Submitting: A Guide for Students
Most often, the best place to begin submitting your nonfiction for publication would be your campus literary magazine. Most campus magazines contain work exclusively from students at the college or university where they publish. It is also an excellent idea to consider volunteering to work at your campus literary magazine – they always need extra hands, and it is a great way to begin understanding how publication works. If you happen to be an English major, editing is one career path worth consideration
A few college magazines are open to work from students throughout the country (or world) including:
The Allegheny Review, now going into its 24th year of publication, is one of America's few nationwide literary magazines dedicated exclusively to undergraduate works of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and art. Published annually.
Comparative Humanities Review, a student-run academic e-journal, seeks submissions from undergraduates and M.A. students. The Review is interested in any paper that deals with a comparative topic inside of the humanities disciplines.
Delos is dedicated to publishing only the very best of the nation's undergraduate literary work. The finest piece in each genre is nominated for the Delos National Undergraduate Literary Magazine Award accompanied by a $100 US cash prize.
[If you know of more college magazines accepting work from student
authors beyond the home campus, please use the e-mail link on the main
page of this website to let us know, and we will gladly add the information.]
The Next Step
When you feel your work has advanced to the point where you are ready to seek publication in journals and magazines open to all – not just students – you will find a large (and possibly confusing) array of choices. Our first advice is to subscribe to a few literary magazines of interest– they need the support, and you will learn a bit about their preferences and editorial taste.
Here is a list of journals compiled by the good folks at the Nebraska Center for Writers. The journals Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, and River Teeth, focus exclusively on creative nonfiction, but almost all of these journals include nonfiction on their pages, alongside fiction and poetry:
The
Nebraska Center List of Journals and Magazines