OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L), an established multi-platform journal publishing since 2017 on behalf of OJAL Art Incorporated (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation), has immediate need for volunteer Editorial Assistants: Readers-in -Performance/Voice Artists with near-native fluency in English. 

Are you an emerging actor or theater arts student? Are you a spoken-word artist or slam poet? Are you a vocalist or on-air personality? Are you a teacher, journalist, or literary academic with a focus on stage arts or film studies? Are you a student or graduate student pursuing a degree in theater arts, film studies, or broadcast journalism? Would you like to join an arts/media team that publishes some of the world’s most exciting studio artists, poets, and writers who are working today? 

If you can answer yes to any of the questions above, you may find this resume-building position as A VOLUNTEER  Editorial Assistant: Reader-in-Performance (Voice Artist) with OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L), to be a very interesting opportunity.

Qualifications:

The qualified candidate will be able to commit to up to 10 hours of assigned work per month (4-5 well-rehearsed readings); will be able to demonstrate the ability to read, write, and speak English with at least near-native fluency and/or will be able to document current enrollment at an accredited institution of higher learning in a degree-granting program in fine arts, language and literature, journalism and communication, theater arts, or education; and will be able to furnish compelling references.

The ideal candidate will have command of two or more languages, a minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent professional skill set, and an IMDb profile.

Essential Skills: 

• Good stage, screen or vocal presence.
• The ability to enter into another character and engage with an audience.
• The ability to memorize lines.
• Good understanding of dramatic techniques.
• Having the confidence, energy and dedication to perform.
• Creative insight.
• Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others. 
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents. 
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems. 
• Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
• Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.

Duties:

• Reports to the Associate Editor for Media and Media Production.
• Selects material from among the eligible works published by OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters
• Develops and rehearses an appropriate persona and/or delivery style for the selected work
• Writes a simple introduction for each selected work including as appropriate the performer's own identity, and a preview of the work (without spoilers)
• Writes a simple conclusion for each selected work including the writer's summarized biography. The reader's recorded biography is optional.
• Performs the work and creates an MP3 and submits it to the Associate Editor for Media and Media Production
• Duties of Systems Analysis - In consultation with the Managing Editor, determines how and to what extent the interview met the needs of both O:JA&L and the needs of the interview subject and to what extent the conditions, operations, and the interview environment were under the control of the interviewer, or determines how and to what extent the or dramatic reading/oral interpretation of a selected work met the needs of both O:JA&L and the needs of the audience and the writer and to what extent the conditions, operations, and the performance environment were under the control of the reader.
• Duties of Systems Evaluation – In consultation with the Managing Editor, identifies measures/indicators/actions which would improve the interview environment and/or improve interviewer control over the conditions and operations of the interview process to meet the goals of O:JA&L, or identifies measures/indicators/actions which would improve the dramatic performance environment and/or improve reader control over the conditions and operations of the dramatic/interpretive reading act to meet the goals of O:JA&L 

Benefits:

Intrinsic benefits include the singular experience of first-hand opportunity to interpret for an international audience the work of first-rate creative talents from across the world, the professionally valuable experience of working as part of a team of dedicated artists and writers to produce a journal with value to readers and contributors, and the personally valuable opportunity to develop or strengthen specific interpersonal skills and to improve professional expertise as a Perfomer or On-Air Personality.

After 90 days of faithful performance in the position (a minimum of 20 on-air readings), extrinsic benefits include letters of recommendation from a senior editor attesting to the reader's qualifications and dependability supported by detailed performance evaluations in all skill areas.

Contact O:JA&L:

Respond with letter of interest and resume to the initial screener through Submittable.

Buttonhook Press Annual call for chapbooks of Experimental Discourse

O:JA&L's Buttonhook Press will consider chapbook collections of 20 (minimum) to 44 (maximum) pages of Experimental Discourse with no individual title in the submission to exceed 2100 words. 

Submitters should include a table of contents and if any individual works have been previously published, an acknowledgments page. The acknowledgments page, the table of contents, and any dedication page should be included as part of the page count.  

Submit the manuscript as a single document. Begin each individual title on a new page within the document. .docx files are preferred. Follow other general O:JA&L guidelines that may apply. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in this category with the understanding that O:JA&L will be notified promptly if a piece under consideration here is accepted elsewhere.  

Previously published works are not accepted.  

A cover letter should include the writer's contact information, the title of the work and its category (fiction or nonfiction), and the writer's professional biography of up to 100 words in third person.  O:JA&L and its imprint Buttonhook Press claims first international rights, first North American rights, first Australian rights, and the right to archive in perpetuity the accepted chapbook on its website.  

No reading fees apply.

“Expedited” consideration is not available in this category.    

