The Arkansas International

Submissions open now!!!

We are thrilled to announce that The Arkansas International has been selected as a 2026 grant recipient by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses( CLMP), in collaboration with the Amazon Literary Partnership. This critical support will allow us to advance our mission of publishing. Our sincere thanks to [ c l m p ]] and Amazon Literary Partnership.

Read Holden Schmale’s review of The Even Tenor of Our Ways on our website!

Huge congratulations to our 2026 Henry Dumas Prize Winner Siavash Saadlou for his incredible piece “Mi Padre”!!

Judge John Keene said:

“Mi Padre” is a resonant and timely work of short fiction, melding a poignant, compelling narrative with thematic depth and psychological sophistication. “Mi Padre” follows the experience of its protagonist, Jubin, an Iranian graduate student at a Milan polytechnic university, after he decides to travel to the United States to visit to friends from his undergraduate years, Pourria and Layla, who are firmly settled in their lives as immigrants in Brighton, Massachusetts. Almost as soon as Jubin arrives in the US, however, he learns in an email from his younger brother, still in Iran, that their father, Farhad, with whom Jubin has had a complicated relationship, has been beaten to death by the authorities, primarily for his activism on behalf of Iran’s Kurdish population. Farhad, the reader learns, was of Kurdish ancestry and moved to Tehran as a young man, and his increasingly visible activism on behalf of Kurdish autonomy over the years led to his social isolation and financial ruin. “Mi Padre” explores the nuances of Jubin’s grief at his father’s murder and regret at their fractured connection, his inability to share his feelings even with his longtime friends, his decision to seek asylum in the US, Jubin’s growing emotional and economic precarity, and his negotiation of the potential new life ahead of him. Throughout, “Mi Padre” demonstrates skill at every aspect of storytelling, producing a story whose details and contours linger with the reader well after finishing it.

This piece will be published in Issue 20 of The Arkansas International. The publication date will be in early spring 2027.

On the last day of Pride, we’re thinking about the poems that make room for every way of loving, becoming, and belonging.

Our founding editor, Geoffrey Brock, translated a short story featured in this month’s New Yorker! The story will appear in the June 15th print issue. Brock is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Arkansas and a poet. Read the story here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/15/constellation-fiction-andrea-bajani

Read the entirety of Acie Clark's brilliant poem "Walt Whitman" at arkint.org/latest. And while you're there, order one of the gorgeous print issues in our store.

Issue 18 is here! The gorgeous Spring 2026 issue of the Arkansas International includes work by Frank Stanford, C.D. Wright, Geffrey Davis, Henry Dumas, Ben Bird, Ukata Edwardson and many more! With a luminous cover by Carroll Cloar and a Gustav Carlson comic written by Charles Portis, the author of True Grit. Plus a Nigerian folio curated by Uchenna Awoke and Abuchi Modilim. It’s our Arkansas-themed issue, with works by writers and artists with a significant connection to the Natural State.

Order now or subscribe for May delivery at arkint.org—or go to the link in our bio.

You’re invited to a reading at Pearl's books on February 5 at 6:30! Editors from the Arkansas International will read some of our favorite pieces from Issue 17. Come out of the cold and meet other lit-minded folks while we read amazing fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. (Pearl's is an incredible bookstore with the coolest staff.) 28 E Center St, downtown Fayetteville.