Submissions Call to Past and Present Members
Members of the Literature Section are excited to make this call for submissions for the first-ever anthology to be produced by the Heliconian Club. We are seeking writing in different genres, as well as high-resolution images in various artistic media, such as drawings, paintings, fabric art, sculpture and photography. Our call is open to both current and former members of the Club.
Objective
Our desire is to produce an anthology that will promote and celebrate the Heliconian Club through the publication of the best of evocative poetry, profound stories, memoirs and essays, and outstanding imagery. This anthology will be published as a full-colour, softcover book. We are planning to hold an official book launch at the Club that will be open to the public and well promoted, at which the anthology will be for sale.
Submissions
Submissions are open to any theme. Your work can be thought provoking, humorous, activist. educational, entertaining, lyrical, inspirational or disturbing. Submissions, however, may not have been published elsewhere. The cover art will be chosen from submitted artwork. All submissions will be “blind” (that is, selecting editors will not know the names of the submitters). There will be two sets of editors. The first set will narrow down the submissions in each category to a shortlist. The second set will make the final selections in each category.
Guidelines
The deadline for submissions is: November 30, 2020 (amended). Please try to enter earlier; our selection committee will be highly appreciative.
Projected publication date is late fall, 2021.
All entries must consist of two files:
1) a file containing only the title plus pertinent information (e.g. word count of the work if it is a piece of writing, or media for artwork) and personal contact information, including your name, home address, email address and phone number, as well as a 50-word-maximum bio.
2) the creative submission itself, which must have a title[s] that match(es) the title[s] in the other file. Your name must not appear in this second file (word, jpeg format).
The Editor-in-Chief will separate the documents and pass on the creative files to the assessors to ensure that the process remains blind.
Note: You do not have to pay a fee to submit your work for consideration, so long as you do not exceed the stipulated number of submissions. You will have to pay a fee for additional submissions. Please see below.
For written submissions: Text font must be Times New Roman, 12 pt. Prose must be double spaced.
Poetry: Submit up to two poems. Maximum line count, including lines between stanzas: 90 for each poem, excluding title line.
Fiction: (any genre): Submit one complete piece. Maximum word count, excluding title: 1,800.
Literary Nonfiction (memoir, biography, essay – personal, academic, or factual article): Submit one complete piece. Maximum word count, excluding title: 1,800 (if academic, please include works cited; i.e., bibliography, academic footnotes, MLA style. These will not be counted in your word maximum).
A note to prose writers: You may submit one work of fiction and one work of nonfiction without incurring any reading fee. The maximum word count for both pieces together can be no more than 2,000.
Visual Art Submissions: You must submit high-resolution jpegs. You may submit up to five high-resolution images without incurring a fee.
Do consider making joint ekphrastic submissions; i.e. we encourage Heliconian writers to submit a work inspired by a photograph taken or a painting done by another Club member, or vice versa; or a Heliconian photographer could submit a still of a Heliconian actor or dancer in action. Both contributors would be credited in the anthology.
You are allowed to submit in each category once, without incurring additional fees. For instance, you can submit poetry (as per above) and five images of visual art, plus a piece of fiction. But if you submit your two poems. five images, and two 1800-word pieces of fiction, then you are charged for that second fictional work.
Fees
You do not have to pay a fee to submit your work for consideration, so long as you do not exceed the stipulated number of submissions listed above. You will have to pay fees for additional submissions, as follows:
For each additional set of two poems: $12.00
For each additional prose piece: $12:00
For each additional set of five images: $12:00
To pay for additional submissions, please visit: https://torontoheliconianclub.wildapricot.org/Anthology/
The maximum acceptable word counts for additional submissions are the same as those stipulated above. Upon receipt of additional submissions, you will be contacted to arrange payment.
You are welcome to check back for updates by emailing the Editor-in-Chief, Sheila Tucker, at: anthology@heliconianclub.org
Other Conditions
We will consider work submitted simultaneously to other publications, but please do let us know if it has been accepted elsewhere and is no longer available to us. All copyright remains with you; however, if you republish the same work somewhere else, after it has appeared in the Heliconian anthology, please acknowledge it as first published in our book.
When emailing in your submission, please indicate in the Subject Line whether it is either "Prose," "Poetry," or "Visual Art." If submitting more than one entry or category, please send separate emails. You can submit as many times as you like, but you will be required to pay submission fees if you send more than the above maximums.
About the Team
This is a Heliconian Club project initiated by the Literature Section:
Sheila Tucker, Editor-in-Chief
Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews, Poetry/Prose Coordinator
Kate Hawkins, Visual Art Coordinator
Karen Shenfeld, Editor, Proofreader
Christine Arthurs, Graphic Designer