Switchback Accepting Submissions - Deadline Sunday, August 31, 2014.

Switchback is a publication of the MFA in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco and appears both online and in ebook format. We are a biannual journal because that’s about all we can handle. We generally open submissions for four months at a time, then catch our breath for two. So check back in with us if you’re unsure of when we’re reading and when we’re resting.

Our next issue will be published promptly on November 1, 2014.
If you wish to be considered for our fall issue, please submit no later than midnight (PST) on Sunday, August 31, 2014.

For our next issue, an Editor's Prize will be awarded in the amount of $200.00 to the submission we find the most inspiring, jarring, outstanding, or just downright brilliant. Additional prizes in the amounts of $75.00 and $50.00 will be awarded to the first two runners up. There is, amazingly, no fee to enter! Please read the guidelines below carefully before submitting. On behalf of everyone here at Switchback, thank you for considering us!

General Guidelines OR Things You’ll Want to Know about Us Quickly

1. We only consider previously unpublished works. No exceptions. Thank you.
2. We no longer accept submissions via email or postal service. You can submit your work to us through Submittable. If you run into any technical difficulties in uploading your submission, please contact us at submissions@swback.com.
3. We do accept simultaneous submissions, however, we ask that you notify us as soon as humanly possible if your work is accepted elsewhere. If you’re exclusively submitting work to us, we appreciate the thought.
4. So that we may judge your work anonymously, please ensure your name does not appear anywhere on the submission itself. You may tell us all about yourself, your many literary accomplishments, hobbies, interests, your family background, etc. in a cover letter.
5. If you’re submitting prose, please limit your submission to one story or essay at a time. And make sure your work clocks in at or under 7500 words. Only submit prose pieces of 7501 words if you are Cormac McCarthy, but chances are you're not.
6. If you’re submitting poetry, please submit to us no more than three poems. We like things in threes: Olympic medals, wishes, Cerberus, piano trios. We don’t like things in fours, excluding that last list of things in threes.
7. If you’re submitting art, please include the medium of your art piece in your cover letter, we like to know exactly what we’re looking at. Format all art submissions in .gif, .jpg, or .png with a resolution of 300 dpi or higher.
8. Before submitting, please read some of our back issues to familiarize yourself with the content we choose to publish. It's all readily available on our Web site (completely free and immediate), so there's really no reason not to.

Following these guidelines will help us take you and your work more seriously, but if you must break the rules, break them with caution and good reason (except for those first two, we’re sticklers about them). Now, here's a giant, easy button you can press to submit to us: