BY KAYLYN HASLUND
For the UAS Whalesong

For those who don’t know, Southeast Alaska has its own literary journal, and it’s called Tidal Echoes. It accepts creative work, including poetry, prose, photography, and more. It’s also published every year. In fact, the newest issue will be coming out on April 15 at the Tidal Echoes launch party, 7:00 PM at the Egan Lecture Hall. This will be your first opportunity to buy copies of the book!

If you want your work published, or are looking for a journal to send your pieces to, there are a few ways you can submit to Tidal Echoes. First off, the journal would want you to be a full-time resident of Southeast Alaska, or a UAS student. A portion of the journal (25%) is saved for student work. The yearly submission deadline is December 1st. As for how much you can submit, typically you can submit up to three pieces of 10 double-spaced pages of prose, five poems, and five pieces of artwork that are at least 1800 pixels wide. Submissions can be done online through a website called Submittable – all you have to do is create an account. When submitting your work, you will also have to check a “Terms of Agreement” box near the end that acts as an electronic release form. If you’re still confused, the Tidal Echoes page on the UAS website has more information on how to accomplish all this.

If you’re unable to access the internet in order to send in your work via Submittable, you can also send your submissions and release forms to:

Tidal Echoes c/o Emily Wall
UAS Humanities Department
Soboleff Building
11120 Glacier Highway
Juneau, AK 99801

It can also be faxed to: (907) 796-6406.

I submitted last year, and am happy to report that two of my pieces were accepted into the 2016 journal! Before I submitted, though, I went through my work and edited and formatted it to the best of my ability. This is because the editors of the journal are going to try and make as few edits to your work as they can, as they will try to uphold your creative voice and intentions. That means you should be sending in work that is fairly polished. Whether it’s gone through a workshop or several versions, you should have a piece that’s complete and, well, readable. This also means that the editors are taking your pieces as final products and respecting you as a writer. Therefore, I think you should respect yourself as a writer and turn in work that is the best it can be.

You should also format your work, because there is a difference between artistic choice and unreadability. You want your work to be taken seriously, and if you can’t make your piece clear, then your piece won’t be seen as serious work.

Now, if you’re wondering if your work has to be about Alaska, it doesn’t! The journal welcomes diversity in content. Really, you can write almost anything. As the web page says: “It is our belief that Tidal Echoes should be as diverse as its readers, and as such, we hope to include a wide variety of perspectives.”

Tidal Echoes is a great opportunity for writers and artists looking to get their work published. If you’re interested in seeing a completed form of the journal, attending the launch party would be a great place to start looking into the kinds of work being published. You’ll also have a chance to meet the featured artist and writer – this year they are, respectively, Teri Rofkar and Aleria Jensen, who will both be speaking at the launch party.