¡Pa'lante! is the literary journal of the Cerritos College English department.    

For its fifth issue, ¡Pa'lante! seeks poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork from California writers and artists (i.e. writers and artists who currently live or have lived in California). Our mission is to engage and promote underrepresented voices in the literary landscape, so we encourage writers and artists from all communities and identities to submit. 

While we aim to include writers from all over the world, ¡Pa'lante!  is especially dedicated to showcasing the poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork of Cerritos College students and alumni. Cerritos College faculty are not eligible to submit.                    

GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We currently only accept work through our submissions portal on Submittable. We will not read unsolicited materials via email or postal mail.  

All work must be previously unpublished.  Work posted on personal blogs or social media is considered unpublished.

Work must be in English.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but please let us know right away if your work is picked up by another journal by withdrawing it.

If you have to withdraw your work for any reason, please do so through Submittable. If you are making a partial withdrawal (one poem, for example), please send us a message on Submittable.

You may submit work to multiple genres, but please send one submission per genre at a time, and wait until we have had a chance to respond to your submission before submitting again.  We expect to make our editorial decisions for writing submissions by December 2023 (for general writing submissions) and by March 2024 (for high school and art submissions). PLEASE CHECK YOUR JUNK/SPAM FOLDER.

Upon acceptance, ¡Pa'lante! requests first serial rights. All rights revert back to the author upon publication although we will maintain an online archive of the journal. If your work is later republished elsewhere, we request that you credit ¡Pa'lante! as the place in which the work first appeared.  

SHORT FICTION

• One short story of no more than 2000 words
• Please do not put your name anywhere on your submission.

CREATIVE NONFICTION (PERSONAL ESSAYS/MEMOIR)

• One creative essay of no more than 2000 words
• Please do not put your name anywhere on your submission.

POETRY

• 1 to 3 poems of 40 lines or less
• One poem per page but all poems in the same document
• Please do not put your name anywhere on your submission.

HIGH SCHOOL SUBMISSIONS (Open to High School Students Only)

• One personal essay of no more than 2000 words
• One short story of no more than 2000 words
• 1 to 3 poems of 40 lines or less in one document
• You may submit work in more than one genre, but please submit don't mix them in the same document; submit work in each genre as a separate submission
• Please do not put your name anywhere on your submission.

COVER ART  

• 1 original drawing, painting, photograph, and/or image of an original three-dimensional or large piece  
• File should be a JPG or a PNG
• Please do not put your name anywhere on your submission.