318 Journal accepts submissions from October 6th through November 15th from undergraduate and graduate writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and multimedia/hybrid and digital literature for publication in the spring of the following year. Submissions are welcome from both national and international undergraduate and graduate creative writers.
General submission guidelines:
- Work submitted must be from undergraduate and graduate students to the email: readings [at] 318journal [dot] com. (be sure to replace “[at]” with the “@” symbol and “[dot]” with a “.” when using this email address).
- A cover letter must be in the body of your email, and that cover letter must include: your full name (or pen name), pronouns, your college and course of study, a bio photo (if comfortable, not required), an artist statement talking about your piece and a brief third person bio of no more than 100 words.
- Work must be original and previously unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.
- We do not accept pieces, no matter if it’s partially or fully, generated by Artificial Intelligence.
- Each submitter is allowed to submit up to 5 pieces to the journal. How each person decides to split up those submissions by genre is up to them.
- Submissions should be in Microsoft Word files for written submissions, and JPEG files for art submissions. Authors submitting multiple pieces should send each piece as a separate file, however, we ask that you make sure you send it to the correct email.
- Note: if your work requires the preservation of special formatting, you can submit it as a PDF file.
- Include the titles of the pieces submitted, and title the filename of submissions as follows: [Category]-[Last name]-[Title] (example: Poetry-Smith-My Poem.doc). Please refrain from putting your name on the document itself, as we are judging anonymously
- By submitting your original work to 318 Journal you grant 318 Journal first serial rights and nonexclusive, ongoing electronic rights. Serial rights revert to the author upon publication.
- As this is a student-run journal, we unfortunately cannot offer payment to our writers at this time.
- 318 Journal follows CSUSM Civility Campaign’s pledge: “As a member of the CSUSM community, I will conduct myself with self-reflection, care, respect, and empathy while acknowledging the culture and humanity of others.” As such, the work you submit must reflect the concerns of the pledge.
Additional submission guidelines for each genre are detailed below.
Poetry submissions:
- Please format your poems in 12 point Times New Roman font, single space. If you have special formatting (like formed poetry) please submit to multimedia instead.
- The maximum page count is three pages.
Fiction submissions:
- Please format your fiction pieces in 12 point Times New Roman font, double space.
- The maximum word count is 3000 words.
- You are allowed to submit excerpts from longer pieces, so long as they are under the word count limit, and tell us it is an excerpt in the artist statement.
Creative Nonfiction:
- Please format your fiction pieces in 12 point Times New Roman font, double space.
- The maximum word count is 3000 words.
For digital and pictures/scans of traditional art, photography and visual poetry, send as JPEG files. We will accept up to 5 submissions each.
Visual Art and Multimedia Literature Submissions:
Use this category for works that defy, blend, or blur the boundaries between genres. Genres that your submission might include: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, artwork, or photographs. Need some inspiration? We would encourage you to think about where Literature meets Art, how do you see what you read or hear, can you make what you write into art? That’s up to you! Additionally, please use this category for digital literature pieces including visual poetry, Twine pieces, virtual art, photography, etc.
- For written works please limit each piece to no more than 3 pages.
- If any work has specific spacing, please submit in JPEG or PDF form
- For Twine pieces/digital literature, we will only be able to accept 1 from each submitter.
- This does not mean that we won’t also accept other pieces from you just that we can only accept one website.
- We encourage visual works; those with writing within or attached would be greatly appreciated.
- And please, have fun with this. We want to see you, not what you think we want!