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Thin Air Magazine (print) Guidelines

Our theme for issue 32 is Systems 

In the act of living, we are all part of numerous interconnected systems. In issue 32, we are interested in work that reflects on the systems we unearth around us. These can be found everywhere, in our communities, our relationships, our governments or politicians, in systems of oppression or injustice, systems of support, in ecosystems, within class systems, our human bodies, or systems of data and technology. These are just a sample of some systems we are part of. Living as we are, we are interwoven and defined by the systems we support, fight against, and ponder about. We are especially interested in systems that operate under the surface, ones we don’t realize we interact with every day.

Often by writing you are reflecting on a system or part of the world that matters to you. For issue 32, we’re interested in art that pushes at the systems that we are part of, willing or unwilling, and remarks on the world around us. As Thin Air continues to grow, we invite you to submit your pieces that engage with our theme: Systems.

If you have already submitted a piece, don’t worry! All art interacts with systems through the process of its creation alone.

Submitting comes with a $3.00 reading fee. In an effort to minimize barriers and encourage work from marginalized writers, we waive this fee upon request at our discretion.

Please review our general and genre-specific guidelines below:

• We accept fiction and nonfiction up to 3,000 words. 
• We accept up to three poems in one document totaling five or fewer pages.
• We only consider unpublished work. Please do not submit material previously published in anthologies, chapbooks, online, or on personal websites (including FB, Twitter/X, Instagram, Flickr, blogs, etc.)
• We accept simultaneous submissions. If any part of your submission is selected for publication elsewhere, please notify us immediately using Submittable.
• In an effort to encourage submissions from both established and emerging writers with diverse voices, we read all submissions blind. Do not include any identifying information within your submission. This includes removing identifying information from the document title.
• Thin Air Magazine does not accept work from anyone affiliated with Northern Arizona University within the last 7 years.
• Thin Air Magazine aims to respond to your submission within 3-5 months. If you submit April-August, know that we likely won’t be able to respond until September when school is back in session. We appreciate your patience! Our staff is a volunteer-graduate-student-run magazine and we strive to read every submission carefully before making a decision.

Formatting Specifications:

• Please use Times New Roman, 12pt., double-spaced, 1 inch margins for all submissions except poetry, which should remain single-spaced.
• INCLUDE page numbers and a word count at the top of your manuscript.
• DO NOT INCLUDE your name/identifiers in your manuscript.
• If the unique format of your submission is critical to the piece, please feel free to keep your unique formatting.
• Note that we may have to alter format for printing due to physical restraints and requirements.

Copyright: We ask for first North American serial rights for work published in Thin Air Magazine. Copyright is retained by the author at all times. 

Submission Expectations:

Thin Air has a responsibility to build a safe, diverse community for contributors and readers alike. We have no tolerance for writing that is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, body shaming, islamophobic, anti-semitic, or in any other way cruel. Your writing may, and in fact is encouraged to, grapple productively with these subjects. Do not send us unchecked bigotry or hate speech.

Acknowledgement:

Thin Air is run by NAU graduate students on the Kinłání (occupied Flagstaff, Arizona) campus. We sit at the base of the Dook’o’oosłííd, on homelands sacred to Native Americans throughout the region. We strive to acknowledge and commemorate the indigenous past, present, and future of Kinłání. 

Accountability:

Thin Air is not and will never be perfect, but that doesn’t mean we won’t try. We strive to be an active voice for universal equity, and we commit to using our position in the literary world to uplift historically underrepresented voices and fight for the decolonization of literary magazines. If you notice we have missed the mark on anything, no matter how small, please reach out to us at thinairlitmag@gmail.com. We thank you for your help on our path to becoming our best selves.