Free State Review positions itself as a journal attentive to the texture of voice and image, explicitly favoring stories that are not so over-engineered that the voices in the wind become inaudible. The editors articulate a curatorial stance against reductive characterization—specifically, the reflexive tendency to introduce male characters by profession and female characters by hair color—and invite any style or subject, provided the writing avoids objectifying language. This is not a call for a particular school or aesthetic, but for fiction that listens closely to its own sentences. The journal accepts prose of 500 to 4,000 words. There is a $12 reading fee. Upon acceptance, the author grants First North American Serial Rights and the right to publish the work on the journal's website for up to six months after print publication. Rights revert to the author after printing, with the request that Free State Review be noted as first publication if the work appears elsewhere. Simultaneous submissions are permitted if disclosed. The journal's stated interests—voice, image, non-objectifying language—suggest a curatorial vision rooted in ethical attention as much as literary craft. Writers whose work engages with gender, embodiment, and the politics of description may find a particularly receptive readership, though the call is open to any style or subject that meets the journal's formal and ethical criteria.