SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Columbia Journal welcomes work of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and translation for both print and online publication.

FORMATTING

Fiction & Nonfiction

  • Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced.

  • Please include your name and numbered pages.

  • You may submit up to 5,000 words of prose at a time.

Poetry

  • We accept all forms of poetry (prose poetry, lyric, formal, etc).

  • Please send up to three poems in one document (maximum word count is 5,000 words), with each poem on a separate page. You may submit up to 5 pages of poetry at a time.

  • Poetry may be single-spaced, but each poem should start on a new page.

  • Your submission should be in a DOC, DOCX, or PDF file format.

Visual Art

  • We accept art criticism, interviews (with artists, art laborers, etc.), essays, features, as well as submissions of original artwork (sculpture, painting, mixed-media, photography, etc.) in digital form.

  • For written work, please submit completed drafts of essays and pitches for features. Both drafts and pitches are welcome for criticism and interviews. If accepted, our editors will work with you to secure access to relevant images of artwork.

  • For visual art, submissions should be limited to no more than 10 images of your work and a written description of your work/artistic objective of less than 500 words.

  • Your submission should be in either JPG, TIFF, PNG, or PDF file format.

  • Your name, a short (300 words or less) biographical statement, preferred social media handles (i.e., Twitter or Instagram), and your work/artistic objective (500 words or less) should be included in the cover letter. Biographical statements over 300 words / artist statements over 500 words will be truncated at the reviewing editor's discretion. Exceptions may be made for photo essays that incorporate a written narrative.

MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS

Submissions across multiple genres are acceptable, but please make a choice between print or online for submissions within the same genre.

WITHDRAWAL

We accept simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you please inform us as soon as your work is accepted somewhere else. You can withdraw a submission within the Submittable platform. If you only want to withdraw one piece from your overall submission, please email publisher.columbia@gmail.com with the details of your request.

ELIGIBILITY

If you have studied at or taught in the Columbia University School of the Arts Writing Program at any time in the past five years, you are ineligible to submit your original work.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIALS

We do not publish previously published work.

CONSENT FOR TRANSLATION

Please note that we require writers to submit letters of consent from the original author or their estate to our email, publisher.columbia@gmail.com, alongside submissions. We will be independently contacting writers if a translated piece is accepted by our staff.

REPUBLISHING ONLINE WORK

You may republish your work that appears on our site after 60 days. We ask that you credit us in future publications.

We only accept submissions through Submittable.

Please allow us up to six months to respond.

SUBMIT