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Why creative nonfiction?

These days everyone is a writer, an author and a publisher. That’s the beauty of technology.

But what if you’re looking for a story that’s more moving than your everyday blog post? What if you’re looking for a story that’s more empowering than your friends’ Facebook status updates? Or a story that goes deeper — WAY deeper — than your Twitter feed? Creative nonfiction (also called literary nonfiction by some) is a genre that takes storytelling to a level beyond “I was 12 years old when my mom died.” Instead, with creative nonfiction, we meet that 12-year-old and watch him cope with the pain by playing with his sister’s Barbie dolls. It makes us feel like we are 12 years old again, and makes us imagine what it’s like to grow up without a mother. And maybe, even if both our parents are still living, we’re moved to share our own story of loss.

Under the Gum Tree finds those stories and presents them in a quarterly digital magazine.

Specifically, we’re looking for personal essays, memoir and creative nonfiction stories that:

reveal authentic vulnerability. These are stories that you’re embarrassed or afraid to share because you’re more worried about how people you know will react than what you learned and how it changed you. Those are the most powerful stories because you’re risking something for the sake of helping someone else.

provoke conversation. The stories that are the hardest to tell inevitably make at least one person say, “Wow. Me too. And I thought I was the only one.” The stories that are the hardest to tell give others permission to tell their hard stories, and it perpetuates a cycle of storytelling.

examine a universal truth. Most people keep the hard stories to themselves out of fear — fear of how others will react or judge them — but once a story gets shared, we finally realize how common the human experience really is. Sure, everyone’s individual experience is unique. (Isn’t that what makes a good story?)  But we can always relate to things like love, forgiveness, perseverance — you know, the stuff that everyone encounters no matter their circumstances.

Departments

We consider submissions (2,000 words or less) for the following departments:

Fork and Spoon: Much of life revolves around food. This department is for stories, and even recipes, on how food, cooking, eating and drinking affect life. The dinner table means different things to each of us — it can be a comfortable place that facilitates intimate communion, but to someone else it might be an awkward place of forced conversation. These food interactions shape us more than we know.

Sound Track:Music sets the tone of a gathering. It changes a mood from depressed to uplifted. This department is for stories on interacting with music and how it interacts with us. Is there a specific song, group or artist that has had a significant impact on your life? Have you had a meaningful live-music experience? Are you a musician who also writes about how music affects the human experience?

24 Frames a Second: This department is for stories on film, perhaps one of the more powerful storytelling mediums. Is there a specific film that has changed you in some way — caused you to think differently or see the world from a new perspective? Are you consistently moved by the work of one particular actor or director?

Stomping Ground: So much of who we are depends on the relationships in our life, blood or otherwise. This department is for stories about family — and we use that term liberally, because isn’t the friend you’ve had since you were 8, almost 9, years old, more like a sister?

1000 Words: a photo essay, illustrating stories told without shame

Features

We also consider submissions (2,000 words or more) as the featured piece for any given issue. This longer feature may explore a department topic or any other unspecified topic. Most issues will have one longer feature, but we reserve the prerogative to include more than one feature. We might also ask for features on a particular theme, depending on the season and how we’re feeling at the time of planning the issue.

Submission Guidelines

To submit writing, photography or art to be considered for publication, please read and follow these guidelines.

  1. Please don’t email with questions until you have familiarized yourself with these guidelines and the details on this page. Sorry, but we can’t answer emails that ask us to “please send more information about what you’re looking for.” Also, please don’t email us asking whether we have read your submission or if we’re going to publish it. If we decide to publish your piece, you will hear from us. Promise.
  2. Under the Gum Tree does not accept queries. Only complete manuscripts sent digitally will be considered. We are a digital publication, after all.
  3. Simultaneous submissions and work previously published on your own blog or website are both OK. We cannot consider work that has been previously published by someone other than yourself, unless you own all the rights to the work. Under the Gum Tree contributors retain all the rights to their own work.
  4. Under the Gum Tree does not compensate contributors.
  5. We accept digital submissions only. Click here to submit.
  6. Yes, we charge a nominal submission fee. This helps us do things like pay our contributors (a goal we are working toward), send complementary print copies to our contributors and offer a cash prize for our contests.
  7. Please include the following information at the top of your submission, in this order: your name, your email, department to which you’re submitting, word count, and title.
  8. We’re currently accepting submissions for departments and features year-round.
  9. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will not be eligible for consideration.

Deadlines

While we accept continuous submissions year-round, these are the deadlines for 2012:

  • submit by 5/26 to be considered for the Summer 2012 issue
  • submit by 8/25 to be considered for the Fall 2012 issue
  • submit by 11/23 to be considered for the Winter 2013 issue