Hey all! Happy midterm week!
Things are starting to ramp up this week at Scribendi, as submissions are due tomorrow, October 9th. If you haven’t submitted yet, now’s the time! And if you have, thank you, and we are so excited to see your work! We’ve begun reading poetry submissions, and I have to say, there are really some great ones. Yesterday I read the most wonderful poem about [REDACTED] and the poet decided to, instead of using [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] use [REDACTED] in its place. Really brilliant stuff.
In the past few weeks, we devised rubrics by which to judge submissions in every different category, from Creative Nonfiction to Visual Art. Though, of course, there are different craft elements to take into consideration in every category (such as veracity with creative nonfiction) there are a few elements that popped up across the board. One such example is theme; whatever we publish, we want it to be saying something about something, more than just “this poem is about how good I am at language.” We’re also paying attention to the audience of every piece; how will this piece apply to our readers, mostly college-aged students? Is the intended audience for the piece the same as our audience? Does the change of audience change meaning?
Ultimately, we have to be highly critical, as we’ve received hundreds of submissions so far, and will likely receive more before the next few days are up. It’s a joy just to see all of this art. Having debates, about the meaning of a particular piece is one of the most fulfilling things anart or literature nerd can do, and, speaking for myself, I can say that I am having a blast. So, I encourage all of you to submit to Scribendi by tomorrow night at midnight, or to apply to be on the staff next year. I really cannot recommend it enough.