Introduction + Submission requirements

Introduction post.

Hello and welcome. This is the Ruskin Journal's official blog site. Please note, our current website is still undermaintanence, and we hope to have it up and running in the next couple of months.

About us:

We are a student-led digital publication that focuses on the student experience. Our works are to be accessible across the cohort, no matter which year or field of study you are in. Everyone can submit their writing to us (submission guide posted below), but feel free to get in touch with our editorial team for any enquiries. We accept general submissions!

Our aims:

The primary goal of the Ruskin Journal's is to become a safespace, where our community of students can connect with each other. To do this, we have created this sustainable, digital platform for student's works to be presented, archived, and continued by the next generation of the Ruskin Journal committee. Our mission is to drive up the creativity at Anglia Ruskin University, and by doing so, encourage the exploration and discovery of voices that may not have had a chance to shine. 

Our legacy:

In March 2017, the Journal was founded by Elle Haywood and Hanushka Karnani in a small Cambridge cafe. As part of this legacy, we want to make sure that this platform and society are able to be inherited by our peers. Due to long periods of inactivity, the society had been deemed inactive. We have brought it upon ourselves to help till the soil of creativity, to revitalise and regrow this platform into the great nest that it once was. By promoting eco-awareness and sustainable habits, we hope to encourage the same interest that our namesake, John Ruskin, had for environmentalism and progressiveness within our student-peers. 

Our team:

Our team is currently made up of students from the Cambridge Creative school of Industries:

Team leaders:

Wiktoria Z-C - Publisher (President).
Jay Y - Chief Editor.

Editorial Commitee:

Zareena H - Editorial Photographer.

Cody F - Editor.
Will H - Editor.
Jenna C - Editorial Assistant.
Holly F - Editorial Assistant.

Journalist Committee:
Lewis Droy - Journalist.

 
To become part of the commitee, you would need to have the Ruskin Journal membership (3.60£) purchased through the Student Union Society webpage, then email us an introduction and what sort of position you are interested in. As per the Student Union's regulations, to accept those positions, you would need to put yourself forward for the role in the elections. We accept multiple editors, editorial assistants, and journalists. Other relevant roles can also be created if you have skills that you feel would be fit for this project. Disclaimer, as this is a student-led, university-based society, all work undertaken is voluntary with no monetary compensation. Same goes for submissions sent in.

Memberships:

Memberships are open on the Student Union webpage. These memberships are for the entire year and act as an insurance to make sure the society can stay open. This is the most direct way you can help to support this platform. Members will get exclusive access to the society discord and be able to suggest themes for any upcoming submission openings. You will also be able to run for positions on the committee if you wish to take a more active role in the development of the society. 

Submission requirements:

As stated previously, we accept general submissions across all genres and forms (ie. fiction, non-fic, poetry, etc.) as long as they do not go against the general guidelines published by Anglia Ruskin University. Note: we reserve the right to reject work if criteria is not met. Resubmissions are accepted. We also reserve the right to edit works which have been submitted if necessary. We will contact writers to discuss any changes to their works.

What we accept: short fiction and non-fiction, poetry, essays, articles, opinion pieces, reviews, news, poetry, collections.

Favourable themes/topics include: anything that relates to the 'student-experience', discovering new things in Cambridge, and works on the themes of 'nature'. 

Submit works/queries here: theruskinjournal@gmail.com

• Clearly labelled submissions, with your name (pennames are fine) in the title, as a .pdf or .docx file format.
• We use a sorting category system: Culture, Blog, Student, Art. Please note which one you want to publish under so that we can tag the post accordingly. Note: these tags will be explained in a later post.
• Simple formating. For visual poetry, we recommend putting the full poem in standard formatting first, then putting an image/using the lay out you want us to publish the poem in.
• Any and all collaborators must be credited.
• Photography and illustrations ownerships also must be stated. Note: We assume that all works sent in have recieved permissions to be used on our site. Permission-seeking falls on the person submitting this work to us.
• Any sources used must be cited following the 'Cite Them Right' guidelines. With a bibliography attached at the end.
  
• Word counts: we are looking for shorter, more digestible, posts of around 200-400 words. Minimum word count is 150 words, with shorter word counts (e.g. poetry, flash fiction) available only after discussion. Longer pieces (short stories) have a maximum of up to 2000 words, and only after discussion however, will they be permitted.
• Warnings need to be tagged clearly and in bold.

Please understand that not all work can be published initially. We recommend resubmitting if your original piece was not chosen in the first run. However, no more than three resubmissions per month. We will not accept anything that goes against ARU and SU policies, constitutions, and regulations. 

Thank you!