Submission Guidelines

Runestone considers previously unpublished works of fiction, creative nonfiction, digital storytelling, and poetry by undergraduate writers and artists. 

Beginning with Volume 11, we will host a themed issue. The theme for Volume 11 is FOOD. 

We all need food to survive, but the concept of food means more than just the edible substances that we consume. Food is cultural, global, spiritual, ethical, moral, (un)sustainable, animal, plant, and mineral. What does food say about who we are? How might food bring us together? How might it highlight our privileges, demonstrate the spaces we occupy, or help us to gain a better understanding of ourselves and humanity? 

We’re thinking of food in terms of abundance and scarcity. Of desires and fears. Of fares that recall memories. Of land wars and agricultural woes. Humor us with your literary horror of family holiday meals. Crush us with your sonnets on snapping summer peas. Tell us of your experiences serving in fast-food restaurants. Share your stories set in confectionaries, your pantoums on a pestle and mortar, your ruminations on roux. We seek the sensorial in purposeful forms and illuminating descriptions of joyous and disheartening emotional rollercoasters with sentence-level writing that could fry an egg.

You must be a current undergraduate at a two- or four-year institution or if unaffiliated with a college, between the ages of 18 and 22 at the time you send your work. We do not consider work by students currently enrolled at Hamline University.

Submit work for our issues between April 1 – October 1 of each year.

Your work should include a cover letter, in which you should verify that you are an undergraduate (or fit the age criteria); include the name of your college or university, your field of study, and your year (sophomore, junior, etc.). Include the title(s) and genre of the piece(s) you’re submitting, as well as a mailing address, phone number, and an e-mail address.

For fiction or creative nonfiction, including flash, submit up to 3 files in each genre not to exceed 5000 words total (flash should be up to 500 words each). For poetry, you may submit up to 5 poems. You may submit work in more than one genre, but please do not send more than one piece or suite of fiction, one piece or suite of nonfiction, and one suite of poems per reading cycle. For more information, see the FAQ.

The editorial process of considering your work takes place in Hamline’s Introduction to Literary Publishing: Runestone course during the fall semester. You should hear from us regarding the status of your submission via e-mail no later than December 31.

Thank you for sending us your work!