Submission Guidelines for Forget Me Not Press

SUBMISSIONS OPEN MAY 4TH TO JUNE 15TH

ISSUE #7 THEME: WRETCHED & DIVINE

An issue in two parts

In the spring and summer, we ask you to think of the wretched. We ask for a pouring out of your sadness, your heartbreak. What does it mean to be lost? To be unfortunate? What lies beyond the wretch? What beats within their heart? What has made them this way?

For the fall and winter, we ask you to think on the divine. On the sacred. Can we break free from such idealism, or do we have no choice but to bend to the sublime? What every day things can become something holy? Something worthy of worship?

Take these themes, and as always, make them your own.

Please note:

You may submit to both parts of this issue, but your work should specifically fall under either “Wretched” or “Divine”.

You may also submit works that can be paired together, but they must be able to stand on their own for each of the two categories. Be sure your work and any social media/websites follow our Code of Conduct before submitting.

When emailing your submission be clear which part of the issue your piece will fall under.

Code of Conduct:

At Forget Me Not Press we believe that Writing and Art are for everyone, and that the world can only be improved by the telling of different and unique stories. We want the Press to be a safe space for all; those underrepresented in the arts, BIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ creators, and people with disabilities. If you identify with any of these groups, please let us know (if you wish to) when you submit, or, where we can continue to improve in our work. We understand as two cisgendered white women that we have a responsibility to consistently reflect upon our process, product, and identity, for bias/prejudice that have been ingrained in us through privilege.

We therefore want to make it clear that we have no interest in giving a platform to racism, sexism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, shaming (body or otherwise), plagiarism, misrepresentation, and purposeless or gratuitous physical or sexual violence. All pieces that we feel engage with this sort of mentality will be dismissed and no response will be given.

We would like to remind those interested in submitting that we will review everything submitted to us as being a part of your piece, including any social media or websites you submit to us. We do this because should your piece be published, we do not want anything you have submitted to cause our site, and everyone associated with it (our team and other contributors), to be flagged as promoting hateful content. We understand that everyone has differing and complex opinions, and while you have the right to express them on your own private platforms, we also have the right to decide not to share it on our platform. If you ask us to promote anything that could be viewed as hateful content, we will reject the work all together. We are a Canadian press and we are bound by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Ontario Human Rights Code, and therefore cannot promote, publish, or give platform to anything that would indicate that we plan to discriminate against any protected groups. With the Government of Canada particularly looking to turn online hate into a crime, we want to ensure we are doing everything in our power to help stop this spread. We want to be a welcoming community for all, but that in turn requires the same promise and respect from our contributors. Please review the Code of Conduct carefully before submitting, and if you do not agree with it, please do not submit.

We must also make it clear that any and all AI work will not be accepted. We are a Press that is dedicated to originality and creativity. We value it in ourselves and we value it in the artists and writers that submit to us. Work that is not your own will be rejected without a response.

PLEASE NOTE: While we review any work, websites, or social media submitted please keep in mind that we are a small team and are not capable of monitoring contributors online presence past the initial check. Views expressed or statements made by contributors to the magazine are not and should not be associated as the views of Forget-Me-Not Press or it’s team members.

Fees and Payment:

At the current time, Forget Me Not Press runs on a volunteer base. Therefore we do not have the ability to pay the writers and artists that so kindly contribute to our Press. It would be lovely if that was something we might be able to offer in the future, but right now, as we cannot do that, we do not feel comfortable asking for submission fees when we cannot pay back our contributors for their work. If at any time this should change we shall be sure to make an announcement.

General Guidelines

1. Make sure your work fits the Issue’s theme

2. We accept previously unpublished work only, we do however accept simultaneous submissions. Please just let us know, if during the submission period, your piece is accepted elsewhere and we will remove it from our pile. Please send us an email with the subject [Withdraw Issue #]

3. We ask for first-time digital publication rights. Your piece first and foremost belongs to you, however we ask that you do not publish a piece we have accepted before it appears in Forget Me Not Press. Once it has been published, all rights will revert back to you as the artist/author. If your piece is published elsewhere in the future, we just ask that you credit Forget Me Not Press with its initial publication.

4. Submissions should be one piece per document, all documents attached to a single email.

5. Please only submit to a Maximum of TWO Categories (ex. Poetry and Short Story)

6. Please include any relevant content warnings in the body of your email upon submission.

7. All submissions must include an Updated CV.

8. Make sure your work is proofread and complete before submitting. We are a small team working on a volunteer basis and cannot accommodate large scale edits.

9. We cannot accommodate providing feedback right now. If your piece is turned down, please do not email our team asking for edits, or feedback beyond what may or may not be provided.

10. We only accept work from creators 18 years of age or older.

11. You are allowed to be published under a pseudonym, however you must provide us with your real name upon submission.

Prose and Poetry Submissions

1. Prose can include short stories, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, “poetic” prose, anecdotes, etc. We however are not looking for Criticism, Review, or Essays at this time.

2. Please submit all written pieces via Word Document, or a Google Doc. We will not be accepting written pieces in PDF format.

3. Prose is a maximum of 6 pages. Poetry has no line limits.

4. Only one piece of Prose is to be submitted per category per Submission Period.

5. A maximum of 3 poems can be submitted per Submission Period.

6. Please send work single spaced.

7. If you have questions about formatting, or categories your work may fit into, please do not hesitate to reach out and contact us.

Art Submissions

1. Please submit all Visual/Media Artwork is submitted using high-res formats so that we may showcase the best quality of your work (ie. 300dpi/1080 HD).

2. Files can be uploaded via Google Drive if unable to attach to email. Links directly to works on professional portfolio sites may also be submitted.

3. Please no more than 3 submissions of Artwork per submission period. However, you may include up to 5 images per work.

4. Please include an Artist statement for each piece that is submitted. Please attach them in a separate document and label them accordingly.

5. Please include the following information for each work submitted: Title, Artist(s) name, Medium, and Year the work was completed.

6. With your submission we would appreciate any links to portfolio websites, social media, etc. where your work is displayed.

To Submit

1. Email the Press at forgetmenotpress2021@gmail.com

2. Use the following for subject [Last Name – Issue #]

3. Please upload files or attach links containing pieces for submission as well as an Updated CV. Please submit documents with the following title format [Last Name – Title of Piece] and [Last Name – CV].

4. In the body of your email please state your full name, the name you would like to be published under, any relevant social medias or websites, relevant content warnings, and the titles of your works and what categories they fall under. Please also attach a short bio (50-100 words) that we may attach to your work should you choose to publish it.

5. Please indicate, if applicable to you, in the body of the email if there is anyone on our team who you know or have ever known personally. This will not exclude you from publication, but we will ensure that a team member who does not or has not had a personal relationship with you reviews your work to ensure there is no bias whatsoever in the selection process.

6. In the body of the email please indicate that you have read the Code of Conduct and understand that your work, social medias, and anything else submitted to us will be reviewed to ensure it does not breach it. By submitting to FMNP you agree to follow the Code of Conduct either way and will be held to it, but we appreciate the recognition of it all the same.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO REVIEWING YOUR WORK!