Submissions

This journal is not accepting submissions at this time.

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Email all submissions to: offcenter@mtsu.edu

For the Written Word: 

We welcome content across a variety of genres, including essays, personal writing, creative nonfiction, all kinds of fiction-fiction, and poetry. We aren’t totally sure what we love until we read it, so send it to us and let us fall in rapture with your work. 

Alternate Media: 

If the pen and ink thing isn’t your passion, we also publish creative works from a variety of alternative medias, from art (painting, photography, digital media creations), and, for our 2017 edition, videos, music, and other media. Not sure if you have what we are looking for? Well, neither are we: submit and see. All vsual pieces should be in a high-resolution jpeg or sent to us in a link (such as to your YouTube or Dropbox page) 

Who can Submit:

We welcome submissions from all members of the MTSU community: students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Applicants do need have to a MTSU email address to apply through our journal platform. If you have problems applying through this platform, please email us your submission to offcenter@mtsu.edu.

Things We Really Love: 

We have a particular interest in pieces that are about, celebrate, or detail the creative process, that talk about writing, or are about experiences within the University Writing Center or detail your personal development as a writer.

A Note on Copyright, Creativity, and Integrity: 

It goes without saying (but we will anyway), that you should be the original creator of your art -- be it written or otherwise, that you have reproduction and publishing rights, and that you are okay with it being published in our magazine. You retain the rights to your work (meaning you are welcome to publish it elsewhere), but know that it will appear on on the internet and will be permanently archived. 

FORMAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPTS AND ARTWORK

  • 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
  • Please include your full name, class standing (or faculty standing) on the manuscript
  • For Art: please include the medium of composition and the title of the piece (IE: “Photo”/Watercolor)
  • All submissions should come through our Journal Platform.  Larger submissions (such as a painting or sculpture that needs to be photographed) can be brought to the University Writing Center-- we can help you get your work photographed to appear in the magazine. 

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • The submission has not been previously published. We do allow simultaneous submissions of works for consideration, but ask if your work is accepted in another journal, that you will need to get permission for simultaneous publication.
  • For DOCUMENTS: submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format. For ART: a suitable high-resolution image file is provided. FOR VIDEOS: a description and link is provided.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided (if necessary or applicable -- most submissions do not need sources)
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.