We do not publish unsolicited reviews; review copies of fiction, poetry and non-fiction are yours to keep. Review tickets to DCA films and to the Dundee Rep etc. are available from DURA. Film reviewers: please remember that you will need to make a pitch to review a film at least a week in advance if you want to obtain press tickets from our film editor.
Information for Reviewers
- The recommended length for reviews are roughly 650 words in length. In exceptional circumstances the word count may be increased.
- Click here for reviewing guidelines on: poetry, fiction, art/exhibitions and film. If you are new to reviewing for us please read reviewing advice for Art, Poetry, Film, Theatre and Fiction.
- Book reviews should be completed within three weeks of receiving the text; all other reviews within two days of the event.
- All submissions need to be completed in DURA House style (NOT MHRA or MLA or Harvard etc etc); please check your book titles, quotation marks, indented quotes before you submit; indented quotations should not carry double quote marks, and you should not italicise quotes unless they are italicised in the original.
- Reviews will be edited by both subject and general editors (yes, that’s 2 sets of eyes); please check our website for who these are. As DURA carries the University name, we reserve the right not to publish submissions that we consider inappropriate.
- In the event of only minor changes being required, the editor(s) may make these changes without returning the article to the author. This allows reviews to appear in a timely fashion.
- Submitted reviews are also likely to be teaching texts for the purposes of editing workshops; please inform editors if you do not want your reviews used in this way.
The small but important things:
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- Headline in bold:
- Fiction/poetry: title, author, publisher and year, semi-colon, hardback or paperback price.
- Film: film title, film origin/funding, year; dates of screening at the DCA.
- Exhibitions: title, artist, place of exhibition, duration of exhibition.
- Theatre: title, duration of “run” and location
- Quotations:
- Single quotation marks are used for all quotes… double quotation marks for quotes within quotes (please note that we have changed practice if you have reviewed for us in the past).
- No quote marks for indented quotes please – it’s irritating to have to correct these.
- scare quotes (ie drawing attention to words used ironically etc etc) are in single quotation marks but scare quotes should be use very sparingly.
- Poetry of more than three lines should be indented; poetry of more than 2 lines can be indented. Do not indent poetry of one line only unless there are typographical or spacing features that merit this.
- If you are not indenting poetry (for good reasons) please use line breaks: / = line break; //=stanza break.
- Do not italicise or centre quotations unless these are done in the original. Quotes must be exactly as they appear in the original so please make sure the spaces between words/letters reflect the original.
- All indented quotes should carry single line spacing.
- For prose quotations, all prose lines of more than 40 words should be indented.
- Titles:
- all novels, poetry collection, film and exhibition titles within your review should be italicised
- titles of individual poems or short stories within the collection should not be italicised but instead be placed within single quote marks.
- Byline (your name in bold) at bottom left.
- Submissions MUST be in word document (we edit using the track change function on word).
- With few exceptions, all reviews should be 650 words in length, up to a maximum of 680.
- Headline in bold:
How to submit a review
Please email your submissions to the respective sub-editors:
Fiction: Loretta Mulholland (999968192@dundee.ac.uk)
Poetry: William (Ian) Hume (whume001@dundee.ac.uk)
Theatre: Kai Durkin (kaidurkin9@gmail.com)
Non-fiction: Stephen Carruthers (sacarruthers@gmail.com)
Art: Ellie Julings (e.julings@gmail.com)
Film: Gail Low (glow@dundee.ac.uk)
(NB: For film reviewers, you might be able to obtain a free press ticket to a DCA film screening but you must get in touch with Gail a week before the screening.)
To prevent emailed reviews going astray, please also include a copy of your email to dura@dundee.ac.uk when you send your submission copy to the one/two of the respective editors. If you have any questions please contact us.
General editors: Gail Low (glow@dundee.ac.uk), Hannah Whaley (hwhaley @dundee.ac.uk), Ellie Julings (e.julings@gmail.com)