Submitting to a Literary Magazine Be Like…
Picture this: You’re an English major who likes to write creatively, and your school’s literary magazine sends an email that they’re accepting submissions for their next issue. Your first reaction might be to panic as imposter syndrome surges through you about your writing, so you’re not going to submit at all. The second reaction is to remind yourself that you’re maybe a good writer and you can maybe be published. The third is to remember that you are a great writer. Even if you don’t get published, the opportunity to submit will happen again, and you are brave for doing so whenever that is!
As someone who writes more poetry than anything else, once it’s time to actually submit after the big crisis, this is my process. I have two documents that are almost 75 pages in length that hold every poem I’ve ever written. One document is full of drafted poems and the process that it takes to get them to a finished poem, and the other is full of completed poems. I consider them to be kind of a record of when I’m ready to publish my own collection someday, and they are also great to reference when I’m getting ready to submit something either academically or for Quiddity.
Quiddity has become quite the staple in the English department, and it is not just limited to people in our major. The editors encourage people to submit their work submissions from all over our campus.
– Daijah Patton
After reviewing the contest details or submission guidelines, I create a separate Google document to start compiling my best work, or something new, and I get to it. Quiddity always asks submitters to keep their name off the document, so while their editors are reviewing the pieces they are not biased to someone they might know. They want to choose the writing based on the content, not the writer!
Quiddity has become quite the staple in the English department, and it is not just limited to people in our major. The editors encourage people to submit their work submissions from all over our campus, whether it’s a form of creative writing or a form of art. My favorite is when they hold different contests throughout the semester before the actual submissions for the issue are due.
During October, they held a “Spooky Season” contest, where students could submit Halloween-themed horror fiction. I submitted three different poems. My favorite was called, “Smoked Dry” (pictured), about a homeless man who told me about how he lost his best friend to lung cancer. Another event was an instant poetry contest. Students had a week to write a poem using the words “Blue Moon,” and it was so cool to have to come up with something so quick and challenge myself as a writer.
Since the beginning of my junior year, I’ve been published in Quiddity three times! The poems are “Holy Father”, “A Letter to My Soulmates”, and “When a Black Person Lives.” It is truly awesome being published in Quiddity, or any literary magazine out there, because the exposure for your writing opens career opportunities and more. It also gives you extreme bragging rights, so I recommend going for that confidence boost. I’m still riding the high of being published in the last issue. You just have to fight the fear and submit to get your chance.
If you’re interested in submitting to Quiddity, check out their website and email Dan Pieczkolon or quidditylitmag@gmail.com to be added to their email list and notified about contests/issues.
