Cultural Constellations:  A Journal of Literature and Art

Cultural Constellations seeks original, previously unpublished submissions for a literary journal published by University of Maryland Global Campus Europe. Managed and edited by faculty representatives of UMGC Europe’s Book Club and Military Community Writers group, we offer a platform for writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and for visual artists. Our goal is to nourish the magic of artistic expression by offering a passage through which the literary arts may thrive and blossom. Journal themes will focus on art, literary expression, and culture. 

We encourage contributions from writers and artists among the global community who are military veterans, dependents, and family members; we seek submissions from UMGC current and former personnel and students. We accept work from new and established writers.

Submission Guidelines: 

Submit work to CulturalConstellations-Europe@UMGC.edu. In the email subject heading, include the category to which you are submitting and your last name (Example:  Poetry McNeely). On each piece, please include a heading with your full name and your email address.  Multiple pieces may be submitted as one file or separately; each piece must be titled. 

Prose and Poetry:  Please submit poetry and prose as Word files.  If special formatting is required, a PDF may be included to maintain the formatting.

Poetry:  We accept single poems of up to three pages or three short poems.

Fiction:  We accept Flash Fiction of up to 1000 words and longer pieces of up to 6000 words.

Nonfiction:  We accept nonfiction, including essays, memoir, and other forms of creative nonfiction of up to 6000 words. 

Visual Art: We accept original photographs and images of original expressions in other artistic medium such as watercolor, oil, and acrylic.  Please submit original visual art as JPEG (.jpg) files.  Each individual piece must be titled; a brief description (up to 50 words) may be included if desired.  Submit a maximum of three pieces per submission period. 

A few guiding notes about submitting to this journal:

We accept simultaneous submissions but request timely notification if a piece submitted to us has been accepted elsewhere.  All work must be original, previously unpublished, and created without the use of AI.

Because this literary journal is open to a wider readership and contributor base, we encourage submission elsewhere of any piece that might target a narrower audience. For instance, any piece containing language that demeans specific groups of people would likely be more successful with a different journal.  We will not accept pieces that promote hate speech, violence, or the degradation of others. 

Submissions open on March 4, 2024, and close on May 31, 2024. Acceptance notifications will be emailed by June 30, 2024.