The Vernal Pool team would like to thank you for taking the time to submit your creative piece to the journal. We understand and commend the courage it takes to expose yourself to analysis and constructive criticism. We look forward to reviewing your piece and will contact you soon to inform you of its status. In the meantime, please feel free to submit additional work or reach out with any questions or concerns. Thank you once again for contributing your individual expression to our campus and its demonstration of creativity within the student body.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
- The submission deadline for the Fall 2025 issue of The Vernal Pool is currently TBD. As an estimate, any pieces submitted from now to October 2025 will be considered for the Fall 2025 issue.
- Submissions are open year-round, and you may submit as many pieces as desired.
- Submissions from approximately November to March are considered for spring publication, while submissions from approximately April to October are considered for fall publication.
- Submissions in any language are allowed and do not need to be translated into English. However, it would be helpful to have either a description of the submission or an English translation alongside your work to help ease communication between you and our editors.
- Submissions must not have been published in other journals.
- Submissions must be your original artistic and creative work and not have been fully written by AI (such as ChatGPT) or other similar websites. If you use AI to develop or aid your work, cite it and state its role in developing your work. In accordance with the university statement on AI, if AI is used and not cited, we will consider it plagiarism.
- When submitting, you will be asked to mark your piece with a genre – please only use one of the following: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual art, audio, or video.
- Submit additional submissions in a separate submission. Works in a collection may be submitted in one submission together; however, they will all be accepted or rejected as a whole.
- If you wish to retract your work from being considered for the journal, even if your work has been accepted, please email The Vernal Pool as soon as possible.
Please Note: Any work that is published in The Vernal Pool is still the author’s intellectual property. This means that the piece is still owned by the author and can be submitted to any other publication without contacting the journal or the editorial board.
WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS
- Submissions should be 12-point in any serif font.
- Unless the formatting of the piece is essential to the work (as in visual poetry), submissions should be in 1.15 spacing. Special formatting for visual poems and similar genres will be respected and kept for final publication.
- Individual submissions should be in a single file and should not significantly exceed approximately 2000 words or 5 pages. Submissions that are only slightly over these parameters are acceptable.
- Please submit pieces in individual files unless they are part of a thematic collection, in which case you may submit the collection in one submission. Please note that pieces in the same file will be considered as a whole, with either all or none of them being accepted.
- Please submit written pieces as either a .pdf, google doc, or a .docx.
VISUAL ART SUBMISSIONS
- Visual art is accepted and welcomed – please submit pieces as either a .png or .jpeg (whichever of those two the original file is in) in the highest quality you have.
- Visual art includes – but is not limited to – painting, drawing, printmaking, comics, sculpture, ceramics, photography, design, and crafts.
- Please submit pieces individually or as a thematic collection. Pieces in a thematic collection can be submitted in one submission form by adding multiple files.
AUDIO SUBMISSIONS
- Audio files must be submitted with a minimum of one additional file, which can be a transcript, sheet music, or brief description that goes along with the audio submission.
- Audio submissions can be up to 5 minutes in length.
- Music or other audio that samples previously published or copyrighted audio cannot be submitted as all work must be original and unpublished.
VIDEO SUBMISSIONS
- Video files must be submitted with a minimum of one additional file, which can be a transcript (if it includes speaking components) or a brief description.
- Video submissions include – but are not limited to – film, dance, and theatre.
- Video submissions can be up to 5 minutes in length.
- Any work used in your video submission that samples previously published or copyrighted work cannot be submitted (all work must be original and unpublished).
If you have questions about any of the above guidelines, please contact us at thevpjournal@ucmerced.edu.