Student-run literary magazines have been helping assist many poets, writers, freethinkers, and artists gain traction. College literary magazines have become the breaking ground for some emerging artists. Literary magazines allowed for the first publishing of legends such as Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Literary magazines present an open space for creative minds and “The Mayo Review” is the University of Texas A&M-Commerce’s version.

The deadline for the upcoming issue is fast approaching but they are still accepting works until November 15. The accepted pieces will appear in the spring 2017 Mayo Review issue.

The magazine is currently accepting fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, visual art and drama. But there are guidelines to each submissions as well as five submissions total for an individual.

For fiction submissions, stories are limited to 2,000 words. They are open to any style, but there is a limit of three submissions per person. Poems are limited to being only one page in length, and each individual is also allowed to submit only three examples of their work. For the creative nonfiction submissions, there is a limit of 2,000 words. They do not publish academic articles, so the main focus for nonfiction that would be eligible for publication should be creative personal essays, memoir, and lyric essays. Artists and photographers are only allowed five visual art submissions, and the images can be in any printable form that the individual has created. All submissions must be submitted through JPEG files and at 300DPI or at least 1000 pixels wide. Black, white, or color images are all eligible. For the drama submissions, only one-act plays are eligible, and there is a limit of three pieces per person.

All submissions need to be sent via email to [email protected], and (regardless of medium) must include a short bio, the title of the work and genre of submission, the applicant’s mailing address, telephone number, email address, and their name or name they want seen. The subject line of email is Mayo Review Submission.

The Mayo Review works under a “blind review.” A blind review removes the name and bio of the pieces and focuses solely on the work. The final decisions happen between the Editorial Board.

The Editorial Board for the Mayo Review is comprised of graduate students. The board is advised by faculty in the Department of Literature and Languages. The board is made up of volunteers that do not need to be English majors. During the blind process, they read the submissions or review the artwork, decide who gets published, prepare the journal for printing, and distribute the journal.

Throughout the year, the Mayo Review does more for the A&M-Commerce community. Recently they group helped put on the “Edgar Allen Poe-try” night and later this year on March 10, they are sponsoring The Mayo Review’s launch party with a guest speaker, poet Tim Seibles.

For further information, visit their Facebook at MayoReviewTAMUC.