All submissions can be sent to fgs [at] umich.edu
The subject line must read: An Anonymous Crown Submission, “SUBMISSION TITLE” Author Name. (see full submission formatting below)
Non-fiction:
Our primary form is non-fiction. We are looking for ~1-3000 word personal essays that are extremely narrative, which present a narrow slice of life from RIGHT NOW. The essay should pivot around a single decisive moment, big or small, which brings this moment into focus for the author, and the reader. Please include location information about WHERE the narrative takes place, as well as the time it happened (Latitude and Longitude if you can manage it). You can also indicate in your submission whether you want to remain anonymous when the piece is posted, or if you want your name listed as the author.
Visual art:
We are secondarily interested in black and white photography, or black and white line art. A picture is, after all, worth 1000 words. All the above constraints still apply.
Poetry:
Finally, we would accept poetry with a very strong sense of place, and an immediacy reflective of an essay about the present moment. Carolyn Forché. is a good touchstone for her sense of reportage. Louise Glück is a good touchstone for her clarity of image and intent. Richard Brautigan for his wit. Basho for his immediacy.
Anonymous Crown Submission Format
If you want to submit, have the subject line say:
An Anonymous Crown Submission, “TITLE” Author Name.
The submission can be the text of the email, or it can be a DOC, TXT or RTF. (or a web-friendly image format, IE JPG)
In the text of the submission, you should have the following.
Your Name: (And also note, do you want your essay to be anonymous when I post it on the website.)
Location where this essay takes place: (This is important, I want to give readers a sense of the scale of these events.) Give the Latitude and Longitude if you can.
Date when this occurred: (This is part of establishing scale)
Word count.
Body of essay (or image): (I’d like to shoot for 1,000 words. But I can be flexible)
The essay itself should be an immediate narrative. It should be very narrowly focused on the events as they occurred with only light interpretation. The essay should be grounded in a very specific place, and those details should come through the essay. The essay should pivot around some kind of climactic decision, however small, and give us a sense of how you are changing, or being changed, in the midst of these events.
The essay can make reference to outside events, but try to have those references be carefully chosen and naturally revealed in the context of this story.