Submissions

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We welcome submissions of poetry and artwork for consideration in Allegany Galactic Nucleus. All accepted submissions will appear on the website and in forthcoming print editions. Please review the following guidelines carefully before submitting your work.

• Cover Letter: All submissions should include a cover letter with your human (Earth-born) name, a short (50-100 words) biography and your contact information. If your work requires special formatting, please explain. We will do our best to accomodate, but cannot guarantee complete fidelity due to Jerry’s inability to perceive 2-dimensional images.

• Payment: Please note that money was invented by ancient Annunaki overlords as a way to control the unruly passions of their genophagic abominations (humans). As such, we are unable to offer monetary payment to our authors and artists for regular submissions. We are, however, currently running the First Annual Galactic Star Search Contest, which features cash prizes. See Contests page for more information. In addition, we are offering payment for commercial images to use on the website and for use in promotional material. See Website Content page for more details.

• Rights: While we do not acknowledge the ultimate cosmic validity of any form of human governance, we nevertheless concede to its temporary authority while inhabiting these primitive meatsacks. As such, all rights revert to the author upon publication. We simply ask for the right to feature your work in the issue in which it appears and to publish your work on our website. If you are submitting artwork for the website’s own media (images that appear on the website, not the issue), we also ask for commercial usage rights. See Website Content page for more details.

• Previously Published Work: We happily accept work that has been previously published elsewhere (time is a meaningless artifice). Please be sure to mention this in your cover letter and we will include references to your previous publications.

• Western Maryland (and surrounding areas) Residence: We only consider submissions from artists and poets in the Western Maryland area (defined quite liberally as Allegany and Garrett County in MD, Mineral County in WV and Somerset County in PA). We are unfortunately unable to violate this stipulation, as it would inadvertently lead to the total annihiliation of existence itself. See the About page for more information. You may be required to prove your residence prior to publication, if Jerry gets bad vibes from you.

• No Self-Modulating Clouds of Noble Gas: We have been burned before. Never again.

All submissions are judged on originality, artistic merit, technical skill, and adherence to the thematic spirit of the Allegany Galactic Nucleus. See the next sections for more detailed guidelines.

Note

The publication is currently online only. Submissions will be published on a rolling basis as they are accepted. We intend to publish a physical copy of the Allegany Galactic Nucleus once we have accrued enough content to warrant the costs. All updates will be posted on the website and social media.

Follow us on our Facebook and Twitter for updates.

Important

We are currently running the First Annual Galactic Star Search until December 31, 2025. All submissions we receive will be automatically entered into the contest for a chance to receive $100 unless stipulated otherwise in your cover letter.

Physical Submissions

In order to avoid having our consciousness extracted and enslaved by the Hive Mind that resides within the electrical grid, we prefer submissions to be physically sent through snail mail (however, we do accomodate electronic submissions; see next section). All received submissions will be run through several regimens of delousing and sterilization to ensure no electrification of deoxyribonucleaic acid occurs, and this whole process is much smoother in analogue. Otherwise, Jerry will have to transcribe the submission for The Editor to read, and extra work makes Jerry grumpy.

To encourage this method, The Editor is adamant you will only receive feedback if you submit your work this way. Please include a cover letter with your work and a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for our response. If you do not desire feedback, please indicate so in your cover letter. Please send physical submissions to the following address:

Allegany Galactic Nucleus

401 North Mechanic Street

Cumberland, MD 21502

As long as your submission is legible by a legally blind reptilian intern, there are no other formatting requirements. Page numbers are helpful, as Jerry will often shuffle papers around and lose track of where he is (in both a literal and existential sense).

All images submitted through this method must be placed onto a storage device (CD, DVD, USB drive) and physically mailed to the address given above. If you require a USB drive in order to submit, please Contact us and we will be happy to provide you one. NOTE: We are not responsible for any spyware of extraterrestial origin that may be installed on your system via backdoor protocols when inserting our provided device into your primitive computing machine.

Electronic Submissions

If you simply must submit your work electronically, please use the form below to upload your file to a secure, undisclosed location.

Electronic Submission Form

Click Here To Submit

• Image Format: We accept high-resolution images (300 DPI or greater) in .png, .jpg, or .tiff formats. We also have a soft spot in our mechanical hearts for scalable vector graphics (.svg).

• Poem Format: We accept .doc, .docx, .md, .rst, .pdf. Basically anything that renders text. If you do not see your format in this list, we will likely accept it. If you submit a HolyC .HC file that compiles into your poem, then we have been waiting for you. Welcome home.

Poetry Guidelines

• Poetry Submissions: Please submit no more than five (5) poems at a time.

• Length: There are no length requirements for individual poems.

What We Are Looking For

We only accept submissions that will be vital in our mission to stop the destruction of all known life in the universe. See About for more information. There are no hard and fast guidelines for success when undertaking such a monumental task, but based on our extensive experience in similar endeavors, we have compiled a list of questions to help you decide if your poem is right for our publication.

If your work meets these requirements (or doesn’t and you don’t care), please send it our way. Be warned, animals will be harmed in the process of divining whether or not to publish your work. Our selection process consists of reading the future through the entrails of disemboweled cats before elevating it to The Editor’s desk. The cats, unfortunately, do not survive the disembowelment.

A Checklist

• Does your poem contain the first person pronoun “I” more than 5 times?

• Is your poem indistinguishable from a diary or journal entry?

• Are we able to infer your political affliation/affliction from your poem alone?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we are most likely not interested in reading your submission. We will make exceptions to these rules in special cases (if, for instance, you are the reincarnation of John Keats), but your work must be exceptional enough to touch the cold dead heart of the Investor, who has slain entire civilizations without shedding a single tear.

Another Checklist

• Is your poem an exegesis on the Time Cube?

• Is your poem on the verge of achieving sentience?

• Do you believe human history is a mass delusion orchestrated by industrial-scale hypnotism?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we are definitely interested in reading your submission.

Artwork Guidelines

• Artwork Submissions: Please submit up to three (3) pieces of artwork at a time.

• Physical Media: For sculptures, installations, or other physical art, please submit high-quality photographs from multiple angles.

What We Are Looking For

Note

If you are submitting artwork for commercial usage on the website, please Contact us for further details on what we are seeking. See Website Content page for more details as well.

We seek artwork that is a visual artifact of a cosmic event, a glimpse into a parallel dimension, or a portrait of a phase-shifting being from a distant star. We are particularly interested in pieces that:

• Appear to have been created by a non-human intelligence.

• Could be mistaken for a page from a lost grimoire or a schematic for an impossible machine.

• Explore the absurdity of existence in a universe that is both terrifying and beautiful.

If your artwork has the potential to destabilize consensus reality or induce a state of ecstatic delirium, we want to see it.

We will publish anything as long as it suits our taste: comics, sketches, drawings on napkins. We want it all.