Catfish Creek, the international undergraduate literary journal of Loras College, is a showcase for undergraduate writers from across the country and around the world. We welcome submissions of fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction.
View our current issue below or open as a downloadable PDF.
Back issues of Catfish Creek are available for only $5 in US funds (shipping included). Please print our order form and submit with a check or money order payable to Loras College. Please include “Catfish Creek” written on the memo line of the check. Copies should arrive at your address within two weeks, or longer for remote overseas addresses. If you have any questions or concerns, e-mail the faculty advisor at James.Pollock@loras.edu.
Catfish Creek Current Issue - June 2021
Submission Guidelines
Eligibility
Any student currently registered in an undergraduate degree program is eligible to submit. If we accept your work, we will ask for proof of your current enrollment.
Reading Period
Our reading period is September 1—December 10. Any manuscripts received outside of that time will be deleted unread.
How to Submit
All submissions should be sent electronically, as Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or RTF attachments, to Catfish.Creek@loras.edu. Please specify the genre of your submission (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) in the subject line of your message.
For example: Fiction submission—“Story Title”
Format
All submissions should use standard margins and a readable 12-point font (Garamond, Times New Roman, Georgia, etc.). Prose, whether fiction or nonfiction, should be double-spaced, with pages numbered. Please provide your name, college affiliation, mailing address and e-mail address on the first page of your submission. This will allow us to contact you with a response. And because we want to know who you are, please include a brief cover letter, including a short (two- or three-sentence) bio, in the body of the e-mail.
What We’re Looking For
Send us your best literary writing. While we do not normally consider straight genre pieces (science fiction, fantasy, horror, etc.), we will consider quality writing that straddles the line between literary and genre fiction. We are not looking for work that depicts excessive violence, though we might make an exception if the work exhibits literary merit.
Simultaneous Submissions
Catfish Creek will happily read simultaneous submissions, provided that you notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. We also ask that, once you have acknowledged our acceptance, you withdraw the work from consideration elsewhere.
Response Time
Response time varies depending on the number of submissions, but we will do our best to respond to you within three or four months. Feel free to query the editor-in-chief at Catfish.Creek@loras.edu if you have not received a reply after six months. Please do not send a new submission until we have responded to the first.
Payment and Rights
Payment for accepted works is two copies of the issue. Catfish Creek buys first North American serial rights. Should you re-publish the piece at a later date, we ask that you acknowledge in print that we published it first.
Genre Guidelines
Poetry: We have no style or formal restrictions for poetry—both metrical and free verse are welcome—and no length restrictions except that we don’t have room for book-length poems. Submit up to three poems at a time, as separate attachments.
Nonfiction: Submit literary nonfiction: memoir, reflective essays, New Journalism, nature writing, flash nonfiction, or hybrid forms. Please submit one essay at a time (unless your pieces are very short, in which case send up to three). Maximum length: 4500 words.
Fiction: We’re interested in literary fiction in any style, realistic or not, experimental or not, including flash fiction, short-shorts, and full-length short stories. Please send one full-length story or up to three flash fiction pieces at a time. Maximum length: 4500 words.
Masthead for 2021-2022
Editor-in-Chief: Jacob Heelein
Fiction Editor: Emily Lemire
Nonfiction Editor: Avery Wickersham
Poetry Editor: Matthew Williams
Faculty Advisor: James Pollock
We look forward to reading your work.
Questions?
Let’s get in touch.
James Pollock, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Catfish Creek Faculty Advisor
James.Pollock@loras.edu