The Columbia Journal Online Editors are delighted to officially announce that the Columbia Journal Fall Contest is now open for submissions in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and, for the first time, art. Our judges will be Akil Kumarasamy (fiction), Monica Sok (poetry), Emily Bernard (nonfiction), and Helena Anrather (art). The four winners of the Fall Contest will be published online on columbiajournal.org and will receive a cash prize of $250 each. At least three finalists will be selected and announced in each of the four genres in the fall. Submissions open today on Submittable, and the deadline to submit is August 9th. There is a $10 entry fee for each submission. You can read the full contest guidelines below.
Contest Guidelines
We accept submissions in the following three categories:
Fiction (up to 5,000 words) – We accept all forms of short fiction (short stories, flash fiction, prose poetry, etc.).
Nonfiction (up to 5,000 words) – We accept all forms of nonfiction, from personal essays to narrative nonfiction and work that blends criticism, memoir, and reportage.
Poetry (up to five pages) – Each poem should start on a new page.
Art (up to five images) – We accept all forms of fine art (sculpture, painting, mixed-media, photography, etc.) in digital form.
Entry to the 2019 Fall Contest requires a $10 entry fee. Multiple submissions are welcome, but note that the entry fee applies to each submission.
All work must be submitted through Submittable (we will not accept mailed submissions).
All work must be original and previously unpublished in any form.
All submissions will be considered for publication.
If your submission spans genres, we recommend you submit to the genre that you’d most like to see your work judged as as opposed to applying multiple times to multiple genres. Our judges are open to genre-bending work and all winners can be published under multiple genres, if desired.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
We welcome submissions from all nationalities. However, if you have studied or taught at the Columbia University Writing Program at any time in the past five years, you are ineligible to submit to the contest.
The Columbia Journal will consider waiving the submission fee for contest submissions for those currently enrolled in a college or university and/or who demonstrate financial need.
You must fill out our Fee Waiver Request Form online here and provide proof of need.
Endowment
The Columbia Journal is an annual student-edited publication by the Columbia School of the Arts, with year-round web publishing. Our staff is comprised of current MFA students, and we raise our funding from journal sales and contest fees in order to compensate our judges and contest winners. Because we exist almost entirely financially independent from Columbia University and the School of the Arts, the Journal’s creative liberty remains entirely in the hands of our student editors. For this reason, outside of contests, the Columbia Journal Online cannot offer monetary compensation to its contributors.Thank you for supporting the journal, and feel free to reach out with any questions at info@columbiajournal.org.
