Call for Submissions

Graffiti is so excited to utilize our new space on the KTR website and we want to fill it with your work. We accept any work, compliant with the guidelines below, but we also have temporary themes that we encourage all students to think over and consider addressing. Our themes for this submission cycle are freedom and restriction: how have you felt restricted or held back in your life? How and when have you felt free? How can art represent one or both of these feelings? Is there a specific moment that comes to mind? Or do you want to explore the topics as they intersect, asking the central question: what restricts us and why and how does that interact with what frees us and why? Do we get to decide? Is it inevitable that we will feel one or both either way?

Submission Guidelines

General

Please submit your poetry, prose, visual art, musical endeavours, or scripts. We truly welcome all forms of artistic expression. Is there something we’re missing? Email [______@] to let us know! We’d love to hear from you. To submit, you will fill out the form linked below that corresponds with the piece you’re submitting. Keep in mind that you can elect to keep your submissions anonymous.

We don’t want to turn anyone down. However, we do want to make sure that Graffiti is a safe place for everyone and will not accept pieces that promote hatred or intolerance of any kind. We reserve the right to turn away a piece if we feel that it discriminates against any group. Furthermore, submissions must stay school appropriate. Overtly sexual, violent, and/or disturbing imagery will result in a rejection. Excessive profanity and/or excessive references to drug and alcohol consumption will also result in us turning you down.

With that being said, we don’t want to censor anyone unnecessarily and we want anyone and everyone to feel comfortable sharing their work. Realistic and limited use of profanity/drug and alcohol references may fit our guidelines, but please keep in mind that this is a school. Our teacher sponsor will read and approve every piece, so don’t submit anything you wouldn’t be comfortable with a teacher reading. In addition to this, pieces that broach sensitive topics will be reviewed with the same rigour and we will contact you if we feel that your piece constitutes such. Again, we don’t want to censor anyone, but we also don’t want to post something that could potentially trigger or harm someone without sufficient warning. Our main goal is to honor both our readers and our contributors, so if you have any questions about what may constitute a sensitive topic and/or if your piece would fall in that category, please email us. All conversations will stay private.

You may submit up to two pieces. We ask that you limit your submission to these two pieces; if you submit more, we will not accommodate all of them and will ask you to pick which two you’re most enthusiastic about. They may be in the same or separate categories; if they are in separate categories, please indicate on each form that you’ve submitted another piece and where it is. The themes of freedom and restriction are not required, but we find them interesting topics to make art about and encourage you to explore them yourself. See genre guidelines below.

Writing Guidelines
Please write your submissions in a Google Doc and allow us commenting capabilities. There will be a light editing process before we publish your piece (nothing that will change your meaning, just combing through for grammatical and spelling errors) and we will keep a line of communication open with you. Please note that if you choose to stay anonymous and you choose not to supply an email address, you waive the right to this communication. We still won’t make any significant edits (again, just light grammatical and spelling changes and only if applicable), but if we must turn down your piece because it doesn’t fit our guidelines or add a content/trigger warning, we will not be able to alert you. If you wish to be published anonymously but are comfortable allowing the Graffiti staff to contact you, please indicate that on the form.

Writing submissions are separated into poetry, prose, or script writing. There is an “Other” option that you can fill in if you feel that your submission is a written piece, but doesn’t count as one of those three.

Please use Times New Roman 12 pt font for all submissions.

Poetry = 2 page limit

Prose = 6000 word limit

Scripts = 6000 word limit

Visual Art Guidelines

Please send a quality photo of your submission. The photo must be cropped and only show the art itself with no background visible. Hang up the piece to avoid shadows and make sure that it’s well lit. Try to make your camera and the piece as even as you can so it’ll be easier to crop later. If you’d like more guidance on how to submit a piece, please reference these guidelines. We hope that you will also submit a brief description of your piece/pieces speaking about your meaning and process. What medium did you use? Why? What’s it about? What inspired you? These are just example questions, and the description doesn’t need to be an essay, just an overview of your intent with the piece.  See written word guidelines for formatting instructions. Max length is two paragraphs.

Music Guidelines

Please submit well formatted sheet music in a .pdf or .docx format. It must be accompanied by a clear, strong video or audio recording. You’re responsible for gathering this recording and submitting it. If you need help recording or finding people to perform your piece, please contact [email protected]. We can help! In addition to these materials, we hope you’ll submit a description of the piece. Why did you write it? What meaning does it have to you? Does it contribute to the central themes of restriction and/or freedom? If so, how? Why? If not, what theme does it contribute to?