Submissions
ISSUE 2 DEADLINE: January 25, 2026
What are we looking for?
We are looking for high-quality pieces by passionate writers and artists from the USask community — students, staff, faculty and alumni are all welcome to submit their work. No previous experience is required, as submissions are considered on the piece’s merits alone.
We will consider art and writing on any topic, but we are especially looking for pieces that are relevant to our themes: “ChatGPT Turns 3” (Fall) and “Ekphrasis” (Winter).
Scroll down or click one of the following buttons to learn how to submit to in medias res.
Categories
We publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art pieces. Any form of written or artistic expression that can be appreciated in a physical magazine or a website will be considered for publication.
Fiction refers to narrative stories, told through prose, about imaginary events and people. We accept writing from all genres.
Examples:
- Very short stories (anything from 2 sentences to 500 words)
- Short stories
- Folk tales, legends, and myths
- Excerpts from a longer work, such as a novella or novel
Nonfiction refers to prose writing about real events or ideas. We accept creative nonfiction alongside other approaches to telling nonfiction. While in medias res is not a newspaper nor an academic journal, we are a liberal arts journal and thus invite prose pieces exploring real life topics, issues, and questions.
Examples:
- Creative nonfiction, including personal essays, memoir, flash nonfiction (<500 words), hermit crab essays, and lyric essays
- Expository and/or persuasive nonfiction, including opinion pieces and editorials
- Edited transcriptions of interviews
- Book reviews
- Excerpts from a longer work of nonfiction
Poetry is a genre that focuses on language and form to convey meaning. Some poems use rhyme and meter as their vehicle to build meaning, other poems are less restricted by these conventions.
Examples:
- Fixed-form poetry: sonnets, villanelles, pantoums, sestinas, palindromes, etc.
- Lyric poetry
- Found poetry (a.k.a. erasure poetry)
- Translations of poems from other languages
- Excerpts from a memoir or novel written in verse
- Spoken word poetry and song lyrics
Visual art is a vast category of the fine arts that includes any artistic expression that can be represented in a physical magazine.
Examples:
- Drawings, paintings, and digital art
- Photography and photo collages
- Photographs of three-dimensional work of art (e.g., sculpture, installation art)
- Stills from an animated short movie or video installation
What if my piece doesn’t fit neatly in one of the categories?
We are happy to consider mixed media pieces (e.g., graphic novels and comics, illustrated stories and poems, photo essays) for publication. Submit your work to the category that you believe best describes your piece. If necessary, we’ll have editors from other categories look over the piece.
Can I submit something writing in a language other than English?
We will consider works written in languages other than English so long as a translation is provided for our editors/readers. The combined word count of the piece and the translation must not exceed the submission limits.
Can I submit an English translation of a piece in another language?
Absolutely. The only caveat is that the original piece must be in the public domain.
I am submitting a piece of writing (song lyrics, spoken word) or art (stills from a video piece) that has a video component. Can I include a link?
In order to prevent link rot, we prefer to upload a video to our website and use that link in the magazine. If possible, we will ask you for the video file before the magazine goes to print, so we have time to create a link in the magazine to your work.
Submission Guidelines
You can submit up to 2 shorter pieces or 1 long piece. We encourage you to submit works related to our theme, but it is not a requirement.
Option A (1 or 2 shorter pieces)
- Fiction: 1500 words max.
- Nonfiction: 1500 words max.
- Poetry: 1 poem, 2 pages max.
- Visual art: 1 piece
Option B (1 longer piece)
- Fiction: 2500 words max.
- Nonfiction: 2500 words max.
- Poetry: a series of thematically connected poems (up to 4 poems) OR one long poem, 4 pages max.
- Visual art: a collection of related pieces OR multiple photographs of a piece that cannot be easily captured in one photograph
- There must be no identifying information in your submitted document (i.e., do not write your full name in the document).
- For written works:
- Single-spaced, 12 pt standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc.) with 1 inch margins
- Must be submitted as doc or docx file
- Include the title of your piece at the top of the document
- While we will consider prose pieces up to 150 words over the word limit, you will be expected to meet the word limit by the time of publication.
- If you are including visual media in your writing, please include the photos in the document approximately where you would like them to appear. If your work is accepted, we will ask for separate image files.
- If you are submitting a poetry collection, please include all the poems in a single document in the order you in which you want them read.
- For artistic works:
- Visual art submissions should be a photograph (or photographs) of your work, taken in the highest resolution possible.
- We prefer jpeg or png files
- Do NOT submit PDFs
- Failure to follow the submission limit will result in all your pieces being withdrawn from consideration.
To make life easier for our editors, please name your files according to the following format:
- Fiction: F_title
- Nonfiction: NF_title
- Poetry: P_title
- Visual Art: VA_title
- *Visual Art Collection (please name each piece): VA_collection title_1, VA_collection title_2, etc.
We like to include contributor bios in the magazine. These are written in the 3rd person and say a little bit about the contributor and (if desired) their piece. They usually range in length from 1-3 sentences, but we have a strict character limit of 300 characters.
Your bio can be as simple as: Bob Robertson (he/they) is a third-year education student.
Or it can be more complicated: Eleanor Rigby is a second-year student at STM College majoring in history who writes poetry in her spare time. Her poem “Very Excellent Poem” explores the frustrations of titling an otherwise very good poem. In her spare time, she likes running, listening to the Beatles, and hanging out with her friends.
For more examples of bios, see past issues of the magazine on our website. If you need inspiration, feel free to look at the back page of past in medias res issues. These issues can be found on our website or on distribution racks located throughout STM college.
Submit here!
We use Google Forms to collect submissions. This ensures that the editorial process is a blind-review (that is, we examine your piece without knowing who submitted it).
Note: Once you have made a submission, you cannot change it. Should you wish to withdraw or update your submission, please contact us at inmediasres@stmcollege.ca
Winter Issue - "Ekphrasis"
Ekphrasis, broadly defined, refers to writing that describes an experience as fully as possible. In particular, ekphrastic writing describes the experience of looking at a piece of art, whether awe-inspiring or stomach-turning. To put it simply, we are looking for writing and art inspired by other works of art.
Submissions for the vol. 31, no. 2 are open until January 25, 2026.
Policies
GenAI
in medias res is a liberal arts journal. We believe in preserving the humanities and humanity. Thus, we want to publish human generated work. We will consider work that uses GenAI for the purpose of commenting on GenAI so long as the human labour that went into the piece significantly outweighs the generated content. All other AI-generated work is prohibited. If we believe a work has been created with input from AI that falls outside the above parameters, we reserve the right to reject it.
Derivative Works
in medias res cannot publish works that infringe on copyright or trademarks. Because copyright law is complex and we are undergrads, not legal professionals, we will tend to be conservative in our approach to derivative works. We cannot publish fan art or fan fiction. We will only publish “recreations” or imitations of a piece if that piece is in the public domain (e.g., your own copy of the Mona Lisa). Pieces that respond to a piece of contemporary art or writing will be considered, so long as there is a significant element of originality. When in doubt, please send us an email and we will let you know if your piece is eligible for submission after consulting with a copyright expert, if needed. We reserve the right to reject submissions if we believe they infringe on existing copyright or trademarks.
Editorial Policy
in medias res reserves the right to refuse to accept or print any material deemed unfit for publication, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. in medias res will not publish any racist, sexist, homophobic, otherwise bigoted or libelous material deemed to pose a harm to protected groups within the campus community.