Can I submit to The Vernal Pool even if I am not a UC Merced student?
At the time, we only accept submissions from UC Merced students. Transfer students who are UC Merced students at the time of submission are still eligible for publication.
When is the submission deadline?
The submission window for the Spring 2023 edition of The Vernal Pool is closed, any further submissions will be considered for the Fall 2023 edition of the journal. The next deadline will be announced this fall!
Why do I have to submit in a standard font and spacing?
Unfortunately, non-standard fonts don’t always translate well between word processors. A non-standard font may prevent our team from being able to read your piece. Additionally, our team makes design decisions in the final publication on the font of all the pieces—to present a professional and uniform look, fonts and spacing will be standardized between accepted pieces during publication preparation. However, spacing in genres like visual poetry will be respected and kept in the final publication.
Do you publish physical copies of The Vernal Pool?
Yes, we do publish physical copies of The Vernal Pool! For the Spring 2023 edition of the journal, all published authors will receive a free copy of the journal at our launch event. For those who are not published but still interested in getting a physical copy of the journal, a limited number will be available for purchase during the event.
If my piece gets published somewhere else before The Vernal Pool publishes it, what happens?
Please let us know as soon as possible if this is the case! Email us at thevpjournal@ucmerced.edu. We cannot publish anything that has previously been published, even if it had not been at the time of submission to The Vernal Pool. However, any pieces published in The Vernal Pool can be published elsewhere afterward, as you retain all rights to your work
Don’t see your question here? Send us a message from the Contact Us page, or reach out to us directly via email at thevpjournal@ucmerced.edu.