SUBMISSIONS

Submit your prose, poetry or artwork to
hanginglanternreview@gmail.com before February 7!

REQUIREMENTS

To be considered for our publication, you must be a student in grades 7-12 and live on the Central Coast of California (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Monterey counties). 

We accept poetry, prose (fiction and nonfiction), and visual art. We are primarily seeking work in the literary and fine arts genres. This can encompass a broad range of tones and styles, but what we’re not looking for are pieces that veer too close to nursery rhymes, fanfiction or fan art, how-to manuals, commercial advertisements, etc (except for insightful satire). Your work should make us wonder and ponder, think and rethink, and should move us—maybe in a small way, maybe in a big way, but in some way, somehow.

Although the art and literary worlds are open to and often appreciative of all sorts of content, there are some subjects and language that we do not publish at Hanging Lantern Review. This includes…

• sexuality (including graphic depictions, innuendo, nudity of any kind)

• racism*

• politics or other propaganda*

• illicit behavior (including drugs or alcohol for underage minors)*

• overly graphic violence*

• crude/vulgar material of any kind*

• extreme profanity*

*Note: There are some instances—few and far between for the purposes of Hanging Lantern Review—where some of the above subjects may be dealt with tastefully to further character development or plot. Sexuality of any kind is never permitted, but all other topics will be subject to scrutiny by Hanging Lantern Review’s staff advisor before entering student judging. It is up to the staff advisor’s discretion whether or not those works continue to the next round in the judging process. If you are unsure, review your work and ask yourself if you’ve used such things sparingly, thoughtfully, and purposefully; if so, we encourage you to submit (with the knowledge that your work will be pre-reviewed before students see it).
 

REVIEW PROCESS

All written work will be reviewed and evaluated first by anonymous readers and then by our student staff. Visual work will be reviewed by our editors and creative team. All final selections will be published in the Hanging Lantern Review summer print issue. In addition to receiving a free copy of the publication, writers of selected works will be invited to participate in an exclusive reading and release party in or near San Luis Obispo, California, in May. Submissions that we love but are not suitable for our print issue may also be published online.

We are so excited to see your work! Read on to see practical guidelines and rules for each of our submission categories.

Please carefully read all relevant submission guidelines. Submissions that do not follow our guidelines may be automatically disqualified.