SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

PROMPT: REAPING

They talk a lot about reapin’ what you sow, but is that really so? Seems like too many people getting fed on someone else’s dollar nowadays, someone else’s time. Sure sure, there’s always more light under the harvest moon, but does that mean you have to be clocking in extra now too? Tell us about who’s getting the benefits and who’s getting axed. Start thinking about the cool downs, the collectors, and what you’d trade for a nickel. Is autumn the ending of the work, or the beginning of staving off starvation?

We’d like to invite the politically charged and the socially starved. The outcast cataloguers of culture. What about it do you want to disrupt? What do you begrudgingly reflect?

WE ACCEPT

POETRY: 1-5 poems per reading period. No line limits.

We are looking for narrative driven poetry that have characteristics of the confessional. We are unlikely to accept form poetry. While all art “lies to tell the truth” in its own way, we are only looking for poetry that reflects on your own lived experiences.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION: Tell us a story. Keep it short. (under 1000 words) 1-2 prose pieces per submission period.

While we don’t shy away from the sentimental, it also has to have a little grit to really stir us.

CROSS DISCIPLINARY ART: Up to 10 pieces at a time. We are most interested in various combinations of the written and the visual, though we also publish traditional visual art. This includes but is not limited to: vispo, poetry comics, poetry objects, digital and internet art, and cinepoetry. (Time based media will be online only.)

We are interested in work that is generally representational but not photorealistic. Abstracted but accessible. We lean toward the contemporary and avant-garde.

GENRELESS: Got something that doesn’t quite fit? Just send it to us. Let’s get strange.

INTERVIEWS: Do you know someone successful who you viciously envy? Who’s magnitude of brilliance is debilitatingly intimidating? Nominate them for an interview and let us ask them their biggest failures and worst regrets. Maybe you’ll feel a little better about your stack of rejection letters, or at the very least your newest bad date.

While we are the companions of failure and guardians of the not-quites, our fuck-up centric bio is the limit in our asking you to share yourself as a work-in-progress. Submission content does not have to be failure themed, and we actively discourage this being the focus. Tell us your worst, send us your best.

WHO ARE YOU?

All creators must submit a FAILURE-SPECIFIC BIO along with their work. The bio is just as important to the submission as the work itself in regard to the NINETENTHS project as a whole. While a well-crafted bio will not guarantee acceptance, a bio that does not meet the following criteria will automatically disqualify the applicant. All bios must include answers to some of the following questions, or variations on the failure/loss premise written in third person. (Go ahead, pick the worst.)

1. Which childhood memory haunts you?
2. In what ways does your body fail you? Which constructs of *health* damn the way you function?
3. How’d you break your own heart? What do you search for in your private browser?
4. Why is work not workin’ for you?
5. What is your deepest fear in regards to your creative process or your artist’s ego?
6. Which god do you make promises to when its all looking like shit?
7. How do you feel about death? What loss has had you lost? Does nothingness make you quiver?

Absolutely no mechanisms of a typical literary bio are to be included under any circumstance. We do not want to know where you went to school, what prizes you have won, where you have been published, or what helps you sleep at night. While this is a chance to be playful, crude, wallowing, belligerent, attention seeking, ashamed, vindictive, exposed; please keep your bio to 3-4 sentences.

Want to know more about what’s the whole deal with these bios? Read the Issue 1 Letter From The Editors.

(Had a ton of fun writing the bio and want to participate in a collection of “literary obituaries” that are inspired by the same cut of cloth? Check out our new e-zine project Lit Obit. )

THE NITTY GRITTY
aka You Mostly Know The Drill

• All literary pieces should be in ONE document and included as a .docx attachment.
  
  All art pieces should be in .jpg format and a resolution suitable for the web. (If you would like to see your work in print, please have a print quality version available upon acceptance.) Video art or experimental work may include links to unpublished YouTube or Vimeo videos or webpages.
  
  We do not accept GoogleDocs or submissions in the body of an email. Please do not submit more than once per genre per submission period.

• Short and precise cover letters in the body of your email are smiled upon; no need to go on forever unless you really want to have a chat. (“Hey editors, here’s my piece/s, peace out”)
  
• Please include your failure-specific third-person bio after your cover letter. (No traditional bios!) These are the only bios we publish and are integral to the project. Please don’t try and sneak your CV in with your cover letter: you might have gotten a bomb-ass poem accepted to The New Yorker and still sent us something ill-conceived. We care about your work and your work alone.
  
• We don’t usually confirm receipt of submissions unless asked. We got it! We’ll reply about a week after submissions close.

• Upon acknowledgement of acceptance, you grant NINETENTHS First Serial Rights to publish your work, and guarantee the work has not previously been published elsewhere. (For art, we don’t count your own social media) Upon publication, the right to publish your work elsewhere reverts back to the author, with agreement to acknowledge NINETENTHS Quarterly as the original publisher.

• While we accept simultaneous submissions, please notify us immediately if a piece was accepted elsewhere, and hey, congratulations!

