HOW TO SUBMIT TO 2024 WRITING FROM INLANDIA

**PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL GUIDELINES**

Submissions for the 2024 Writing from Inlandia Anthology Open from November 1, 2024-January 31, 2025.

Did you participate in an Inlandia Institute creative writing workshop during the year 2024? 

If so, SUBMIT!

1. THIS ANTHOLOGY is only for writers who participated in one of Inlandia's writing workshops (this includes boot camps) during 2024. If you are not a member of one of our workshops, do not submit here. Your submission will be deleted.
2. UPLOAD no more than five (5) pages of your best work (cumulative total over the course of the year; may consist of any combination of genres) written during any Inlandia writers workshop(s) you participated in. It is expected that your submission will reflect the genre(s) of writing covered in the workshop(s). 
3. INLANDIA RESERVES THE RIGHT to decline a submission for any reason whatsoever. 
4. FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS: 12 pt Times New Roman (no bold), flush left including titles, 1” margins, double-spaced for prose or single-spaced for poetry, in .doc, .docx, .txt or .rtf only. (No PDFs.) 
5. BEFORE submitting your work please be sure you have:
     — Revised for excellence.
     — Proofread for clarity, punctuation, and grammar.
     — Proofread for any additional typographical errors. 

Publication of the 2024 Writing From Inlandia anthology is scheduled for November 2025.

Call for submissions for the Spring 2025 All-Teen issue of Inlandia: A Literary Journey

Now accepting art, book reviews, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for the Spring 2025 All-Teen issue of Inlandia Institute’s online literary journal, Inlandia: A Literary Journey. We dedicate each teen issue to work by and for teens chosen by teen editors. Submissions via Submittable* are open to ages 13–19 only. As part of Inlandia's mission to support regional creatives, we spotlight a teen with connections to inland Southern California (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties plus neighboring cities). Additionally, we feature an interview with the cover artist.

We are also recruiting Teen Editors (see the FAQs for more information). 

Submissions open Monday, January 13, 2025, and close Friday, February 28, 2025, at midnight Pacific Time.

• Teen Editors screen only anonymous submissions. Please remove your name from the submission and file name.
• For art you may submit each in its own submission 1–5 digital photographs and/or digital images of work including but not limited to drawings, paintings, collages, ceramics, fiber art, sculpture, metalwork, and comics. Each art submission should include the title, medium, and dimensions.
• For book reviews you may submit an original review of one or more fiction or nonfiction books across genres and readerships — from picture books to adult literature — that will appeal to teens. The review should not exceed 3,000 words.
• For creative nonfiction there is no minimum word count. Essays, memoir, and narrative nonfiction should not exceed 3,000 words. Any topic is okay.
• For fiction there is no minimum word count. Stories should not exceed 5,000 words. Any genre is okay. If you are submitting an excerpt from a larger work, it must be self-contained with a beginning, middle, and end.
• For poetry you may submit each in its own submission 1–5 poems. Each poem should not exceed 100 lines.
• You may submit in more than one category, but do not submit more than once in any category except art and poetry as noted. (That means you could potentially submit 13 times: 5 works of art, 1 book review, 1 creative nonfiction piece, 1 fiction story, and 5 poems.)

* When you create your Submittable account, please use a personal email** you can access throughout the process until the issue launches in mid-May. 

** Most school districts restrict messages from outside sources, including Submittable, so try an email connected to your mobile (icloud.com) or your family/guardian or teacher/staffer personal email.

Also: Your Submittable account needs to have the "Yes, I want to receive email notifications" checked under Settings (that’s the default), and you’ll need to check your email connected to the Submittable account on the regular. If that’s not possible, you’ll need to check the Submittable website and/or app most days.

FAQs
What if I want to be a Teen Editor? Great! Before Friday, February 28, 2025, please use the separate Teen Editor Submittable form to submit your name and a short paragraph as well as the categories you prefer to screen. 

If I'm a Teen Editor, may I still submit to the issue? Of course! Teen Editors may still submit work for consideration, but they will not be screening their own submissions.

Where do I submit my work? We accept submissions only through the Inlandia Institute’s Submittable portal. We will not consider mailed or emailed submissions.

