will be read anonymously by McNeese State University’s MFA faculty and students. The final round will be read anonymously by Robert Olen Butler, who will determine the winner and two runners-up.
Robert Olen Butler's short-story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993. His most recent novel is Twice Around a Marriage.
Other: Co-authored manuscripts are fine. Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each. Simultaneous submissions are fine; please withdraw immediately through Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please note that the AWP author signing will take place at the Boudin/McNeese Review booth, and does not include travel expenses. Current McNeese State University students and employees are not eligible to submit. McNeese alumni are welcome to submit if it has been at least three years since they graduated.
We, unfortunately, cannot award the prize money to international submissions, though can still offer publication and subscription prizes.
--
Boudin fine print
Please only submit original work. If your work borrows from or quotes another writer, please make explicit mention of this with your submission, giving full attribution to any material you’re using from another source. We do not accept any work that was written with the assistance of AI.
Please only submit new, previously-unpublished work.
Please limit your submissions to four issues per calendar year.
In all genres, we are particularly interested in seeing work from women, people of color, LGBTQ writers, non-binary writers, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups.
No material published in Boudin may be reprinted or reproduced, in whole or in part, without the permission of the authors. Writers retain all rights to their work. We ask for ourselves only that Boudin be credited with first publication. Unfortunately, we are not a paying market; contributors to Boudin will receive our thanks and the promise that we’ll promote your work.
We encourage you to simultaneously submit your work while it’s under consideration at Boudin. If your submission is accepted by another publication, please withdraw immediately through Submittable.
We look forward to seeing your work! Surprise us. Spice it up!
What makes your skin crawl? The little critter scuttling away when you turn on the light? The phantom itch on the back of your neck that you're almost certain is nothing? "Boo"din is looking for written and visual work that celebrates creepy crawlies and the quietly unsettling. Our team is crafting a Halloween issue filled with the worst many-legged horrors your mind can conjure. We are looking for pieces that embrace this fear in all its forms, from intimate encounters to nightmarish infestations, while capturing the suspense and unease they inspire.
This Halloween is a special issue with prizing: $100 for first place, $50 for second, and $25 for third! Because of this, the issue's submission fee will be 3$, and we are limiting submissions to one per person with the normal three poems in a single document counting as a single submission. We accept fiction, creative nonfiction, and hybrid submissions under 3,000 words. Please include your full name and the genre of your work in your cover letter. Though this is the Halloween issue, we will not accept work with gratuitous violence or gore. We are looking for the subtle, the creepy, and the unsettling. Final submissions are due no later than September 15th!