Calling all third year and postgraduate students!
Submissions for YSJ’s annual Beyond the Walls anthology are officially open! This year, we’ll be welcoming creative writing surrounding our anthology’s theme The Mind. Possess your inner thoughts, express yourself and confront the world around you. Whether that be voicing your identity, facing your most wicked fears, or speaking out on mental health; The Mind suggests intelligence, mortality, or even your own memory.
Potential topics include:
- Fear
- Mental Health
- Intelligence
- Morality
- Identity
- Memories
- Dreams
These prompts are not exhaustive so please feel free to interpret The Mind as you may see fit. We are excited to see how creative you can get!
Writing:
Word Count for Creative Non-fiction & Prose.
Up to 1500 words.
Word Count for Poetry.
Up to 40 lines.
Word Count for Flash-fiction.
Up to 1500 words.
Multiple pieces are accepted if they appear in the same document, this includes shorter flash fiction pieces, but the total word count must not exceed the above guidelines across your work.
We intend to select only one piece per candidate, however if this changes we will be in touch.
Please email your work to beyondthewallsysj25@gmail.com in a .doc, .docx, or pdf format! Please include your name, the genre of your writing and the title of your piece in the email subject.
Artwork:
If you would like to contribute art within the anthology, please contact us through the same email address with “Artwork” and your name in the email subject. Please note this will not be on the cover.
Art can be submitted to accompany written work, or, art can be submitted as a stand-alone piece which may potentially feature in the anthology, however at this time we cannot guarantee your art will feature.
Artwork should be in black and white with no colour.
Artwork can be in any style as long as the visual represents the theme of The Mind, but please keep in mind that artwork will be printed on A5 paper size so if pieces are detailed, specifics may be lost in printing.
Artwork’s digital files should be in PDF, TIFF, or PNG files and should have a minimum of 300 DPI resolution quality to ensure quality printing.
We will also be accepting submissions for the cover art of this year’s anthology which reflects the theme. If you would like to be considered, please send your design to the same email address with “Cover Art Design” and your name in the email subject. Once again, we cannot guarantee your art will feature on the cover.
We encourage art students to submit artwork as well as any 3rd year students or postgraduates with a creative image that follows the submission theme of The Mind.
We will NOT be accepting any images containing problematic or offensive imagery.
Submissions will close on Sunday the 16th March at 23:59 midnight GMT for both art and creative writing.
Feedback:
We will aim to respond to your submissions within two weeks. All candidates will receive an email reply confirming their submission!
The anthology will be edited by second year YSJ students and published by Valley Press, an innovative independent publisher based in Scarborough.
We thoroughly look forward to reading your work!
Best of luck,
The Editorial and Production Team.