Submission Guidelines

Yemassee is a semi-annual publication undertaken by graduate students of the department of English at the University of South Carolina. Issues come out bi-annually and are approximately 80 pages in length. The Spring issue appears in March and the Fall issue in November.

Yemassee primarily publishes fiction and poetry, although we also consider one-act plays, brief novel excerpts, essays, reviews, interviews with literary figures, and previously unpublished manuscripts of established writers with accompanying introductions. Quality of work is first and foremost for acceptance and we are open to a variety of subjects and writing styles.

Deadlines: Yemassee accepts submissions year-round.

Notification: Manuscripts are accepted year-round and we endeavor to respond to submissions within 6-8 weeks. Notification is by SASE only. Submissions without accompanying SASE will not be considered for publication and will be discarded. If you wish to have your complete manuscript returned, please ensure that your SASE is a sufficient size and has adequate postage. There is a reading hiatus during the summer months (June-August).

Fiction/Prose/Non-Fiction/One-Act Plays: Four pieces of fiction are accepted for a typical issue. Works of fewer than 4000 words are preferred, although longer pieces of exceptional quality are occasionally accepted. Non-fiction and other items of literary interest are considered on a case-by-case basis. We encourage the submission of interviews with literary figures.

Poetry: Ten to twenty-five poems are accepted per issue, with a limit of five poems per submission. Preferred length is fewer than 50 lines, but poems of exceptional quality are considered regardless of length.

Submission Requirements: Yemassee operates a policy of blind selection. Please avoid putting the author's name on anything that is to be considered for publication. Please put the author's name and the title(s) of the work(s) to be considered in a brief cover letter: we are interested in knowing about you, your publishing history, and the work you are submitting.

Simultaneous submissions are discouraged, but will be considered, although we do ask that you notify us immediately in writing if your work has been accepted by another publication.

Publication Information: All rights are reserved for the authors. Upon acceptance, you will be asked to supply copies of your work on disk, along with a short biographical sketch for our contributors' page. Be sure that the work you send us is exactly as you wish it to appear in print. You will not be sent proofs prior to publication. We reserve the right to edit biographical sketches.

Compensation: Compensation is two copies of the issue in which your work is published. You may purchase up to five additional copies at a special contributors' discount of $3 each. You are also automatically eligible for the Yemassee Awards.

The Yemassee Awards: When funding permits Yemassee offers up to $400 in monetary prizes per issue. The amounts awarded are normally $200 for poetry and $200 for fiction, although allocations can vary at the discretion of the editors.

Sampling and Subscriptions: Writers interested in submitting their work to Yemassee are encouraged to send for samples. The single copy price for current and back issues is $5. Subscriptions covering two issues are available at the following rates: Students $10; Regular, $15; Sponsor, $25; Patron, $50; Distinguished Sponsor, $100-499. Checks should be made payable to the Education Foundation/English Literary Magazine Fund and sent to the co-editors at the address below.

Please send all correspondence to:

Jill Carroll and Carl Jenkinson
Co-editors, Yemassee
Department of English
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803) 777-2085