Aspirations Literary/Art Magazine
Aspirations, an annual literary/visual arts magazine published by Mercer County Community College for more than 25 years, cultivates the talents of area high school students and allows them to share their work with the community. Each year the college invites local high schools to participate in a competition from which the very best in original art and writing is chosen for publication. Each spring, when Aspirations is published, the college hosts a recognition program to acknowledge the contributors and their talents.
Aspirations opens for submissions each Fall.
Contributors of works accepted for publication will be notified by email in early Spring.
A panel comprised of MCCC English faculty and area high school English teachers selects the winning literary pieces. The MCCC Publications Office and MCCC Art/Design faculty choose the winning art.
Aspirations 2024 Literary Art Guidelines
- Each student may enter up to three works total. This means that if you submitted one visual art entry, you are welcome to submit two literary art pieces.
- In addition to poems and short stories, you are encouraged to submit creative non-fiction. No research papers or AI-generated work, please.
- Each entry MUST be ONE piece of art: ONE poem or ONE creative non-fiction piece. Do not include two poems as one submission. If you plan on submitting more than one piece, you may want to copy/paste your biographical sketch so that you have it handy for each submission.
- Each submission title MUST be the original/unique title of the piece submitted. For example, if your poem is titled "Sunset in Manhattan," then the title of your submission should be "Sunset in Manhattan." Generic file names such as "Untitled" and "Poem" are not acceptable. The file title should match the submission title. In our example, the file would be named "Sunset in Manhattan."
- Your name should not appear in/on the submission.
- Entries must be supplied as Microsoft Word documents.
- The maximum word count for each piece is 800. Entries should be double-spaced in a plain, easy-to-read font such as Arial or Times New Roman.
- Each student must complete a Student Profile, including a brief (two or three sentences) biographical sketch. The profile should be written in third person. Instead of "I like writing," you might write "Sarah Smith likes writing." If you plan on submitting more than one piece, you may want to copy/paste your biographical sketch so that you have it handy for each submission.
- Work will be selected for excellence, creativity and content, as well as for space availability and reproduction quality.
- All written entries will become the property of Aspirations 2024.
Aspirations 2024 Visual Art Guidelines
- Each student may enter up to three works total. This means that if you submitted one literary art entry, you are welcome to submit two visual art pieces.
- In addition to photography and drawings, you are encouraged to submit graphic narratives and photographs of 3D work such as sculptures or textile art. No AI-generated work, please.
- Each entry MUST be ONE piece of art: ONE photograph or ONE drawing. Do not include two pieces of art in one submission. If you plan on submitting more than one piece, you may want to copy/paste your biographical sketch so that you have it handy for each submission.
- Each submission title MUST be the original/unique title of the piece submitted. For example, if your photograph is titled "Sunset in Manhattan," then the title of your submission should be "Sunset in Manhattan." Generic file names such as "grayscale" and "grayscale1" are not acceptable. The file title should match the submission title. In our example, the file would be named "Sunset in Manhattan."
- The artist's name should not appear on the artwork. (Signatures on paintings are an exception to this.)
- Entries must be supplied in one of the following formats: .jpg, .tiff, .png.
- Each student must complete a Student Profile, including a brief (two or three sentences) biographical sketch. The profile should be written in third person. Instead of "I like photography" you might write "Sarah Smith likes photography." If you plan on submitting more than one piece, you may want to copy/paste your biographical sketch so that you have it handy for each submission.
- Work will be selected for excellence, creativity, and content, as well as for space availability and reproduction quality.
Submit an Entry Now
Students need submit ONE Entry Form for EACH piece submitted.
If you submit three poems, you'll need to submit each separately.
All entry submissions include a Student Profile.
If you submit three poems, you'll need to submit each separately.
All entry submissions include a Student Profile.
Important Dates
Aspirations AVAILABLE ONLINE: June 5, 2024
Contact
Nicole Homer, Aspirations editor
homern@mccc.edu
(609) 570-3316
Aspirations
Mercer County Community College
aspirations@mccc.edu
Fax: (609) 570-3844