We
accept submissions of poetry, fiction, essays, travel-writing, mixed
genre media, art, and more. Works should be originally written in
English or Arabic. We welcome already-translated pieces.
While we
accept ground mail submissions, we greatly prefer submissions
by email. Send ground mail submissions to:
Meena
Magazine
c/o Pharaoh’s Cave
1241 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA 70116
Send
email submissions to submissions@meenamag.com.
Please include contact information
and a short bio with your submission. Be sure to put your name on
the attachment as well as on your letter. If we accept your work,
know that we may edit your biographical information to keep it short
and sweet.
It
is expected that the piece you send us has not been published.
We prefer unpublished work, but will occasionally consider a piece
that has only been published in one of the languages, if this
fact is noted. If a work is accepted, the author agrees to give
Meena exclusive first-time rights in print and also to use the
work on our website. After we publish, all rights, both cyber,
print, audio, or any other media, belong to the author. If the
work/s should be published in the future, we ask for a credit
line that reads: "First
published in Meena #”
1. Text Attachments:
If
submitting online, which we prefer, please send documents as
attachments. Almost all word processing programs include the
option to "save
as" Rich Text Format. We recommend saving as
Rich Text Format (.rtf) because it will preserve
your formatting, and it will be compatible with
all of our computers. (See instructions below) In
the case of more than one submission, please include
all of your submissions within one attached document.
Name your document after your last name or the last
name of your pen name.
Note: We cannot read Wordstar
documents.
Note: You need not send an attachment if you
are just sending a quick e-mail or comment.
How to save your document
as Rich Text Format from MS Word (It is a similar process in Wordperfect)
:
b.
Open the "file" menu.
c.
Choose "save as," not "save," and
also make sure not to use the save icon, which looks like
a floppy disk.
d.
A dialog box will open--at the very bottom there is a box
that says "Save
as type:" on the left side.
e. Next
to this box is a little button with a triangle
pointing down. Click on it, and a drop-down
menu will appear.
f. Scroll down in the
drop down menu until you find Rich Text Format, and then choose
it.
g. Name your document after your last name or
the last name of your pen name.
h. Now click save as you normally would in
the dialog box.
Note: Older Windows sometimes do not fully convert
in translation. If you receive a message from us saying that we
were not able to read your document, try saving it in MS Word
(.doc). If you receive the message again, locate a computer nerd
for assistance. If a computer nerd is not available,
paste your text directly into the e-mail as a last resort or
send it via ground mail.
How
to send attachments in Windows and Macintosh:
a. Compose and save your document. Did you make sure
that all of your contact information is in the document? If not,
please add it, and save again. If so, continue.
b. Address an e-mail
to us (submissions@meenamag.com).
c.
In your e-mail program, click the file attachment button on
the toolbar. Almost universally, the file attachment button
includes a picture of a paperclip. If you do not have a button,
look in the menus for a command like "Attach
File," and
choose it.
d. A dialog box will open. Browse
to the directory in which your document is saved,
and double click quickly on your document's
icon. Your document should now be attached
to your e-mail.
e.
Click "Send."
Note: We
often experience translation problems when works composed on
Apple and Mac are sent to us. If you receive a message from
us saying that we were not able to read your document, try saving
it in MS Word (.doc). If you receive the message again, locate
a computer nerd for assistance. If a computer nerd is not available,
paste your text directly into the e-mail or send via ground
mail as a last resort.
2.
Contact Information:
All submissions must have all of your contact
information listed within the attachment as well as on the
letter it is attached to. If your contact information is not
in the attachment, we will not know who wrote the piece.
3.
Dashes, Em dashes, Hyphens:
Please use the double dash (--) instead
of the em dash, or long dash, since these characters are
often replaced by hyphens when they go through
computer translations, thus causing occasional
editorial confusion and misprints.
4. Page Limit:
All submissions should contain no more than 15 double-spaced
pages of prose. Poetry, however, can be single-spaced,
but should not surpass 10 pages per submission. We prefer
short poems as they are easier to translate.
5. Acceptance:
If
we wish to publish your submission, we will send you an email
with which you may request links to your e-mail address (or
website/s) if you so choose. It usually takes us a few weeks
to read submissions after they arrive. Sometimes it takes longer,
if we are busy putting an issue together or if we are overwhelmed
with translations or with our “regular” jobs
(all of our work is volunteer). If you don't hear from us in more than
three months after sending your work, feel free to send us a note asking
us what is going on.
6. Images:
Art
submissions should be sent in JPEG (preferably)
or GIF format. Please do
not send more than 300kb
at a time. The editors have
set their modem connections
on their e-mail programs
to ignore messages over 300kb
because of time/storage constraints.
Although you may send 300kb, the smallest
file size that gets your idea across will
be the easiest for us. However, we will request a higher resolution
copy should we decide to use your piece.
