Centre for Poetry and Poetics & Creative Writing - University of Sheffield

Call for Submissions: Spring, Sheffield Review, 2026 (for all UoS students, staff, alumni and affiliates).

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – THEME: ‘IN TRANSIT’

The Sheffield Review, the University of Sheffield’s creative writing journal, request your submissions for our twenty-second issue. We are seeking creative work that responds to the theme of ‘in transit’ for our 2026 edition, in the medium of prose, poetry, experimental/hybrid writing, literary translation experiment, drama or visual art.

Whilst our theme ‘in transit’ is designed to be expansive, work may examine liminality, moments of transition, cross-cultural fusions/conflicts, the crossing of boundaries (interpersonal, sociopolitical, or textual) or what it means to be in a state of flux.

Other ways into the theme:

travel stories that involve transitions of any kind
translations or translatory encounters
trans and transitioning
transtemporal events
refugee and migrant crises
motions of mind
transgression
crossings, quests, arcs
poetics of transformation / metamorphosis


The issue is open to writers and artists who are from or are affiliated with the University of Sheffield. The deadline for submissions is 20th April and the launch of the journal is scheduled for 20th May.

The general editor is Adam Piette. The journal is divided into sections, each of which has an editorial team run by a staff editor working with postgraduate editors.

Please send submissions to the following genre editors, confirming your status (u/g, MA, postgrad, alumni, affiliate) and including your year of study if applicable:

Short fiction & creative non-fiction
For all prose submissions (complete short stories or extracts from longer works, of no more than 2,000 words), and creative non-fiction (experimental nonfiction, essays, memoirs, opinion pieces, theory work, reviews or something stranger, in the interstices between these genres), please submit to Adam Piette
([email protected]).

Poetry & Experimental/Hybrid Writing-Translation
Submit your poems (prose poems, poetic prose, essay poems, experimental, hybrid work or extract from a longer sequence etc as well as any literary translation experiment are all welcome...) of no more than (circa) 200-300 lines to Ágnes Lehóczky: ([email protected]).

Performance
Plays, scripts, sketches or performance pieces of all kinds to Frances Babbage: ([email protected]).

Visual Art
Photography, illustrations, drawings, short film and other visual material, to Elena Barham: ([email protected]).

A stunning article by one of our very own Creative Writing students on writing, collaboration, thinking and dialogue, on poetry readings and our Centre for Poetry and Poetics & Creative Writing - University of Sheffield and the work we do, on all things at risk and on all that matter. And on Paradise.

Why should we care what our lecturers are up to? In Conversation with Ágnes Lehóczky - Forge Press

Why should we care what our lecturers are up to? In Conversation with Ágnes Lehóczky - Forge Press Our lecturers are mysterious individuals. Most of us know very little about them aside from the occasional shared anecdote from their lives beyond teaching. Of course, we know they’re academics, we know they’re especially skilled in what they’re teaching us, but it’s easy to forget that they...

Our very own Creative Writing student, Lilly Ryan's show coming soon:

The Devil Went Down to Parliament by Lilly Ryan at Sheffield University Drama Studio Tickets are now available for The Devil Went Down to Parliament by Lilly Ryan at Sheffield University Drama Studio, Sheffield between Thursday 12th March 2026 and Saturday 14th March 2026. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

If in and around London...

Book Launch: Apropos Paradise Square - On a Literature of Consolation Ágnes Lehóczky in conversation with Katharine Kilalea

https://newwritingnorth.com/northern-writers-awards-2026-open-for-entries/

Northern Writers' Awards 2026 open for entries - New Writing North The Northern Writers’ Awards are open for submissions for 2026. England’s largest and longest running writer development scheme offers support...

Alex Houen and Adam Piette are pleased to announce the launch of the latest issue of Blackbox Manifold, issue 35:
​
​https://blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/
​
​featuring work by:
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​Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné, Cameron Clark, James Coghill, Toby d'Arpino, David Eileen, Naomi Foyle, Angela Gardner, Rebecca Goss, Kevin Graham, Michael Grieve, Eddie Heaton, Chris Holdaway, A.W. Kindness, Dorothy Lehane, Emmett Lewis, Shara McCallum, David Mullin & Tom Branfoot, Elizabeth Robinson, Peter Surkov, Philip Terry, Steven Waling and Tom White. Adam Piette reviews Keston Sutherland and Jennifer Scappettone.
​
If you like what you read, please spread the word!

The editors are very pleased to announce the launch of issue 34 (Summer 2025) of Blackbox Manifold. Please click through to:

https://blackboxmanifold.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/

and enjoy the work of:

Kat Addis, Sascha Akhtar, Annie Baker, Charlie Baylis, Linda Black, Catherine Bither, Iain Britton, Kimberly Campanello, Imogen Cassels, Joel Chace, Stuart Cooke, Ken Evans, Adam Flint, Alexander Gaul, Anthony John, Trevor Joyce, Matt Kirkham, Mark Lawlor, Ágnes
Lehóczky, Becka Mara McKay, Mendoza, Stephen Nelson, Laurence Morris, Kevin O'Farrell, Joseph Persad, Daniel Remein, Antony Rowland, Mykyta Ryzhykh, Caleb Scott, Jess Smith, Stephen Sutherland, Corey Wakeling, G.C. Waldrep, Erin Wilson.
Olivia Boyle reviews Imogen Cassels. David Brazil reviews Chris Nealon. Adam Piette reviews Kyle Booten, Kimberly Campanello, Dom Hale, Ágnes Lehóczky, Jennifer Soong.

If you enjoy what you see, do please spread the word, and thanks to our excellent poets!

Editors Alex Houen & Adam Piette

Blackbox Manifold Kat Addis Sascha Akhtar Annie Baker Charlie Baylis Linda Black Catherine Bither Iain Britton Kimberly Campanello Imogen Cassels Joel Chace Stuart Cooke Ken Evans Adam Flint Alexander Gaul Anthony John Trevor Joyce Matt Kirkham

Sheffield Review Issue 21 is out now... comprising poetry, fiction and visual art by University of Sheffield's students, staff and alumni. Enjoy....

Sheffield Review the sheffield review is the University of Sheffield’s creative writing magazine and this year has thetheme of Spectrality. We are looking forward to receiving submissions that look at haunted spaces,places, minds, at the spooky presence of the past in the present, at doubles, shadows, liminal zone...