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All of us here at Underground Journal hope that you’ve all had a calm, safe and easy start to your spring 2021 semester. We are so happy to announce that submissions for issue 11.2 are now OPEN. Our suggestive theme for this Spring semester is REBIRTH. For us at Underground, rebirth represents the beginning of something new, flourishing after a decline, an awakening, whether that be spiritually, mentally, or physically. It’s an opportunity to start fresh. We want to know what inspires you to feel this way.

We have now extended our deadline to April 9th. We are excited to see all the work you guys submit!

Eligibility

You must be an undergraduate student enrolled at Georgia State University to submit to Underground.

Work that has previously been published in print will not be reviewed.

Work that is gratuitously violent or sexual will not be reviewed.

Work that is racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, or that otherwise seeks to target a particular person or persons will not be reviewed.

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Guidelines

Please title ALL submissions (there are thousands of “Untitled” pieces; you’ll stand out more if you give your work that little bit of extra love). The file name should include the name of the work.

One submission per category, please.

See below for genre-specific instructions.

Prose:

All submissions should be double-spaced and in 12-point, Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins. Multiple pieces must be separated by page breaks.Submissions should be saved as either .doc or .docx files. You may submit up to three (3) prose pieces, and the limit for each prose piece is 1,000 words. 

Poetry: 

All submissions should be single-spaced and in 12-point, Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins. Multiple pieces must be separated by page breaks. Submissions should be saved as either .doc or .docx files. You may submit up to three (3) pieces of poetry, but please limit each piece to one page in length. 

Art:

Art submissions should be submitted as either JPG, PNG, or PDF files. Other variants of file type will not be accepted. We ask that work be submitted at the highest quality possible (please, if possible, avoid using your phone to take a picture of your submission). You may submit up to five (5) pieces of art, but no piece may extend beyond one page. 

NOTE: All artwork that is not originally in digital form should be submitted as a high quality photograph or a scan if applicable. The artwork should fill the frame of the photo completely, and in the event of non-rectangular pieces or sculptures, it should be on a white background. Do not use low quality cameras (i.e. cellphones) or direct lighting when photographing your piece, as it will result in a distorted or low resolution image. Indirect natural or stage lighting is best when making a slide of your work. It is recommended that slides (photos of artwork) are taken with a tripod. (Please, try not to exceed 400 ISO in taking slides as to not create noise that will distort the piece.)

ALL pieces should be submitted in the highest quality possible. If upload size poses a problem, ZIP files are acceptable.

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What happens to my work if it is accepted?

If we choose to accept your work for publication, we assume first North American serial rights over the piece or pieces until the issue in which your work will be featured is published, at which point your rights revert back to you, the artist or author. Meaning: if we accept your work, you may not submit it elsewhere or share it publicly until after Underground has published it. If you republish your work elsewhere after publication, please acknowledge Underground as the original publisher.

Unfortunately, Underground is not a paying market; we compensate all our contributors with at least one copy of the issue their work appears in. In addition to being included in the print issue, your work will also be featured in a digital version of the same issue, which will be archived on our website.

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Please note that we are a small staff of students, and as such, we have a limited amount of resources for reading. Therefore, any submissions sent outside of our reading periods will not be considered for publication. We thank you for understanding.

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Links to Submit:

For visual art submissions, Click Here!
For poetry submissions, Click Here!
For prose submissions, Click Here!

All of us here at Underground Journal hope that you’ve all had a calm, safe and easy start to your spring 2021 semester. We are so happy to announce that submissions for issue 11.2 are now OPEN. Our suggestive theme for this Spring semester is REBIRTH. For us at Underground, rebirth represents the beginning of something new, flourishing after a decline, an awakening, whether that be spiritually, mentally, or physically. It’s an opportunity to start fresh. We want to know what inspires you to feel this way.

