Submission Guidelines

Runestone considers previously unpublished works of fiction, creative nonfiction, digital storytelling, and poetry by undergraduate writers and artists. 

The theme for Volume 12 is APPROACHING THE BEAST. 

Unruly. Feral. Uncategorizable. Beasts are all around us, literally and figuratively. Help Runestone assemble our bestiary. Send us your dragons and unicorns, your kappas and chupacabras. Your encounters with bigfoot, mountain lions, urban coyotes, and alley cats. The beasts we wrestle with in our society today, the beasts of -isms and -phobias, the beasts that can protect us. The parts of you that are beastly, your precious snarling heart, your hackles. Essays about your favorite pop culture beasts, from Smaug to Godzilla and all the beasts in between. Fiction treading in the mercurial waters of magical realism and folk horror. Odes, elegies, and persona poems devoted for all who lurk in the night. Hybrid chimera writing forms that refuse to be pinned down. What do these beasts sound like, feel like, smell like? Let’s confront—and embrace—these beasts among us.

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!