Submission Guidelines

We are now accepting submissions for our 2025-2026 edition of Hemetera:

This year’s theme has to do with the “speaking back”–addressing social, political, economical, etc., issues happening in the world and thinking about all the ways that we can respond to that through our voices, writing, and our creative participation.

At Hemetera, we believe every story is unique, meaningful, and worth telling. What you’ve been through, what you experience, what you fear, value, love–what you imagine for yourself, for others, for your local and global communities–Hemetera aims offer you a place for sharing and connecting with others.

Whether through art, fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction, we invite you to share your story and to share your work with Hemetera.

Submissions due: April 3, 2026.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

Please follow these general guidelines when submitting work:

• Fiction, Short Fiction: When submitting works of Fiction, please limit your submissions of single pieces to to 5,000-6,000 words. Please format this submission as typed, double-spaced. When submitting shorter works (such as Flash Fiction, etc.), submit 2-3 pieces.
  
• Poetry: When submitting works of poetry, please limit your submissions to 1-3 works.
  
• Images, Photography, Artwork: Submit clear JPEG images of your piece. Any resolution at this stage is fine, but upon final publication, we may ask for a high-res image file. Submit 1-3 works. (Consider applying to our Cover Image Contest too!)
  
• Creative NonFiction: Works of memoir or personal narratives are accepted with the same guidelines as fiction: limit your work to 5,000-6,000 words.
  
• Academic Essays: This year, we are partnering with the First Year Writing Program and their annual contest. Contest-winners will automatically be offered a place in Hemetera, but other academic essay-writers are invited to submit their essays as well. Please limit your work to 5,000-6,000 words.

A note for all submissions: Please note that we will adjust font type to meet uniform standards for final publication, but we will reserve any use of bold, underlining, or italics within your text. Please include a note for any other publication details you want us to include.

• We also ask that each submission is new and unique to the journal. If you have submitted the same piece to a previous edition or to another online source or publication, please do not submit it again.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Feeling a little iffy about submitting?
Read over our FAQ page, and then come back and submit anyway!

Our 2025-2026 Edition will be published in Winter 2026.
Stay tuned for more information about our 2026 Launch Party and Celebration!