Our Submission Period for the Shallow End will begin December 1, 2020 and end March 13, 2021.
Shallow End Submission Guidelines
Please read the guidelines below completely (even the FAQs!) before sending any submissions to the Horn Pond Review.
Please note that due to the volume of submissions, if guidelines are not followed, your submission will not be reviewed.
General Guidelines
All submissions should be sent to hornpondreview@gmail.com.
Your subject line should include your last name and the title & genre (poetry, short story, photograph, etc.) of your piece.
In the body of your email, please include your name, your grade, a 2-3 sentence synopsis of your piece, and any other information you think the editorial board should know.
Your submission should be sent as an attachment. See Genre Guidelines below for specifics.
If you are sending multiple submissions, each should be sent in a separate document.
Please proofread your submissions before sending. We will not consider works that contain obvious typos and other such errors.
For legal reasons, we cannot accept any submissions that have been published elsewhere.
No fan-fiction or fan-art, please!
If you are under 18 and your piece is accepted, your parents/guardians will need to give permission for publication.
Genre Guidelines
Prose
Author’s Name should NOT be on submission attachment. We review all submissions anonymously.
Prose submissions should be no longer than 8,000 words.
Submissions should be double-spaced and written in Times New Roman or comparable font.
Key words from title should be included in top right hand corner on all pages of the submission.
Submissions should be sent as .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
File name should include piece’s title.
Submissions that are longer than one page should be numbered.
You may submit up to THREE prose pieces per issue, but each must be submitted separately.
Poetry
Author’s Name should NOT be on submission attachment. We review all submissions anonymously.
Poems should be no longer than three pages, single-spaced.
Submissions should be written in Times New Roman or a comparable font.
Key words from title should be included in top right hand corner on all pages of the submission.
Submissions should be sent as .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
File name should include piece’s title.
Submissions that are longer than one page should be numbered.
You may submit up to FIVE poems per issue, but each must be submitted separately.
Visual
Author’s Name should NOT be on submission attachment. We review all submissions anonymously.
As with all submissions, visual submissions must be original. We will not accept anything that is a copy of an existing image, so please do not send us your recreation of “The Starry Night.”
If the piece uses stock images, they must be royalty-free or appropriately licensed.
File name should include image’s title.
Submissions should be sent as .jpg, .jpeg, or .png.
FAQs
What kind of submissions do you accept?
We accept short stories, flash fiction, literary non-fiction (i.e. memoir), and excerpts from longer works, provided they can stand alone. We do not accept book/movie reviews or straight research. We also accept photographs and other visual artwork. If you are not sure about your submission, contact us and ask!
Are there content restrictions?
The Shallow End is a journal by students and for students, so it is our desire that readers of many ages be able to comfortably enjoy our publication. Therefore, please refrain from sending us submissions that—if optioned as a film—would be rated PG or worse. The same goes for visual art. If you have something that would be more appropriate for an older teen or adult audience, please consider submitting it to our main journal, The Horn Pond Review. Submission information for HPR can be found here.
If my submission is accepted, who maintains the rights to it?
If your submission is accepted, we will send you a contract for the non-exclusive rights to publish your work in the Horn Pond Review. While we will not accept something published elsewhere, you maintain ownership of your work and can submit it for publication elsewhere after it has been published in the Horn Pond Review for a period of one calendar year.
If accepted, where will my submission be published?
Right now, the Horn Pond Review is a digital literary magazine only. All accepted submissions will be published directly on our website. At some point, we would love to create hard copies of our issues, but right now we are solely online.
How will I know if my submission is accepted?
If your submission is accepted, you will receive an email informing you of its acceptance. If you have not heard from us within 30 days following the reading period, you can assume that we have not accepted your submission.
What happens if I don’t follow the submission guidelines?
If you do not follow the submission guidelines, your submission will not be considered for publication.
Do I need to be from Woburn or affiliated with Woburn to submit something?
No! While we are based in Woburn, we take submissions from anyone!
Can I submit something that is in a language other than English?
Unfortunately, right now we do not have any editors that can read submissions in languages other than English (at least not well enough to judge them!). However, there is nothing wrong with using phrases and words in another language if it is appropriate; just know that we may not accept something that is entirely in a language other than English.