The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The literary arm of the Gunnison Arts Center invites the poets, essayists, storytellers and visual artists of the Upper Gunnison Valley to contribute to the ninth Gunnison Valley Journal, showcasing the different ways people live, work, think, play and dream in the valley.
The Journal staff, led by poet and retired teacher Virginia Jones, will collect materials through May 17. The target date for publication will be the Cattlemen Days celebration in July.
Following are guidelines for submissions for the Journal:
• Submit poetry, short essays, short fiction, history, photography and visual art works that are representative of life in the Upper Gunnison Valley, or other places very similar to the Upper Gunnison Valley. Prose work should be no longer than 1,500 words.
• A very short biography of the writer/artist (50 words or fewer) must accompany submissions. The work will not be included in the journal if it is not accompanied by a short bio.
• Most of the photography will have to be printed in black and white, so chose photos accordingly; digital photographers with the equipment to do so should do their own gray-scaling. Photography and visual art work should also be chosen to look well on half or a quarter of a magazine page or smaller (although some full-page vertically aligned work will also be needed). Photos submitted by email should initially be in small jpg files (less than one megabyte); for those selected for publication, the Journal staff will ask for a large-file format.
• No more than five submissions from a single artist, photographer or writer will be considered. The volunteer staff is small, and the size of the Journal is limited by affordability; writers and photographers need to make the first big cut from their life work.
• Submissions should be made in electronic format if at all possible—Word, Wordperfect or text files. Handwritten or typewritten poetry (if readable) and scannable photo prints and art work (nothing larger than 8 inches by 12 inches) will be accepted if necessary. The subject line for emailed work should read “Journal Material,” to avoid the itchy “delete” finger.
Files may be submitted to Virginia Jones at javagun1@hotmail.com; George Sibley at george@gard-sibley.org; or TL Livermore at toulouse@montrose.net.
Mailed submissions may be sent to George Sibley, 315 W. Ohio Ave., Gunnison 81230, or turned in to TL Livermore at Pat’s Screen Printing Studio, 242 N. Main St. in Gunnison.
The eighth Gunnison Valley Journal is still available at the Crested Butte and Gunnison Public Libraries and at the Gunnison Arts Center.
Funding for the Journal has traditionally been from local governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations; volunteers do the selection, editing and most of the composition. Anyone who would be interested in helping with that should contact either Virginia Jones (641-2530) or George Sibley (641-4340).
More fame than fortune is associated with being published in the Gunnison Valley Journal, which is to say that there is no pay for publication. There will, however, be a reception party for those whose work is published at the Gunnison Arts Center at the time of publication.
The deadline for submissions is Monday, May 17, which, for writers especially, is closer than you think.