Submit Prose Here

Submit Art Here

Submit Poetry Here

RSVP and sign up for the open mic with our Google Form:

https://forms.gle/a5Cg8oj267M32YEn6

Underground is happy to announce that the virtual release party for Issue 11.1 will take place next Friday, December 11th 2020! Take a Friday night break from finals to stop by and see the new Safe Haven issue! We will be sharing the issue digitally once the party’s started, and we’ll have a live open mic session for any GSU creatives to come by and share your work. Musicians, visual artist, writers, and anyone in between are encouraged to RSVP at the link above to share your creative efforts LIVE with other GSU students. We are beyond excited to share the Safe Haven issue with everyone, and we look forward to seeing you all there!

Got questions for Underground? Want to know more about the journal or the submission process? Bored on a Wednesday afternoon between classes? Come by our virtual booth at this semester’s Virtual Involvement Fair tomorrow – Wednesday, Sep. 16th! Our editor-in-chief will be there waiting to answer your questions or talk about art anytime between 11:00 and 2:00!

To stop by our virtual booth during that time, connect to our Google Meets call at the following link: https://meet.google.com/jfb-ozkw-cxw

Underground is excited to announce an upcoming event in conjunction with The Remedy! Join us on September 23rd for a virtual Safe Haven art workshop directed by The Remedy’s own Samiyah Malik.
The Remedy is a therapeutic art life coaching practice who are known for their ongoing series of virtual workshops centered on therapeutic art practices intended to promote positive emotional experiences and overall well being. Together we’ll meditate, discuss what safe haven means to us, and create artwork loosely centered around those themes! Want to submit work for Underground but unsure what to submit? Grab a ticket and stop by the virtual call on September 23rd to create with us!

Update: The Safe Haven art workshop is now FREE! Reserve your free ticket below at the Eventbrite page!

Links to reserve a ticket: https://bit.ly/3k578J0

We look forward to seeing you there!

We are excited to announce that submissions for our Fall 2020 issue, Underground: SAFE HAVEN, are now open! Visit the ‘Submissions’ tab to learn more now.

For those of you that didn’t get to see issue 10.2 at our release party last semester, we plan on slowly releasing some of the spreads from Take Root here on our website and instagram over the coming weeks! To get that started, we wanted to spotlight the cover art done for issues 10.1 and 10.2 by our incredible team member Rose Degefa! Underground wouldn’t be the beautiful journal you all know and love without the contributions of our incredible volunteer team who pour their hearts into each issue 💞 Here’s what Rose has to say about her cover art and her time with Underground the past year:

I think of myself as an amateur artist, especially with the digital medium, but getting my work on the cover of both journals gave me a sense of artistic validity. The In Transit cover was just a photo I took on the Marta train that somehow transformed into a work of art after some experimentation on 3D Paint. Making the In Root cover was far more intentional. I wanted to give In Transit a pair while also accurately depicting the theme of home and beginnings.

Looking at the covers now, I feel honored to have my work as an introduction to the magic within the pages of these journals. I still connect with both covers as they both encapsulate feelings I continue to experience today. When I joined the Underground Journal, I was transitioning into college life in an unfamiliar city, but I found a place to feel safe and at home. The amount of gratitude I have toward the underground team is overwhelming because it is with their hospitality that I found comfort and confidence in my art.

We’re beyond grateful to announce that this weekend we’ll be hosting the talented duo of @kengotrich_ and @nadineahbean over on our Instagram live to hear them have an open discussion! We’ve gotten the chance to publish Kendall’s photography before in Issues 10.1 and 10.2, so many of you may already be familiar with his incredible portrait work. Tune in at @undergroundjournal on Instagram on Saturday, June 20th, at 8PM EST to hear Ken and Nadine have a conversation about their art practice, how being black has influenced their work, as well the issues facing the world at large!

It is with great pleasure that our team introduces our Fall 2019 publication of IN TRANSIT to the world. Our hope is that during these times of isolation, stillness, and reflection, our journal can make the days move just a bit easier. For the rest of the semester, Underground will regularly feature an artist or writer from IN TRANSIT while we work remotely on our next issue, TAKE ROOT. And let’s be honest, there is nothing more grounding (and potentially frightening) than solitude. Thank you for traveling with us.