The Labyrinth

Labyrinth, Bergen Community College’s student literary and arts magazine, is seeking poetry, short fiction, one-act plays, creative nonfiction, photography, and artwork submissions for its Spring 2025 issue. In addition to publication, accepted works will automatically be considered for the Annual Creative Writing and Visual Arts Contest, sponsored by Labyrinth in association with the Bergen Community College English department.

Submit to the Labyrinth today!

Guidelines:

  • Participation and publication in The Labyrinth are limited to Bergen Community College students enrolled in the 2024-2025 academic years 2024 and 2025, including part-time and Learning-in-Retirement students.
  • All work submitted must be original and previously unpublished. By submitting to Labyrinth, the contributor verifies that the work is definitively their own work and has never been publicly presented in another journal, contest, or online platform.
  • Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Please format text documents to be readable by Microsoft Word and/or Google Docs. (PDFs will not be accepted for written submissions.) Artwork and photography should be submitted electronically in JPEG or PDF format, minimum 300 DPI.
  • All text submissions must be typed. Prose must be double-spaced. Plays must be in standard dramatic manuscript form.
  • Please refrain from adding a watermark to your work as it would disqualify your entry.
  • Length of work:
    • Fiction: 5000 words maximum
    • Creative Nonfiction: 5000 words maximum
    • One-Act Play: 15 page maximum and/or approximately 10 minutes performance time
  • Artwork in any 2-dimensional medium will be considered.
  • Works submitted via email will not be considered for publication. Please use the Google Form provided.
  • Each work should be submitted separately; do not group works into one file. However, multiple individual submissions are permitted.
  • Maximum number of submissions permitted per individual:
    • 2 in each prose category (Fiction, Creative Nonfiction)
    • 5 individual poems in the poetry category
    • 5 in each artwork category (Visual Art, Photography)
  • Contributors are advised to thoroughly edit and proofread work before submission. Artists and photographers, please title each submission.
  • All submissions will undergo plagiarism and AI inspection. Please keep your works original and avoid using AI tools.
  • Lewd, hateful, violent, and any other kind of inappropriate or graphic imagery is not acceptable; this will immediately disqualify your work and may prompt further disciplinary measures if found in violation of the BCC Student Code of Conduct.
  • Please note that submission does not guarantee publication. The editorial board reserves the right to accept or not accept work based on its own discretion.

Prizes:
$100 Best Fiction
$100 Best Poetry
$100 Best One-Act Play
$100 Best Creative Nonfiction
$100 Best Visual Art
$100 Best Photography

Questions:thelabyrinth@bergen.edu

Past Issues

Staff Editors:

  • Managing Editor: Catherine Park
  • Content Editors: Francesco Maneri & Rocco Alessio
  • Technical Designer: Hosna Kachooee

Faculty: Dr. John Findura and Kelli Hayes