Tips: Reviews

These are whimsical, meandering thoughts about the kind of reviews we might like to publish. For practical advice on how to actually submit reviews, see Submissions.

What do we review?

We are interested in books of poetry, books about poetry, and books of particular interest to readers of poetry. These might include: authors’ biographies, collected letters, literary criticism, novels by poets, etc.

For Issue No. 1 (Summer 2025) please send reviews of books published in 2024 or 2025.

Though we are only looking for reviews of new and recent books, this can include major re-issues. For example, we would welcome a review of the 50-anniversary edition of Seamus Heaney’s North (Faber, June 2025) if you have a fresh perspective on the book.

Who can review for us? 

We welcome reviews from anyone interested in poetry. Some of our contributors are well-known literary critics; some have never reviewed a book before in their lives. If you fall into either camp, or anywhere in between, we want to hear from you.

If you like poetry – if you read it frequently, carefully, and with an open mind – and if you enjoy thinking and talking about the things you read, we want to hear from you.

On Style:

Reviews can be any length, but we admire and encourage brevity.

Nothing excites us more than a review that captures the honest, flawed, subjective voice of a real human being, speaking frankly to a close friend. Imagine we’re in a cafe, and we’ve just asked you whether you’ve read anything interesting lately. What would you say? Write that.

But we are open to reviews written in any style – including in verse.

We welcome adventurous and unorthodox approaches, within the constraints of what we can publish. No colour-coded diagrams, please; we are printed black and white.

We have only one cast-iron rule: reviews must not be dull. A dull review is a worse insult to a book than any hatchet-job.

The theatre critic Kenneth Tynan used to have a note pinned above his desk. It said, ‘Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy.’ We have the same note pinned above ours.

We like: concision, wit, candour, warmth.

We do not like: reviews that sound like they could have been written by the publisher as a blurb for the back cover; reviews that sound like they were written purely to be part of an academic’s Research Output; reviews that sound like they could have been written by ChatGPT.

On Logrolling:

Do not review your friends. Do not review your enemies. Do not review yourself (sure, Walt Whitman reviewed his own book, but you are not Walt Whitman).

Please try to avoid reviewing anyone you have ever worked with, and anyone who has ever reviewed you.

If you have met or corresponded with the author of a book you are reviewing, please acknowledge this, either within the review or in a note to the editor. This can be done very briefly. Eg: ‘The seventh book by JL Bloggs (a poet I have DM’d on Twitter twice) is an epic in terza rima about plankton.’ If the context of your meeting is at all relevant, enlightening or amusing, include it. Eg: ‘JL Bloggs, who once spilled a pint of lager on me in a crowded bar, is the author of seven books.’

We are willing to consider publishing poems, reviews and features anonymously.

Review Copies:

If you would like a list of suggestions for recent books to review, or advice on how to get hold of review copies, email editor@thelittlereview.co.uk with QUERY in the headline.

More Tips

For advice about the kind of poems and features we like to receive, see Tips: Poetry and Tips: Features.