E&GJ Little Press is the publishing arm of the Empire & Great Jones Creative Arts Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Open to new submissions according to our submission window schedule. (Be sure to check there to find our next submission window!)
View submission guidelines for Ember: A Journal of Luminous Things.
Closed to new submissions until our we make it through our current submission backlog.
View submission guidelines for Spark: A Creative Anthology.
Closed to new submissions until our we make it through our current submission backlog.
View submission guidelines for Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry.
E&GJ Press, a part of the non-profit Empire & Great Jones Creative Arts Foundation, is an all-volunteer organization. From the readers who review submissions to the organizers who share our updates on social media—and even our editor-in-chief—E&GJ Press is staffed entirely by goodwill.
To ensure that our volunteers feel their contributions are meaningful, and to help us effectively accept the time and talents they offer, we rely on the crucial support of the Volunteer Coordinator team.
As a member of the Volunteer Coordinator team, you will:
- Communicate with current volunteers to encourage engagement, to answer questions (or to find the person who can answer them), and to demonstrate that we value them and their time
- Maintain a list of roles, activities, and tasks performed by volunteers at E&GJ Press and keep track of which volunteers perform them
- Post role descriptions like this for open opportunities or areas we need more help with—this may include listings at colleges and universities, since students can receive internship credit for their work at E&GJ Press
- Review volunteer applications and participate in the acceptance process—not every volunteer who applies is brought on board; we do review qualifications and ask accepted applicants to sign a volunteer agreement
- Welcome new volunteers to E&GJ Press, introduce them to everyone, and help them find the tools and websites we use to enable a fully-remote team to work from anywhere in the world
- Perform technical tasks of adding new user accounts for volunteers and configuring access permissions—or quickly bring on a new volunteer who can help with the technical side of this
Minimum Qualifications
- Must be willing to commit to 6 months minimum in this volunteer role
- Must have a stable internet connection and a modern web browser
- Must be age 18 or older—college degree or work experience preferred
Duties:
- Scan each new submission to ensure it follows submission guidelines and meets content and format requirements.
- Label new submissions (prose, poetry, young writer, content warning, previously published, etc).
- Assign scanned and labeled submissions to a group of submission readers.
Requirements:
- Must stay on top of incoming submissions during open submission periods to ensure readers have pieces in their queue and overall response time remains reasonable.
- Must be diligent with checking Slack and Submittable so communication between team members is consistent.
Qualifications:
- Must have a stable internet connection.
- Must be at least 18 years or older.
Dive into the world of emerging literature, refine your critical skills, and gain invaluable experience. Perfect for writers, readers, and charitable givers!
To help us keep up with the positive response to our publications and process submissions in a timely manner, we maintain a staff of volunteer readers to review and take notes on submitted manuscripts. This is an unpaid, volunteer position, but it may be listed on your resume/C.V.
In many cases, this volunteer position also qualifies for college internship credit.
Perks
- All staff receive access to free digital copies of E&GJ publications and a discount on print copies.
- Readers have a unique opportunity to see trends in poetry and short prose and enjoy early access to work from established and emerging writers.
- Authors and poets have consistently reported that spending time in the "slush pile" of any magazine has improved their own writing, and this has been confirmed by E&GJ Press volunteers, too.
Responsibilities
- Read up to twenty submitted works per week.
- Vote "Yes" or "No" on each work read.
- Write a brief note explaining your reaction to each work read.
Requirements
- Be at least 16 years old.
- Have regular access to the Internet.
- Have regular access to e-mail, and check it at least once per day.
- Be able to work independently and commit to at least 5-10 hours per week.
- Be willing to accept Non-Disclosure Agreement and abide by U.S. and International copyright laws.
- Must be fluent in English. Fluency includes a reasonably solid grasp of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
- Be willing to read any genre of work and judge it objectively.
- Be willing to read and comment on both poetry and prose.
Preferred skills
These are not required, but candidates who have these skills will be selected over those who do not.
- Previous experience on the staff of any publication
- Previous experience with Submittable submission manager
- An understanding of traditional and modern poetry forms, meters, and rhyming schemes
- An understanding of the differences in spelling and punctuation standards around the English-speaking world
Training
We're with you all the way! Once your application is reviewed and provisionally approved, you'll have access to senior staff members who will walk you through our tools, review our feedback style and standards with you, and leave you with our "Getting Started" documents for reference. During your initial period as a new staff member, you'll have an opportunity to make sure we're a good fit for you—and we'll be able to see that you're a good fit for us, too.
We encourage open discussion and mentorship, so we welcome your questions and suggestions whether you're a new intern or a veteran volunteer.
Location
There are no location requirements! We have staff members around the world, and we welcome international applicants. Keep in mind that all tasks, tools, and communication are completed online, so wherever you are: a reliable internet connection is critical.