caesura, n.1. A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics.2. The University of Delaware's student literary magazine.
Welcome to Caesura, a student literary magazine for creative writing and artwork at the University of Delaware. We publish short stories, poetry, creative nonfiction, drama, and artwork from UD's undergraduates. Submissions are selected and edited by an all-student staff. Our faculty advisors are Professors Claire McCabe. Caesura is made possible through the generous support of the Gregory family, who honor their mother Elda Wollaeger Gregory's love of creative writing.
Caesura is accepting submissions from November 15 through December 31, 2022. NOTE: Submissions after the deadline will not be considered ​
Submission Guidelines
We are currently accepting submissions for Caesura! We are looking for submissions in creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and art! You may submit in multiple genres. Please make sure your work is in its best shape when you submit it. Multiple spelling and grammar mistakes make your work difficult to read, leading to rejection even if the content is good. Caesura staff select the best work submitted; make yours shine. We look forward to reading your work!
Only current University of Delaware undergraduate students may submit work for consideration. Please follow the guidelines closely: failure to do so may result in the rejection of your submission.
Caesura accepts submissions to the following categories:
Fiction
- Length 3000 word maximum (submit essays or memoirs to Creative Nonfiction.)
- Times New Roman, 12 Point
- Double-spaced
- Max 2 submissions (including any submitted to Creative Nonfiction).
Poetry
- Length 3- 30 lines; any style (sonnet, free verse, etc.)
- Times New Roman, 12 point
- Poems in separate files named by title only
- Max 3 poems
Creative Nonfiction
- Length 3000 word maximum (Includes essays, social commentary and memoir)
- Times New Roman, 12 Point
- Double-spaced
- Max 2 submissions (including any submitted to Fiction).
Artwork, 2-D
- Submit in photography, paint, pencil, comic strip, etc.
- Must be in black and white pixel
- Dimension minimum is 1800x2700, .tif file type
- Max three submissions​
How to Submit: Please put all stories, poems, and art pieces in SEPARATE files with the titles as their file names. Do NOT put your name in the file name or the document itself (we do all selection of submissions anonymously). All writing submissions must be in Word documents. Attach all files to an email to caesura2023@gmail.com​. For pieces to be considered all submissions must be sent from a UD email address.In the body of the email please include:
- Your full name and UD ID number
- Your contact information
- The titles of all your pieces
- Indicate which category EACH PIECE belongs in. (Failure to do so can result in problems with fiction and nonfiction getting mixed up, esp.)
Judging and Awards: All submissions are discussed anonymously by the Caesura staff. If your work is selected to be published, you will be notified by email. Published creative writing and artwork submissions are eligible for prizes, which will be awarded at The Gregory Family Celebration of Creative Writing held annually each spring. The awards are:
- The Elda Wollaeger Gregory Poetry AwardTwo prizes, $500 each
- The Thomas W. Molyneux Prose AwardTwo prizes,$500 each
- Caesura Art Award: $100
- The American Academy of Poets Harold Taylor Prize: $100
Join the Caesura Staff!
Do you love creative writing? Do you enjoy discussing poetry, short stories, artwork, and creative essays? If so, Caesura wants you! We select, edit, and publish student work from all over campus, and we're looking for enthusiastic editors and artists with sharp eyes for talented writing and artwork.You don't have to be an English major or a writer to join. New editorial voices are always needed, no matter what your background. The benefits that you will receive from contributing to the Caesura staff are numerous. Besides meeting new creative, interesting, and dedicated people, you will gain experience as an editor or designer. We also have readings of our own personal work as a staff group, giving us all a chance to share and discuss our writing. Additionally, being involved in a publication looks great on job résumés and graduate school applications! To get involved, contact Professor Claire McCabe.
What Do We Do?: The Caesura staff's main jobs are to select submissions for publication and edit the copy. Early in the fall we focus on advertising for submissions. Once submissions start coming in, we discuss them during staff meetings or online, depending on the preference of each department. Caesura is broken up into four departments: Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction (essays and memoirs), and Art. You can be involved in multiple departments, and you can also submit to the magazine even as an editor, as long as you don't submit to whatever department you are a part of (to be fair).Department heads decide for their own departments how often they will meet and to what degree they will employ online discussion tools. Head editors have more frequent meetings to discuss policies and the magazine timeline. The entire staff, due to size and scheduling conflicts, usually only meets all together at our staff readings and at the end of the school year at the proofing stage and presentation of the finished magazine.
