Call for Submissions | Fall 2026
The Lit is looking for writing and art from current LaGuardia Community College students and alumni to feature in our next issue, in Fall 2026. If you have a piece or writing that you produced in a Spring 2026 class, submit it now!
The deadline to submit for the next issue is Sunday, October 18, 2026.
If accepted, your piece of writing or art will appear on this site and may be included in a print journal as well.
No AI-generated works will be accepted.
What we’re looking for
You can submit to only one writing genre (fiction, poetry, nonfiction) and one visual art genre (painting, photography, etc.).
Poetry – up to 3 poems max, 5 pages total maximum. We are open to hybrid forms that incorporate art and/or digital media, as well as experimental work.
Fiction – 1 piece, 1,000 words maximum. Fiction and nonfiction stories should be complete and stand on their own — no excerpts from longer stories, novels, nonfiction narratives, or memoirs, please, unless you’ve somehow re-shaped them to work as shorter solo pieces.
Personal Essay or Creative Nonfiction – 1 piece, 1,000 words maximum. Creative Nonfiction includes many genres but especially memoir, autobiography, and personal essays. Experimental approaches to nonfiction writing are also encouraged. Term papers written for most classes are not what we are looking for. Nonfiction pieces should be 1,000 words or less.
Photography, Art, or Digital Art – photographs, paintings, design, graphic narratives, 7 works maximum. We feature art and photography as showcases online and in the print magazine. We also use artworks to illustrate pieces of writing.
Other Media – stand-alone playlets or stand-alone scenes from a screenplay (5 pages max); comics or graphic narratives (10 pages max); visual or video poetries (3 pages max). Please contact us at submissions.thelit@gmail.com about video or other media submissions.
What we’re not into
We don’t dig racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, graphic violence, or xenophobia.
We do not support the use of AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.) to create or edit writing or visual work. When submitting your piece, you must verify that you did not use AI tools to generate or edit it.
More info…
We only consider previously unpublished materials.
The Lit asks for first-time electronic publication rights, and we ask that you acknowledge a piece was published here first if your work is re-printed/published elsewhere; by submitting to us you are agreeing to these terms.
No AI-generated works will be accepted.
Contact us at submissions.thelit@gmail.com with any questions.
READY TO SUBMIT?
Poetry
Fiction (<1000 words)
Essays and Creative Nonfiction (<1000 words)
Photography and Art
Other Media (Comics, Playlets, Visual Poetry or Video)
Join the Course (ENG288) in Fall 2026
The Lit is the literary and art magazine of LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York. The magazine is produced by the students of English 288, The Lit internship. The next issue of The Lit will be published in Fall 2026. Students in any major can register for ENG288.0943, the Lit internship course, and it will be especially useful and interesting to those interested in English, Journalism, Design, Marketing, and Media. In the fall, the course will meet on Mondays from 2:15 to 4:25, with an additional hour of work online.
Contact Professor Chris Schmidt (cschmidt [at] lagcc.cuny.edu) if you have any questions about registering for the course or about submissions to the issue.