Is there a submission fee? No! Submissions are free.

How should I format my written work?

1. Font and Point Size: something standard such as 12-point Times New Roman.
2. Spacing: double space your work unless it is poetry, which should be single spaced (unless the topic/theme needs other formatting).
3. Margins: 1 inch on all sides.
4. Header: include the title of your work and page numbers if more than a single page.
5. Please remove your name from the submission and file name.

Anything else to submit? We request a biographical statement (up to 75 words) written in the third person (she/he/they). Bios should include your name as you want it to appear if your submission is accepted. NOTE: Bios are concealed from teen screeners.

Are there types of work you don’t want?

• Do not submit pornographic material or work that degrades any gender, race, religion, ability level, etc. In other words, nothing demeaning to others.
• We do not want assigned schoolwork you have no particular passion for, even if your teacher is giving extra credit for you to submit something. We do not want your college application essays.
• Do not submit AI-generated or AI-assisted work.
• We do not want any work that you did not create yourself. Do not plagiarize. By submitting your work, you are verifying that it is solely your creation.

When will I know if my work has been accepted? Please be patient as Teen Editors review and seriously consider every submission. It may be late March or April before you receive a response.

Do you allow simultaneous submissions? Simultaneous submissions are okay but please withdraw any work accepted elsewhere promptly.

Do you allow reprints? Previously curated works — in books, magazines, journals, anthologies, online or in print — by writers and artists who have republication rights are okay to submit with proper attribution/credit. 

Do you allow non-English submissions? At this time, we can only accept submissions primarily in English or translated into English (with written permission).

Do you allow translations? Translations are okay to submit with permission of both author and translator. Please include the English as well as native-language version of the work along with third-person bios for both author and translator.

If I have a question that is not answered here, who do I ask? Please email your question to the managing editor of Inlandia: A Literary Journey, Erin Michaela Sweeney (she/her), at JournalEditor@InlandiaInstitute.org.

The 2025 Hillary Gravendyk Prize 

Sponsored by Inlandia Institute and published by Inlandia Books

One National and one Regional Winner will each be awarded $1000 and book publication.

The Hillary Gravendyk Prize is an open poetry book competition for all writers regardless of the number of previously published poetry collections. The manuscript page limit is 48 - 100 pages, and the press invites all styles and forms of poetry. Only electronic submissions accepted via Inlandia’s Submittable portal. Entries must be received online by April 30, 2025 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. Reading fee is $20. The winners will be announced late Summer/Fall 2025, for publication in 2026.

The competition was created in memory of the late Inland Empire poet, Hillary Gravendyk, who passed away in 2014.

HILLARY GRAVENDYK (1979-2014) was a beloved poet living and teaching in Southern California’s “Inland Empire” region. She wrote the acclaimed poetry book, HARM from Omnidawn Publishing (2012) and the poetry collection The Naturalist (Anchiote Press, 2008). A native of Washington State, she was an admired Assistant Professor of English at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. Her poetry has appeared widely in journals such as American Letters & Commentary, The Bellingham Review, The Colorado Review, The Eleventh Muse, Fourteen Hills, MARY, 1913: A Journal of Forms, Octopus Magazine, Tarpaulin Sky and Sugar House Review. She was awarded a 2015 Pushcart Prize for her poem "Your Ghost," which appeared in the Pushcart Prize Anthology. She leaves behind many devoted colleagues, friends, family and beautiful poems. Hillary Gravendyk passed away on May 10, 2014 after a long illness. This contest has been established in her memory.

The details: One contest, two prizes, each award is granted publication and $1000: All entrants will be considered for the National Prize, and entrants who currently reside or work in Inland Southern California, the “Inland Empire,” will also be considered for the Regional Prize (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, and any non-coastal Southern California area, from Death Valley in the northernmost region to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the southernmost). If you believe you reside or work in an area that falls within the I.E., please select the “Yes, I reside in the I.E.” checkbox on the Submittable form, or if you’re not sure, please contact the Inlandia Institute at Inlandia@InlandiaInstitute.org.) In addition, the editors may select one or more additional books for publication.

