The Iris Review is an award-winning annual publication of Tennessee Tech University led by student editors dedicated to making a space for our community to thrive. Submissions are open February 1st - 15th. We aim to publish Tennessee Tech students, faculty, staff, and alumni as well as the work of local creatives, writers, and artists. Our publication wants to share anything that means too much to you, the things that words barely capture, the work you’ve edited one too many times. Art needs community. These are the works we didn’t let die in our Notes app or camera roll.
Who
Tennessee Tech students, faculty, staff, alumni,
and Cookeville area residents are invited to contribute
What
Poetry, short stories, essays, photography, and art!
When
February 1st - February 15, 2026
Guidelines
Written work should be in 12-point font Times New Roman, single spaced for poetry and double spaced for prose, with each piece beginning on its own page. We will accept either up to 3,500 words of prose or 6 pages of poetry per entry. Two entries max. Art submissions may be up to six images. For art, please upload high-resolution files (300 dpi).
How
Use this link to upload your work using Microsoft Forms (Tennessee Tech students or employees) or if outside TTU, email your submission file to theirisreview@gmail.com and include this information in the email body.
We look forward to seeing your work soon!
If you wish to submit a piece that is not in English, as long as the editorial team is given a translation of the piece, we are more than willing to consider your piece for submission.
“Had he but turned back then, and looked out once more on to the rose-lit garden, she would have seen that which would have made her own sufferings seem but light and easy to bear--a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone: the will was powerless. He was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love and as soon as her light footstep had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade, where her tiny hand had rested last.”
― Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel