Submission Guidelines

Poetry Submission: Up to three pages; either multiple short poems, or fewer long poems.
Prose Submission: Up to 2,000 words of prose, either creative nonfiction !xor fiction.
Art Submission: 3-5. [AR] resolution setpoint: 300 px / ~80-90% compression.
Translations: Include source, translation, & citation.
Submission format: [AR] uses OpenOffice Writer to edit files and build the journal. Its native filetype is .odt; it can read .doc(x) files but there may be a rare formatting change in the conversion. This is to say, we don't necessitate a certain filetype or document type(s) for the submission, but we hope this informs your formatting decisions for your work. Lastly, if you feel like being "nice" to us, we end up converting all biographies to .txt files each titled "bio.txt" (they then go in their respective author/artist folders, which is how we identify them). What isn't compatible with our setup are PDF files. Lastly, art can be sent in whichever image format you like. Except for Google .heif files. (Those don't work at all).
Submission fee: Free of charge (no fee).
Anonymous Reading: Please separate your bio from your submission so as to facilitate more impartial judgment.
Author & [AR] Rights: [AR] claims Creative Commons rights to the literary magazine which it publishes. Individual pieces are Copyright the respective author and/or artist. We store most submissions in our files for recordkeeping's sake, but if you don't want us to (after the relevant zine issue is published), feel free to let us know. Or before or whatever.
Third Person Biography: The--sorry, a--third person biography is totally up to you, but if you don't submit one, your bio spot on the website will be empty.
Cover Letter(s): To be frank, we don't always... read?... your cover letters... in full. Having said that, we really appreciate them, and we appreciate when you understand that we understand that you understand that we all understand each other understandingly. (Viz. a cover letter is optional.)
Style of Content: If there are one or more particular style/formatting conditions that you would like met with your piece(s) when they are released in the zine, please let us know and we will do our best to oblige. Please do be aware (however) of the limitations of our staff.
Submission Email: Submission email is <editor [at] alternateroute [dot] org>.
Submission Window(s): In general, submissions are open and read the first two months of the season, viz., submissions are open December & January, March & April, June & July, and September & October. The editorial staff finalize the magazine issue during the third month, viz., February, May, August, & November.
Semi-quota System: We operate on a semi-quota system, so once we have received enough quality submissions we may once again shut our doors for the period. Thank you for knocking.
Response Time: Expect a quick response time, but give us up to three months.
Previously Published Work: We accept previously published work as long as we have the information and opportunity to acknowledge the prior publisher(s).
Page Size: We use digest (5.5" x 8.5" or 140 mm x 216 mm) page size, so if your poems contain long lines on e.g. letter (8.5" x 11.5") or A4 (210 mm x 297 mm) page size, they will definitely run over to the next line when displayed in our journal.
Publication Errors: If you find a mistake in the publication after it has been released, feel free to bring it to our attention and we will do our best to correct it. Please do be aware (however) of the limitations of our staff.
Release: The digital/PDF version of the magazine is usually released the last day of the quarter/season (see above). We wait two weeks for mistakes to be brought to our attention, and if all is clear, publish paperback at the end of this period. E-books take longer and are currently backlogged.
Errata: I can't think of anything else right now. Just be nice. You know, like, David-Foster-Wallace nice.