OPA Book Reviews: Guidelines and Policies

We welcome both members and non-members to send us reviews, but the books themselves need to be published by an OPA member. We will reimburse reviewers who choose to purchase their own copies of books to review if asked. Please see the guidelines below:

  • We expect reviews to be substantive. Keep in mind that your readers may be first learning about this book from your review.
  • Direct quotations from the book are very helpful.
  • We generally prefer reviews of 500-800 words.
  • Reviews need not be wholly favorable, so long as the criticism is well-founded and directed at the work itself.
  • We plan to edit reviews as needed, and offer no guarantee that any review will be published.
  • Reviews can be creative literary documents so we encourage a variety of styles.
  • Please refer to previous reviews for format guidelines, and see sample below.
  • Don’t forget to include a short “reviewer bio” at the end.

Please contact the book review editor using the book review contact form and including your email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Download the template to see how our book reviews are formatted.

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