New Constellations Magazine
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Before choosing which pieces to send to us, please read these guidelines carefully to learn more about what we're looking for in our contributors’ work!
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Reading Periods

We are currently open for submissions.
We read for our spring issue from January 15-March 15 and
our fall issue from August 15-October 15.

Submission Categories

  • Fiction – One complete story between 1,000 and 3,000 words
  • Flash Fiction – Up to 2 shorter stories between 300 and 1,000 words
  • Micro Fiction – Up to 2 quick, intriguing stories no more than 100 words
  • Creative Nonfiction – One personal narrative about your experiences, memoir about another person’s life, or creative essay on a theme/topic (no research papers/term papers, please!)
  • Poetry – Up to 5 poems (or 500 words total); we take any form, from free verse to sonnet, though we pay special attention to style, theme, imagery, and rhythm
  • Visual Art – Up to 3 photographs, sketches, or paintings (in JPG or GIF files), each accompanied by a brief description of the piece (up to 250 words)

Submission Guidelines

We're dedicated to publishing the work of high school students. If you're not a high school student, we're not the magazine for you! We want to give young, emerging writers a chance to shine. So we can know you're a student, please include the name of your high school and your graduation year in your submission. This information will remain private!

We want fresh, original work.
Steer clear of the tired and cliché, as well as form-style work (e.g. "Where I'm From" poems or "This I Believe" essays). Additionally, please do not submit fanfiction or retellings of popular film, book, or television series. No work that specifically features any copyrighted character will be accepted (we can’t afford the royalties!).

Try to not grapple with themes that are large and lofty. Don’t deliver us the universe. Instead, bring us the ordinary—your ordinary—in an extraordinary way.

Proofread your work carefully. When your submissions are sent to us, we expect to read polished work. Submissions that are difficult to read because of typos and misspellings may be turned down.

We absolutely will not publish anything that is racist, sexist, homophobic, or hateful towards any particular group of people; needlessly profane or gory; or sexually explicit. Any submission that contains such material will be immediately declined.

All submissions, regardless of genre, should be typed and formatted in a simple, readable font such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Georgia, or Cambria. Submissions may be double-spaced or single-spaced, but should be left-justified for readability. The exception to this rule is poetry, which may be positioned in any way to suit the poem’s form.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but if your work is accepted elsewhere, please let us know immediately. Additionally, we will only accept previously unpublished pieces—please don't send us work you've already published in another magazine or on your personal blog or website (however, any work that has been published and distributed just within your school is fine). Please limit yourself to one submission per genre; additional submissions per genre will not be considered. If you submit to more than one genre, please be sure fill out the submission forms for each appropriate genre.

Publication Process

We generally require 8 weeks to review your submission before making a final decision. Please do not reach out about the status of your submission before three months have passed.

Your submission may receive one of three outcomes:
  1. Accepted – Your submission has been accepted for publication, and we may ask you to do some minor revisions or copy edits.
  2. Accepted with conditions - Your submission has been accepted for publication in this or a future issue, pending completion of suggested revisions and copy edits. 
  3. Not accepted – Your submission has been reviewed by our staff but ultimately determined to be not quite right for our magazine. If your submission is not accepted, we will still provide you with some helpful feedback and suggestions on your piece.

If your work is accepted, we will ask for first North American serial and electronic rights, which means that we are allowed to be the first ones to publish your piece. After publication, all rights to the piece will return back to you. If your piece is ever republished, we ask that you give us credit for being the first to publish it.

Although we can't pay our contributors right now, we can guarantee our best efforts to promote each issue so that our expanding readership is given ample opportunities to read your work. Because of this, our submissions are free and will remain free.
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New Constellations Magazine
© 2021-2022

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  • Home
  • About
    • Masthead
  • Issues
    • Issue One
    • Issue Two
    • Issue Three
  • Submit