Submissions for the 2026 issue of Yonder will open on January 12, and close on February 6, 2026.
All graduate students at Western Carolina University are eligible to submit. All submissions are automatically considered for the Graduate Literary Contest, and the top three finishers will win prizes of $250, $100, and $50.
The categories for submission are fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. You may submit up to three works per genre, with fiction and nonfiction pieces not to exceed 3,000 words. Multiple submissions should be submitted as separate documents.
Please format your submissions in Times New Roman, 12-point, double-spaced font. Please submit as a Microsoft Word file, entitled [last name].[first name].[genre], i.e. “Smith.Joe-Bob.Nonfiction,” with no identifying information in the content of the document.
Submissions will be either through a forthcoming Submittable account, or by emailing submission documents to yonderwcu@gmail.com, with the final method currently TBD. Please email any questions to jlove4@catamount.wcu.edu.