• All submissions will first be published online around the solstice/equinox. (All publication deadlines are estimates only, and are not guaranteed.) Print Issues will be available in the following months. Contributors will receive one copy. As this is currently a passion project, (which is completely self-funded and therefore unpaid) there will be no monetary payment for contribution. However, we promise our Quarterly journal submissions will always remain free to submit to, and free to read.
  
• While we like to talk about how we’re more than just our accomplishments, good work should always be celebrated at every opportunity. Therefore, (perhaps hypocritically) NINETENTHS Quarterly nominates for both Best of The Net and The Pushcart Prize. (You get those snazzy bio credits babe, just don’t tell em we sent you.)

READY? Email the editors at submissions@ninetenthspress.com

With teen guest editor Bryana Lorenzo.

PROMPT: A Slice of Weird

Not all lives are literary. Some are messy, others mundane, many are even a little weird. Send us the zany and the off kilter; whether it be as simple as a story about stubbing your toe in the dark while stealing a packet of Oreos from your pantry or a poem about that one time you kissed what you swore was an extraterrestrial while on a Disney cruise. Whatever you do, don’t feel pressure to fit your life into a neat little narrative fit for a college application essay. Celebrate all that you find hilarious, entertaining, spooky, or even just the plain bizarre about your own life and world. Then share those good vibes with us. 

This project is open specifically to artists and writers that are 13 to 17 years old. For this reason, please keep content age-appropriate.

WE ACCEPT

POETRY: 1-5 poems per reading period. No line limits.

While all art “lies to tell the truth” in its own way, we are only looking for poetry that reflects on your own lived experiences.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION: Tell us a story. Keep it short. (under 1000 words) 1-2 prose pieces per submission period.

CROSS DISCIPLINARY ART: Up to 10 pieces at a time. We are most interested in various combinations of the written and the visual, though we also publish traditional visual art. This includes but is not limited to: vispo, poetry comics, poetry objects, digital and internet art, and cinepoetry. (Time based media will be online only.)

GENRELESS: Got something that doesn’t quite fit? Just send it to us. Let’s get strange.

Submission content does not have to be failure themed, and we actively discourage this being the focus. Tell us your worst, send us your best.

WHO ARE YOU?

NINETENTHS Press firmly believes that lists of accomplishments are no where close to the full story of who someone is as a creative individual or as a person. This sort of rattling off of achievements can create loads of insecurity and competitiveness, rather than insight, empathy, and community. This can be especially true while navigating the obstacle course that is high school and being a teenager.

Therefore, in keeping with our mission, all creators must submit a FAILURE-SPECIFIC BIO along with their work. The bio is just as important to the submission as the work itself in regard to the NINETENTHS project as a whole. While a well-crafted bio will not guarantee acceptance, a bio that does not meet the following criteria will automatically disqualify the applicant. All bios must include answers to some of the following questions, or variations on the failure/loss premise written in third person. (Go ahead, pick the worst.)

1. Do you have a childhood nightmare that still haunts you?
2. What’s the sickest you’ve ever been?
3. Ever have a best friend break your heart?
4. How is school not working for you?
5. What is your deepest fear about being a writer or artist?
6. Is the future a little frightening?

Absolutely no mechanisms of a typical literary bio are to be included under any circumstance. We do not want to know if you went to a good school, what prizes you have won, where you have been published, or what makes you feel cool. (We’re all a little dorky, and we’re all a little cool) While this is a chance to be playful, crude, wallowing, belligerent, attention seeking, ashamed, vindictive, exposed; please keep your bio to 3-4 sentences.

THE NITTY GRITTY
aka You Mostly Know The Drill

• All literary pieces should be in ONE document and included as a .docx attachment.
  
  All art pieces should be in .jpg format and a resolution suitable for the web. (If you would like to see your work in print, please have a print quality version available upon acceptance.) Video art or experimental work may include links to unpublished YouTube or Vimeo videos or webpages.
  
  We do not accept GoogleDocs or submissions in the body of an email. Please do not submit more than once per genre per submission period.

• Short and precise cover letters in the body of your email are smiled upon; no need to go on forever unless you really want to have a chat. (“Hey Bryana, here’s my piece/s, peace out”)
  
• Please include your failure-specific third-person bio after your cover letter. (No traditional bios!) These are the only bios we publish and are integral to the project.
  
• We don’t usually confirm receipt of submissions unless asked. We got it! We’ll reply about a week after submissions close.

• Upon acknowledgement of acceptance, you grant NINETENTHS First Serial Rights to publish your work, and guarantee the work has not previously been published elsewhere. (For art, we don’t count your own social media) Upon publication, the right to publish your work elsewhere reverts back to the author, with agreement to acknowledge NINETENTHS Teen as the original publication.

• While we accept simultaneous submissions, please notify us immediately if a piece was accepted elsewhere, and hey, congratulations!

• All submissions will first be published online on October 31st 2022. Print Issues will be available in the following months. Contributors will each receive one copy.

READY? Email the guest editor Bryana Lorenzo at teen@ninetenthspress.com

Submission Guidelines coming soon.

Submission Guidelines coming soon.