General Guidelines
Submissions:
We are now accepting submissions via this handy-dandy submissions manager. There is no fee when submitting to Artwork/Photography, Graphic Fiction/Graphic Essays/Comic Strips, Plays or Shadow Boxing. Each submission of Fiction, Poetry or Creative Nonfiction is $2.50, which goes toward funding the journal (which is not-for-profit) and supporting our easy-to-use submissions manager host. Both Palooka and Submishmash are working hard and out of our own pockets to support your work and the struggling writing and publishing world in general. We look forward to seeing your work. Happy submitting!
What We're Interested In:
We're very open to all kinds of work. Feel free to send us your best PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED short stories, flash fiction, graphic short stories, creative nonfiction, lyric essays, graphic essays, poetry, plays, comic strips, photographs, paintings, miscellaneous artwork, etc.
Simultaneous Submissions:
We hope you're pursuing simultaneous submissions and please let us know if you're submitting to us and elsewhere. Also, please withdrawn your piece if accepted at another journal. If this is the case, we offer you a sturdy e-handshake and congratulations!
Payment:
We offer all contributors a complementary copy and several discounted copies of the journal in which their work appears.
The Wait:
We try and get to your submissions as soon as we can, but please remember there are only two of us running this bad-boy, and we also take great pride in giving each piece its reading justice and consider it thoroughly. Please allow up to 3 months for a response. If you're getting antsy about your submission, feel free to check in with us at palookajournal@gmail.com. Our Palooka Panda will be glad to paw out a response to you on the keyboard.
Home
View Your SubmissionsArtwork/Photography
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf, tiff, jpg, gif, zip)Amount: Five pieces of artwork or five photographs.
Formatting: all image types, but prefer .jpg, .gif and other common types, all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window. We print in color.
Editors Say:
"In terms of both of these categories, I really don't want to classify what I'm looking for, but just to say I'm very open to anything unique you have to offer. I like all kinds of images. I'm partial to original photographs that talk to the observer, photos that tell a story. In terms of artwork, I just like so much. Surprise me." -- Jonathan Starke, Editor
"As writers, readers, and observers, the image is what we're after. I'm interested in images of all kinds. If you've done something interesting with textiles, take a picture of it. If there is a particularly moving photo you found in one of your grandmother's albums, I'd love to see it." -- Nicholas Maistros, Editor
Submit
Graphic Fiction,Graphic Essays & Comic Strips
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf, tiff, png, jpg, gif, zip)12,000 word limit
Amount: One graphic short story or graphic essay and up to three comic strips. Must incorporate photos/drawings/paintings/sketches, etc.
Word Count: 500 - 12,000 words.
Page Count: Nothing over 40 pages.
Formatting: Any font or typeface or size that suits the material, and all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window.
"I'm looking for something that moves both within the language and the image. The piece must hit on several levels if it's a graphic story or essay. With the comic strips, I'm looking for thoughtful, dark, zany, funny, deep. Really anything here. We just want enticing and enriching work."
-- Jonathan Starke, Editor
Submit
Plays
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf)Amount: One play in however many Acts.
Page count: 5 - 40 pages.
Formatting: 12-point font, one-inch margins, all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window.
Editors Say:
"Anything goes. I'm excited to see some fresh dialogue and interesting character dynamics." -- Jonathan Starke, Editor
Submit
Shadow Boxing
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf)1,000 word limit
Amount: One piece.
Word count: 50 - 1,000 words.
Formatting: 12-point font, one-inch margins, double-spaced, page numbers, all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window.
Editors Say:
"This section of the journal is dedicated to giving you a voice. Share your concerns about writing, your joys about writing, struggles, fears, hopes, what's currently going on in your writing thoughts and process. Tell us. We'll Listen, and maybe even print it!" -- Jonathan Starke, Editor
"I'm greedy. I want to know what you know about writing. I want to steal your tricks." -- Nicholas Maistros, Editor
Submit
Fiction - $2.50
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf)12,000 word limit
Amount: One short story or up to three flash pieces (combine the flash pieces into one document).
Word count: 500 - 10,000 words.
Formatting: 12-point font, one-inch margins, double-spaced, page numbers, all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window.
Editors Say:
"I'm not interested in scholarly or wordy language. I'm not a big fan of heavy symbols and metaphors. What I prefer are simple, good stories. I like when I believe that every word and every character and every bit of furniture appears for good reason. I don't believe in arbitrary places or people or objects. I believe in good storytellers with characters I can say I've never met before, but had a really great time getting to know them." -- Jonathan Starke, Editor
"I know I've read a good story when I'm still thinking about it days, weeks, months later. When I still hear the voices of those characters in my head, whether I'm actively recalling them or not—the things they'd say or do if they were in the video store next to me, which movie they'd pick, as if they were real people. Good fiction is about real people." -- Nicholas Maistros, Editor
Pay and Submit
Creative Nonfiction - $2.50
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf)12,000 word limit
Amount: One essay or up to three lyric essays (combine the lyric essays into one document).
Word count: 500 - 10,000 words.
Formatting: 12-point font, one-inch margins, double-spaced, page numbers, all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window.
Editors Say:
"I'm not interested in academic or scholarly endeavors unless they are fused really well with the creative. I want honesty, vulnerability, danger, risk. The writer must be putting something on the line for me to care about their nonfiction. I have to feel it. I have to make it to the end and read that final line and be out of breath." -- Jonathan Starke, Editor
"The reason I love creative nonfiction is because I don't know exactly what it is. Memoir. Personal essay. New journalism. I'm not sure what the difference is between these genres, or if one needs to be specified. If you've got something resembling any of the above, or something new, a blending of the genres, send it our way. CNF, to me, is about obsession. You see something. You can't not see it. And so you write.” -- Nicholas Maistros, Editor
Pay and Submit
Poetry - $2.50
(pdf, doc, docx, rtf)Amount: Up to three poems (combine into one document)
Formatting: 12-point font, all necessary contact information ONLY in the BIO window.
Editors Say:
"I want to see poems with a great story or with some really knockout imagery that I've never experienced before. It needs to be alive. I need to feel like I've been punched in the face and I don't know what to do about it." -- Jonathan Starke, Editor
"Totally. I totally agree with him." -- Jonathan Starke, Editor answering in a really nasally voice, pretending to be Nicholas Maistros, Editor
Pay and Submit
