The Birch

Founded in 2004, The Birch is the first undergraduate publication in the US devoted exclusively to Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian studies.

Read more about us.

Submit to The Birch

Submissions for the Spring 2020 publication are now open! Please go to the submissions page for guidelines. The deadline is January 20th, 2020 at 11:59 pm EST.

Submissions

Submissions

The Spring 2020 submission deadline for The Birch is January 20th, 2020 at 11:59 EST. Please submit your piece by emailing thebirchjournal@gmail.com and following the guidelines below before submitting your piece or artwork.

 

Guidelines for Submission

 

Please be aware that accepted pieces (especially academic essays) will be subject to an editing process that involves two stages of rigorous revision with one of our editors. Thus, choosing to submit work to The Birch also implies your commitment to revising and corresponding regularly with an editor this spring as we prepare the work for publication.

Academic Essays

The Birch is a forum for undergraduates to publish scholarly essays. These can be adapted from original research projects from classes or theses. Please limit your submissions to no more than two essays, each no more than 4000 words (not including footnotes). Citations should be done in Chicago style (notes and bibliography). When submitting your essay, please indicate what section of the journal you are submitting to:

  • Culture: essays on popular culture, the arts, etc.
  • Politics and Society: essays on current events, history, economics, and religion
  • Literary Criticism: essays on literature or philosophy

Art and Photography

This section is a forum for students to publish visual art of any medium including photography, drawing, painting, prints, sculpture, illustration, and political cartoons.

For art and photography submissions, please limit your submissions to no more than five images and include a brief 2-3 sentence description for each. The description could give context for the work’s creation, describe its key themes, and/or describe how the piece is related to the region’s history or artistic traditions.

Creative Writing

This section is a forum for students to publish poems, short stories, excerpts from novels, creative non-fiction pieces, memoirs, and poems. For creative writing submissions, please limit your submissions to no more than two prose pieces, each no more than 4,000 words long or three poems.

Examples of submissions we have published in the past have included personal essays about experiences living or traveling in the region, poetry inspired by a favorite Russian poet, and a short story influenced by thematic elements relevant to the region.

Translations

This section is a forum for students to publish translations of poetry and prose. For translation submissions, please limit your submissions to no more than three pieces, each no more than 2000 words long.
Translations should be between English and a language spoken in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia (either to or from the language). Because our publication will include both versions on opposing sides, when submitting translations, please also include the original piece and a citation for it.