Submissions

We only accept electronic submissions using the “SUBMIT” link below. Submissions are always open. We produce two publications each year—one in the spring/summer & one in the fall/winter. If you submit, please be advised that we wait until all submissions have been received for an issue before we begin reading. This means you may wait up to 4-5 months before we get back to you about your work.

CLOSED for submissions

Although we occasionally publish work from outside of the Miami Valley, we are a local publication that gives first preference to work submitted from artists and authors from or with ties to the Miami Valley. If you're not from the Miami Valley you may submit, but you've been forewarned.

We submit to the Pushcart Prize annually.

Please review the general guidelines as well as the author/artist guidelines below. Do not submit your work until you have reviewed these guidelines.

We do not accept work that has been previously published, in print or online.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. If the work is accepted elsewhere, please email to let us know.

General guidelines

Complete a new form for each submission category:

Poetry
Prose (Fiction)
Prose (Non-Fiction)
Drama
Visual Art

You may submit up to three (3) pieces per category.

Name your submission file in the following format:

last name_first name_ title
examples:
Rossetti_Christina_Remember.doc,
Basquiat_Jean_Michel_In Italian.jpg

Use the name you would like to appear in the publication.

Documents should not include your address, biography, word count, or other miscellaneous information.

Author Guidelines

  • Documents should be single-spaced, black text, in a standard print font. Please avoid stylized fonts and formatting. The publication print size is 8.5" x 5" with a 1" margin, body text is 9 pt Avenir Book.

  • Poetry and song lyrics should not exceed 70 lines. We prefer pieces under 30 lines. Fiction and nonfiction prose should not exceed 2,500 words. We prefer pieces under 1,000 words.

Visual Artist Guidelines

  • You may submit any artwork that can be represented in a two-dimensional image: paintings, illustrations, installations, cartoons, photography, etchings, woodcuts, sculpture, etc.

  • Cover art for the publication is portrait orientation in full-color with a finished print size of 8.5" x 5".

  • Image files should be high-resolution, CMYK or grayscale.

  • Artwork photography available upon request.

Accepted file Formats

Word (.DOC and .DOCX)
Text files (.TXT)
Portable Document Format (.PDF)
Image files (.JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, .BMP, .TIFF, .SVG)
Audio formats (MP3, MPEG, WAV)

About rejection

If a piece was not selected for publication, it does not mean that it did not have merit. It simply means that our team of editors judged other pieces to be stronger in some way. Thank you to everyone who had the courage and vision to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, eye to lens, and pen, paintbrush or other implement of creation to visual medium. Please keep doing it, and send us more.

Rights & Rules

We're calling first dibs on your work, but it's all yours once we've put it out in the world.

Seriously though, we require First Serial Rights (i.e. we will be the first publisher to display your work to humanity).

We also require Non-Exclusive Electronic Rights because even though artists retain all rights to their work, the work will also be published on our website and/or social media after the release of the print issue.

We are a not-for-profit operation and we are unable to offer compensation.