Eligibility: Any American writer may enter the contest, with the exception of current colleagues and/or students, close friends, or family of the judge. Additionally, anyone currently serving in the Inlandia Institute in the last two years, either as an employee or on the Inlandia Institute Board of Directors, or is a close family member of the above, is not eligible.

Manuscript Requirements: Please submit 48-100 pages of poetry through our Submittable portal as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf. 

***Submissions are read without identifying information.***Do not include your name or any identifiable information on the manuscript itself.*** Do not include a cover page.***Do not attach an acknowledgements page.*** 

No revisions to the manuscript are allowed while the contest is running; however, if your manuscript is selected for publication, revisions may be submitted at that time. Please use a standard 11 or 12 point font. If there is a significant amount of non-standard formatting, please submit as a PDF to ensure formatting remains intact. Individual poems may have been published in journals, anthologies, chapbooks, etc., but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.

Submission fee: $20 per manuscript. Multiple submissions accepted but a separate entry fee is required for each manuscript submitted. Simultaneous submissions also accepted. If accepted elsewhere, please formally withdraw your manuscript from consideration via the Submittable portal.

Prize: Each winner will receive $1000, 20 copies of their book, and a standard book contract.

The manuscripts will be screened by MFA students from local colleges and universities.

Inlandia Institute is a literary nonprofit and publishing house based in Inland Southern California dedicated to celebrating the region in word, image, and sound. Hillary Gravendyk Prize winners have gone on to win other post-publication prizes, including Rachelle Cruz's 2016 God's Will for Monsters, which received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

Hillary Gravendyk Prize winners to date include Meg Reynolds, Anna Zumbahlen, Jennifer MacKenzie, Elizabeth Galoozis, Will Barnes, Tiffany Elliott, Angelica Maria Barraza, Alexandra Martinez, Michael Samra, Jonathan Maule, Bronwen Tate, Adam Martinez, Michelle Peñaloza, Elizabeth Cantwell, Malcolm Friend, Rachelle Cruz, Marco Maisto, Kenji C. Liu, and Angela Peñaredondo.

Do you love reading stories, essays, poems, all of the above? Love the craft of writing? Love checking out your friends’ drawings, photography, comics? Then join our online adventure! 

Inlandia: A Literary Journey is recruiting editors 13–19 years old for the Spring 2025 All-Teen Issue.

• Discover how an online journal works 
• Choose which teen submitters get into the issue
• Add this activity to your extracurriculars list

I want to be a Teen Editor. What do I need to do?

Great! From Monday, December 9, 2024, through Friday, February 28, 2025, sign up via Submittable.* 

You’ll submit your name and a short paragraph telling us why you want to spend some of your free time on this literary journey with us. Optionally, share if you have any experience, such as working on a school newspaper or yearbook. Also let us know the categories you prefer to evaluate (though you may be assigned to others as well): 

◻️ poetry

◻️ fiction

◻️ creative nonfiction

◻️ art

* When you create your Submittable account, please use a personal email** you can access throughout the process until the issue launches in mid-May. 

** Most school districts restrict messages from outside sources, including Submittable, so try an email connected to your mobile (icloud.com) or your family/guardian or teacher/staffer personal email.

Also: Your Submittable account needs to have the "Yes, I want to receive email notifications" checked under Settings (that’s the default), and you’ll need to check your email connected to the Submittable account on the regular. 

If that’s not possible, you’ll need to check the Submittable website and/or app most days throughout the process, especially during the review period, which is Monday, January 13, through Friday, March 21, 2025.

If I am a Teen Editor, may I still submit to the issue?

Yes! Teen Editors may still submit work via the call for submissions for the Spring 2025 All-Teen Issue, open Monday, January 13, through Friday, February 28, but they will not review their own submissions.

Do I have to show up for zoom meetings?

Not at all. This asynchronous project offers an optional 30-minute meet-and-greet/Q&A zoom for new and returning Teen Editors; otherwise, everything is via Submittable and email.

Will you help with school forms and write recommendation letters?

We are glad to verify volunteer time for schools as well as consider requests for letters of recommendation. 

If I have a question that is not answered here, who do I ask?

Please email your question to the managing editor of Inlandia: A Literary Journey, Erin Michaela Sweeney (she/her), at JournalEditor@InlandiaInstitute.org.