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.
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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.
Do you hear those excited tails wagging? It’s time for Boudin’s annual pet writing contest! We want your best fiction about felines, poems about parakeets, creative nonfiction about camels, micros about manatees, and artwork about aardvarks. Invite the whole zoo! Man’s best friend takes many shapes and sizes, and we want to read all about yours no matter how many legs, tails, ears, or eyes they may have.
There is a $3 fee to submit. All proceeds will be donated to Lake Charles' animal shelters, Hobo Hotel for Cats and Do Good Dogs. This contest will be judged by our 2025 winner and runner-up, Tara Flaherty Guy and Robin Michel. The 2026 winner and runner-up will, if they would like to, serve as judges for our 2027 contest. Our deadline for submission is March 25.
Fiction/CNF/hybrid submissions under 3,000 words. You may submit up to three poems/flash fictions on the same document. We are also open for visual art. You may submit more than once but will have to pay an entry fee for each new submission. Please include your full name and the genre of your work in the submitted document. Boudin takes previously unpublished work only.
Pride is quickly approaching us, and it’s time that we find ways to celebrate the beauty and hope that can be found in the queer community! Boudin is looking for creative work that shows how and why you celebrate pride! We are currently looking for fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art that celebrates Pride. Send us your best pieces that explore what it means to have hope and pride in the LGBTQIA+ community.
No Fee! Fiction/CNF/hybrid submissions under 3,000. You may submit up to three poems/microfictions (under 500 words). Please include your full name and the genre of your work in your cover letter. If multiple pieces are submitted, please attach them all in one document in one submission. Please limit submissions to four issues per calendar year. Boudin takes previously unpublished work only.
2026 Boudin Novelette Chapbook Contest
Final judge: Robert Olen Butler
Deadline: June 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.
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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!