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Submission Guidelines

STYLUS accepts high-quality submissions of poetry, prose and art from all currently enrolled University of Maryland students. Our reading period is from January to March.

We accept up to 3 pieces per poetry, prose or art/audio visual submission, and 5 pieces total per person. If you submit more than 5 pieces, we will only consider the first five works; the rest will be disqualified.

The work is put through a rigorous, anonymous review process. A brief biography to accompany the work in event of publication must be submitted with the piece. We maintain flexibility in the layout process. No work is guaranteed acceptance until publication.

Deadlines

  • Stylus 2025 Jimenez-Porter Literary Prizes: February 14, 2025, 11:59 PM EST
  • Stylus 2025 Prose & Poetry: February 14, 2025, 11:59 PM EST
  • Stylus 2025 All Art & Cabrini Art Awards: February 14, 2025, 11:59 PM EST

Submission Guidelines

1. Do not include any identifying information in the document containing your work. Pieces submitted with names, UIDs, bios, or other identifying information in the document itself will be rejected.

2. You may only submit 5 pieces to Stylus. You may separately submit to Litfest, but no more than 5 entries will be considered for any single submitter per category.

3. With Submittable, submissions to Stylus and submissions to Litfest are completely different categories. Make sure that if you want a piece to be considered for both, you must manually submit it to both categories.

4. A valid UID is required to submit, and must be included in the "Cover Letter" field. Only University of Maryland undergraduate students may submit to Stylus.

5. Your name and a brief bio must be included in the "Cover Letter" field. The bio will accompany the work in event of publication.

6. Pieces should be submitted in a word processing document. (.doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt. Please, no Pages documents).

7. Art should be submitted as a .jpeg, .png, or .tif file.

8. Each piece should be submitted separately. Do not group pieces into one submission.

Poetry

You may submit up to 5 poems.

Prose

Stylus has a 3,000 word limit on all prose pieces, with a sweet spot of 1,500 words. If any edits or revisions seem necessary, Stylus will contact you as soon as possible. You may submit up to 3 pieces.

Multilingual

Work should be accompanied by an English translation in the document file. Submit multilingual prose pieces to the prose category and multilingual poetry pieces to the poetry category.

Art

Files should be at 300dpi or greater. Submitters should also include information about the medium and actual dimensions or size of each art piece in the comment field. Students unable to send their pieces electronically should contact our Art Editors. You may submit up to 3 pieces.

Audio/Visual

These submissions can consist of music, spoken-word/slam poetry, dance, and more. Files should be MP3 for audio submissions and MP4 or MOV for performance-based arts that have been filmed. We also accept links to SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, or other easy-to-navigate platforms for music or performances. You may submit up to 3 pieces. If you have questions or concerns, please email styluslit@gmail.com.