Updates

Our new Editor-in-Chief, Kat Yuen, invites you to submit your art, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for consideration for Spectrum Volume 65, which will be published in Spring 2022. Our reading period opens on July 1 and closes on December 31, and we will respond to all submissions by March 2022 (we apologize for the wait). To find our full submission guidelines and to send us your work, visit our Submit page.

Hello to all artists and writers:

It’s July again, and as parts of the world search for normality, we invite you to submit your weird to be considered for the 65th volume of Spectrum.

In my past two years as a reader for Spectrum, every submission I’ve loved has found its central kernel, its premise, and followed that seed to its creative and funky end. At their best, the pieces we publish are bizarre, read thrice-over, and stubborn, using their craft to unearth, to confess, and to make anew.

Around us, the world has seeking the new as well. The status quo of the pre-pandemic has not just been disrupted, but irrevocably changed: despite promises of a “return to normal,” many of us wonder if “normal” is truly possible — or even desired. That’s why this upcoming year, we want to read about Transformation.

Whether about an individual or a world, toward growth or decay, in the past or future, we want to see how changes unfold for you. Submit to us your odes to movement, your best works about actualization and realization. Paint for us transformations as small as a person’s expression or as grand as the rise of mountain ranges. Show us the changes you want to see or have seen, and what it means to leave a past state or self behind.

Above all, submit to us your best pieces, and the ones you don’t expect to be accepted. Help us continue to publish a wide spectrum of the new.

— Kat Yuen, Volume 65 Editor-in-Chief

(he/him & she/her)

Hello all,

As our student staff wraps up their winter quarter, so too have we wrapped up decisions on the pieces that will be published in this year’s Spectrum, volume 64. I would like to thank everyone who submitted their works of prose, poetry, and art to us this year, and doubly so for sticking with us as we moved from Submittable to our Google Drive-based submission system. Also, thank you for your patience as we read through each submission. Spectrum has a rather long reading period, but you have made it through, and if you have not seen an email update yet from us on your submission, please expect to see that sometime soon. To all whose pieces have been accepted, congratulations! We look forward to working with you for this issue.

Next up, our staff is off to a well-deserved spring break, after which we shall move into the editorial process. Contributors, please expect to see a few emails from us over the next few months. During this time, we will also be posting to our blog with posts written by our staff, including another update on production near publication in late May or early June, a few web-published submissions, and information about this year’s launch party.

With all my best,

Paige Dixon

Editor-in-Chief

The past few weeks have been tumultuous for all of us. The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected everyone, the staff of Spectrum included. The University of California Santa Barbara Campus is shut down, and the College of Creative Studies has locked its building. Our staff can no longer meet in person and are relying on technology to remain in touch. Despite these challenges, we are still publishing the 63rd edition of Spectrum in June of 2020. We are excited and thrilled to be publishing this collection of powerful and meaningful stories during this strenuous time. We are, however, making a couple of changes to our plan for this year in light of this situation.

We are not planning a launch party at this time. Typically, Spectrum Staff holds a reception on the day our print editions of the journal are first available for purchase. The need for social distancing will hopefully be in the past by the time June arrives, but for now, we are assuming that this will not be the case. Should our plans change, we will announce it at that time.

It also may not be possible to mail new volumes of Spectrum to our contributors or purchasers immediately after the journal is printed, so we ask that everyone remain patient. We will make sure that everyone receives their journals as soon as possible. As of now, the schedule for printing and publishing the journal still put the publication in early June.

I will take this opportunity to reiterate the importance of following the CDC guidelines for social distancing and self-quarantine during the pandemic. Each of us is responsible for the health and safety of not just ourselves, but everyone around us, and as writers and readers, we have a unique opportunity to document this strange time that we live in.

- Madeleine Almond, Editor-in-Chief