Creative Writing Guidelines

Entries not meeting guidelines and requirements will not be accepted.

Mariposa, the literary magazine of Estrella Mountain Community College, is interested in publishing creative, original, and engaging literary and artistic works that showcase the diversity and depth of talent of our students. Because we publish for a wide-ranging audience, we will not accept submissions that are pornographic or offensive, nor are we interested in specific occasional or devotional submissions. The pornographic, offensive, specific occasional or devotional nature of the submitted material will be determined at the discretion of the judges. Submission to this publication constitutes an agreement on behalf of the student to accept the judging panels' determination on this matter. Submitting authors are reminded that careful editing produces works that are more likely to be understood and appreciated.

General Eligibility

  • The author must be a currently enrolled "for credit" student at Estrella Mountain Community College (All faculty excluded).
  • Entries must be received by the Division of Arts and Composition online no later than 5:00 PM (MST) on Friday, December 8, 2023.
  • Entries cannot be works from a previous issue of EMCC's Literary Review or previous publication. The only exception is a publication directly related to Estrella Mountain Community College and Maricopa County Community College District (i.e., campus newspaper, classroom newsletter, etc)
  • Entries must be submitted electronically. All writing submissions should meet the following formatting guidelines: (1) 12 point type, double-spaced. Poetry entries may be single-spaced. (2) A cover page must appear as the first page of the document. The cover page much include the author's name, home address, a valid e-mail address, phone number, category of entry (one-act play, poetry, etc.) and title of entry. (3) The upper right corner of each page of the entry must include TITLE OF ENTRY and PAGE NUMBER. (4) With the exception of the cover page, the author's name should not appear anywhere on the entry itself. (5) Attachments must be submitted as Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word Documents (.doc) only.
  • Entrants may only submit one entry per category. Contestants must complete the online Official Literary Review entry form with EACH entry. All entries must be submitted electronically separately from each other. Entries containing multiple attachments will be immediately disqualified.
  • Maximum length: Poetry - 67 lines. Fiction - 3000 words. Essay - 2000 words. One-Act Play/Script - 3000 words including stage direction and production notes.

Judging

The judges will be EMCC faculty and staff whose areas of expertise include literature and creative writing.

Specific Guidelines by Genre

Fiction

We are looking for compelling stories that feature memorable characters, original voice or situations, and strong imagery.

We will not accept submissions that are pornographic or offensive, nor are we interested in specific occasional or devotional submissions. The pornographic, offensive, specific occasional or devotional nature of the submitted material will be determined at the discretion of the judges. Submission to this publication constitutes an agreement on behalf of the student to accept the judging panels' determination on this matter.

Creative Non-Fiction

We are looking for clear, powerful prose that invokes a sense of identity/persona through experiences or opinions that would interest an educated audience.

We will not accept submissions that are pornographic or offensive, nor are we interested in specific occasional or devotional submissions. The pornographic, offensive, specific occasional or devotional nature of the submitted material will be determined at the discretion of the judges. Submission to this publication constitutes an agreement on behalf of the student to accept the judging panels' determination on this matter.

One-Act Play

We are looking for original and conflict-driven short plays that use dramatic conventions of plotting (beginning, middle, end), character development, and more, to capture the interest of readers.

Stage directions are included in the total word count.

We will not accept submissions that are pornographic or offensive, nor are we interested in specific occasional or devotional submissions. The pornographic, offensive, specific occasional or devotional nature of the submitted material will be determined at the discretion of the judges. Submission to this publication constitutes an agreement on behalf of the student to accept the judging panels' determination on this matter.

Poetry

We are looking for poetry that reflects knowledge of poetic forms, makes expert use of imagery, and shows evidence of creativity and innovation.

We will not accept submissions that are pornographic or offensive, nor are we interested in specific occasional or devotional submissions. The pornographic, offensive, specific occasional or devotional nature of the submitted material will be determined at the discretion of the judges. Submission to this publication constitutes an agreement on behalf of the student to accept the judging panels' determination on this matter.

Disclaimer: Estrella Mountain Community College and Maricopa County Community College District assume no responsibility for lost, misdirected, or stolen entries, nor printing errors in the final publication. All entries become the property of EMCC and MCCCD without infringement on the copyrights of the entrants. EMCC reserves the right to edit for spelling and grammatical errors. Entries will be screened for proper submission procedures and will be rejected if they do not meet the general eligibility or the specific entry requirements.