Submissions
Creative Writing Contests & Journal Submissions
The Dazed Starling: Advent Fall 2024
(Writing & Art from Students, Alumni, and Faculty)
Deadline: October 31, 2024
The Dazed Starling: Advent is an online publication of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at California Baptist University. Its goal is to extend CBU’s Dazed Starling student literary journal’s mission by offering an additional publication opportunity open not only to current CBU students but also to faculty, alumni, and friends of the university. Each edition is thematic, but the editorial staff is open to an expansive interpretation of that theme. The editors will consider submissions in a wide variety of genres—poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, of course, but other writing (creative, critical, devotional, etc.) that might go beyond those categories. View last year's edition.
The Advent edition of The Dazed Starling embraces writing that explores faith, hope, peace, and joy. They need not be Christmas stories.
The Dazed Starling: Advent is also seeking visual art. Artistic pieces should be submitted as JPEG or PNG image files. We are particularly looking for works embracing our theme. Still, We are open to various forms—photography, computer-generated images, paintings, drawings, line art, black & white, monotone, full color, everything! (Pieces connected to the Advent theme are especially encouraged.)
Whether written or visual, all submissions must be previously unpublished with all rights held by the submitter. All submissions should consider the mission and spirit of the university.
Multiple pieces may be submitted in one submission. Authors may submit up to 3 poems and up to 500 words of prose (fiction or nonfiction--we're looking for short pieces up to 250 words each). Artists may submit up to 5 pieces of visual art.
The Dazed Starling Spring 2025
Deadline: January 20, 2025 (Opening Fall 2024)
Submit your poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction to The Dazed Starling for possible publication in the spring issue!
Current CBU undergraduate and graduate students, including December graduates, may submit
multiple pieces in multiple categories, but please observe the overall limits below:
FICTION (Including Flash Fiction): 20 double-spaced pages max (5,000 words max)
POETRY: 5 pieces
CREATIVE NONFICTION: 20 double-spaced pages max (5,000 words max)
Submissions should be grouped by category, but please submit each entry as an individual file.
For example, if you would like to submit 5 poems and 2 short stories:
- Save each work as it's own Word/RTF file with no personal information in the file.
- Submit the 5 poetry files all at once.
- Then submit the 2 short stories together.
Each student can submit to each of the categories once, so prep all of your files
before submitting.
N0 personally identifying information should be on the submission file — only the
title and the work itself should be included in the file (Word/RTF).
**If you're not a current student, consider submitting to The Dazed Starling: Unbound, which publishes works from current students, alumni, faculty, and friends of the university (including visual art).
The Dazed Starling Spring 2025 Cover Art Submissions
Deadline: February 15, 2025 (Opening Fall 2024)
Current CBU undergraduate and graduate students, including December graduates, are invited to submit art to The Dazed Starling. One piece will be selected to be featured as the cover of The Dazed Starling journal. Additional pieces may be considered for The Dazed Starling website.
If an art submission is chosen, it will be edited to format the cover. If a cover design is chosen, it should include the journal title, year and issue number. Full front and back design will be approximately 8 1/2 x 11 (landscape) with a spine inserted. To view previous selections, email Dr. Travis (etravis@calbaptist.edu). Students should only submit original images or those to which they maintain rights.
File should be submitted as JPG.
Full Wrap Specifications (Including Spine):
- Width: 12.5582" (3767 px)
- Height: 9.250" (2775 px)
Front Only:
- Width: 6" (1800 px)
- Height: 9" (2700 px)
The Dazed Starling: Unbound (Writing & Art from Students, Alumni, and Faculty)
Deadline: January 31, 2025
The Dazed Starling: Unbound is an online publication of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at California Baptist University. Its goal is to extend CBU’s Dazed Starling student literary journal’s mission by offering an additional publication opportunity open not only to current CBU students but also to faculty, alumni, and friends of the university. Each edition is thematic, but the editorial staff is open to an expansive interpretation of that theme. The editors will consider submissions in a wide variety of genres—poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, of course, but other writing (creative, critical, devotional, etc.) that might go beyond those categories. View last year's edition.
The Dazed Starling: Unbound also seeks to extend the creative voice of The Dazed Starling student literary journal with additional emphasis on visual arts. Artistic pieces should be submitted as JPEG or PNG image files. We are particularly looking for works embracing our theme. Still, we are open to various forms — photography, computer-generated images, paintings, drawings, line art, black & white, monotone, full color, everything!
Whether written or visual, all submissions must be previously unpublished with all rights held by the submitter. All submissions should consider the mission and spirit of the university.
Multiple pieces may be submitted in one submission. Authors may submit up to 3 poems and up to 2,500 words of prose (fiction or nonfiction). We welcome flash fiction, non-fiction, etc. Artists may submit up to 5 pieces of visual art.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Dazed Starling is published once a year in the spring.
No! We accept work from any current California Baptist University student (including December graduates in the following spring). If you have a passion for writing, please feel free to submit.
Fiction and creative nonfiction pieces should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages. However, we prefer that short stories be kept around the 10 page mark to allow more space for other authors. Poetry does not have a page limit, however, most poems are between one and two pages long.
The Dazed Starling does not shy from real-world issues such as violence, addiction, mental-health issues, or abuse. However, we are also thoughtful of our audience, and works with explicit content, foul language or that glorify activities not in keeping with the nature of our journal are unlikely to be published. However, we would remind authors that rejection from this journal does not mean your writing is bad; it just may not be a good fit for The Dazed Starling. Additionally, The Dazed Starling does not accept academic work such as research or scholarly papers, and typically does not accept biographies or interviews. Memoirs or testimonials that embrace a creative nonfiction style are more likely to be accepted.
We accept original, previously unpublished work. Work previously submitted for a class is fine. Work published on a private social media site may be fine. Work published on a public blog or shared with the general public will be rejected.
The Dazed Starling is a student-edited literary journal. Students collaboratively review the pieces through a blind review process (that is, we don’t see names attached to the submissions) for initial acceptance and rejections, then complete mild edits prior to publication. Our goal is to make your writing print ready, and to not interfere with the style of the artist.
If the submission period is still open, you may withdraw and resubmit your piece. Once we have begun the editing process, we will make our decisions based on the piece in front of us. We therefore ask that your submissions be as camera-ready as possible. Submissions that require extensive editing or significant revisions will likely be rejected. Very rarely, a piece will blow us away, and we will reach out to that author and ask if they are willing to make some revisions.
You will receive a letter of acceptance or rejection. Some letters of acceptance may be conditional, as the reviewers may want the author to revise and edit the piece. You will likely not receive personalized comments due to the time constraints of the editing team.