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Open for submissions

Deadline

Oct 1, 2023

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"An online journal featuring nonfiction, fiction, poetry, criticism, journalism, author interviews, and multi-media texts. The bi-annual print magazine finished in spring 2019, ending its 11-year run."

"An online journal featuring nonfiction, fiction, poetry, criticism, journalism, author interviews, and multi-media texts. The bi-annual print magazine finished in spring 2019, ending its 11-year run."

Vibe

Top-tier stuff. Not Paris Review, but ok

Response Time

401 days

Acceptance Rate

13.64%

  • Payment

    No

  • Fee

    No

  • Simultaneous submissions

    Yes

  • Previously published

    No

  • Expedited response

    No

  • Available in print

    No

  • Provides contributor copies

    No

  • Examples online

    Yes

  • Active on social media

    Yes

Accepted genres

7 genres

Fiction

Max words: 5000

Nonfiction

Max words: 5000

Our ideal word count is around 3500, but we're open to more as well.

Poetry

Max pieces: 5

Any form, style, or focus

Hybrid

graphic fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, photo and video essays, spoken word pieces, and audio prose and poetry

Comics

No specific limitations

Audio

audio prose and poetry

Video

No specific limitations

Fiction

Max words: 5000

Nonfiction

Max words: 5000

Our ideal word count is around 3500, but we're open to more as well.

Poetry

Max pieces: 5

Any form, style, or focus

Hybrid

graphic fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, photo and video essays, spoken word pieces, and audio prose and poetry

Comics

No specific limitations

Audio

audio prose and poetry

Video

No specific limitations

Statistics

We're able to provide them because you use our tracker!
You're the best!

Track submission

33

Total submissions tracked

401 days

Average response time

13.64%

Average acceptance rate

116 days

Fastest response time

904 days

Slowest response time

How to submit

Process

We use Submittable.

Cover letters

Please include a brief cover letter, and remind us if we know you.

Eligibility

No specific eligibility requirements

Formatting

All manuscripts must be double-spaced for fiction and nonfiction. Poetry may be single-spaced. All manuscripts should be formatted in a readable (12 point) font, with at least 1 inch margins. Name, address, and email on the submission. Format the document as .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf.

Rights for published work

Coming soon! First, third, none, all the rights!

Additional info

Submission fee

About the Magazine

Founded in ? | United States

We are nestled happily into California State University, Fresno like a comfy spore in a benign and mighty lung. We dig quirky, boundary-challenging, energetic prose and poetry with innovations in content, form, and focus, which isn’t actually as high-falutin’ as it sounds. We’re just sort of the lit mag equivalent of the kid who always has bottle caps, cat’s eye marbles, dead animal skulls, little blue men and other treasures in their pockets. The Normal School is currently 100% staffed by graduate students of Fresno State’s Master of Fine Arts program, one of the most diverse creative writing programs in the country; and while we’re immensely proud of the magazine, we know there’s always more work to do. We remain steadfast in our commitment to publish work that challenges the norm while highlighting work from Black and Indigenous writers, writers of color, writers with disabilities, writers from LGBTQIA+ communities, and voices that have been historically under-represented and minoritized in the publishing world. Thank you for reading and supporting our efforts.

Masthead

We currently list only main editors, more will be added later! If you are an editor, you can edit your masthead in our admin panel :)

Steven Church

Editor-in-Chief

Rosie Bates

Managing Editor