The Oakland University Student Writers Group is taking submissions for the 2021 volume of the arts journal “Swallow the Moon.” Visual and written works by OU community members can be submitted by April 1. 

Now in its 12th year of publication, “Swallow the Moon” was started to give OU community members a place to get published and learn how the publishing process works.

“There was not really a publication on campus that highlighted student work, whether it be writing or photography or art or even language pieces,” Ashley Cerku, faculty advisor for the Student Writers Group, said. “The original founding members wanted to have a place where current students could submit their work and be featured and have an actual copyright to their work they can put on their resume or to show at portfolios.”

Another journal, the Oakland Arts Review (OAR) fills a similar role by publishing undergraduate work, but focuses on students from outside of OU.

“It is very rare that the OAR accepts work from OU students, whereas ‘Swallow the Moon’ is open to anyone who is affiliated with OU and it is centered specifically on the OU community,” Caitlyn Ulery, president of the Student Writers Group, said.

“Swallow the Moon” accepts fiction and non-fiction work as well as poetry, photography and other art pieces. Works can be in English or in a foreign language, and there is no set theme for works to be centered around.

Submissions are reviewed by the journal’s editorial board, which is composed of the Student Writers Group executive board and members of The Writing Center. For writing submissions, the editorial board looks over, comments on and discusses each entry and determines whether to accept an entry.

If accepted, the authors are notified and are given the editors’ comments and suggestions, allowing them to modify the work before publication. Visual arts have a different editorial process.

“We have more people look at [visual art entries] because you do not have to take the time to read it,” Cerku said. “We look at the appropriateness of it, the creativeness of it, the subject, just to see if it is something our audience members want to see.”

According to Jaclyn Tockstein, vice president of the Student Writers Group, the best way to get the editors’ attention is by making a work distinctly yours.

“Craft something that is so unique to your talent[s] that no other individual can replicate it,” Tockstein said via email. “Publishers (whether big or small) receive hundreds, perhaps thousands of submissions at a time. If you want your work to stand out, craft it in a way that brands yourself. What can you do that we have likely never seen/read before?”

Interested OU community members can submit up to three entries to [email protected]. Submissions are due by April 1 and should include a cover page with the entrant’s name, email and an identification of whether they are a student, alumni, faculty or staff member.

While “Swallow the Moon” has been physically published in the past, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the editorial staff to switch to virtual publication as a PDF out of safety and convenience.