Conditions: Chapbooks accepted for publication will be released to readers as free PDFs through the O:JA&L website and will enjoy limited distribution via Patreon as O:JA&L subscriber premiums. No ISBNs will be associated with these titles. Copyright for the PDF versions of these chapbooks and for Buttonhook Press's related proprietary files will reside permanently with OJAL Art Incorporated, O:JA&L, and O:JA&L’s Buttonhook Press and with the writer. OJAL Art Incorporated, as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and Buttonhook Press, will provide to each writer of a published PDF chapbook a .docx file of that chapbook suitable for use by most full service commercial printing houses and a free license to produce and distribute a printed version of the writer's published PDF chapbook.

OPEN Call for Submissions: Experimental Discourse as XP fiction or nonfiction to 2000 words

Ends on December 1, 2022

OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) will consider submissions of Experimental Discourse (fiction or nonfiction) of 2000 words minimum, 2100 words maximum, not including title, by-line, and any epigraph.

Submit work that is experimental in nature. "Experimental" will here be defined according to the working definition offered by William Paterson University's Map Literary:

Experimental fiction is fiction that refuses to stay within the boundaries laid out either by traditional realistic literary fiction or by the standard genres of thriller, mystery, sci-fi, romance and so forth. We might say that experimental fiction is non-escapist literature in that it does not seek to seduce its readers into a dreamy forgetfulness. It is fiction, instead, that often unsettles, that makes one feel uncomfortable or liberated, because it breaks rules and invents new ones. Ideologically, it undermines the common conceptual categories by which we understand and navigate the world; it rejects the normal rhetoric of how we describe things.

A submission may contain ONLY ONE title. A submission may contain no less than 2000 and no more than 2100 words, not counting its title, byline and any epigraph. Submissions must be in one of the following file formats: .doc or .docx. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in this category with the understanding that O:JA&L will be notified promptly if a piece under consideration here is accepted elsewhere. Follow other general guidelines that may apply.

Previously published works are not accepted.

A cover letter should include the writer's contact information and the writer's professional biography of up to 100 words in third person.

O:JA&L claims first international rights, first North American rights, and the right to archive the accepted works on its website and to consider them for inclusion in future experimental collections and anthologies to be compiled and published by the O:JA&L imprint BUTTONHOOK PRESS.

All other rights revert to the author upon publication. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters asks to be identified as first publisher if published works are reprinted elsewhere.

Expedited evaluation of submissions is not available in this category.

O:JA&L will consider submissions of haibun and tanka prose.

Submit up to 5 separate titles in one document file. Each title may contain no more than 1,000 words, not counting its title, byline, and any epigraph. Include all titles in one document file. Start each title on a new page within the document. Submissions must be in one of the following file formats: .doc or .docx. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in this category with the understanding that O:JA&L will be notified promptly if a piece under consideration here is accepted elsewhere.

Previously published works are not accepted.

A cover letter should include the writer's contact information, the title/s of the work/s, and the writer's professional biography of up to 100 words in third person.

O:JA&L claims first international rights, first North American rights, and the right to archive the accepted works on its website and to consider them for inclusion in future collections and anthologies to be compiled and published by the O:JA&L imprint BUTTONHOOK PRESS.

All other rights revert to the author upon publication. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters asks to be identified as first publisher if published works are reprinted elsewhere.

“Expedited” consideration is available for a fee.

To make this content eligible for an O:JA&L YouTube event, mark the Affirmative Permission/Release box on the submission form.

Call for Submissions: Mixed Forms
SEQUENTIAL ART STORIES/Graphic Narratives, Manga/Manhua/Manhwa, Bandas Desenhadas/Fumetti

O:JA&L will consider submissions of mixed-form narratives as SEQUENTIAL ART STORIES/Graphic Narratives, Manga/Manhua/Manhwa, Bandas Desenhadas/Fumetti up to25 pages maximum for each individual work.

Submit a single work of up to 25 pages as a PDF document file. Include a link to a publishable .jpeg color panel containing the title.

Follow other general O:JA&L guidelines that may apply.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted in this category with the understanding that O:JA&L will be notified promptly if a piece under consideration here is accepted elsewhere.

Previously published works are not accepted.

A cover letter should include the writer's/artist's contact information and the writer's/artist's professional biography/ies of up to 100 words in third person.

O:JA&L claims first international rights, first North American rights, and the right to archive the accepted works on its website and to consider them for inclusion in future collections and anthologies to be compiled and published by the O:JA&L imprint BUTTONHOOK PRESS.

All other rights revert to the author upon publication. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters asks to be identified as first publisher if published works are reprinted elsewhere.

“Expedited” consideration is available for a fee.

Ends December 1

Open: Journal of Arts & Letters will consider submissions of poetry in all forms, styles, and genres.

Submit up to 5 separate titles in one document file. Each title may contain no more than 100 lines. Include all titles in one document file. Start each title on a new page within the document. Submissions must be in one of the following file formats: .doc or .docx. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in this category with the understanding that O:JA&L will be notified promptly if a piece under consideration here is accepted elsewhere.

Previously published works are not accepted.

A cover letter should include the writer's contact information, the title/s of the work/s, and the writer's professional biography of up to 100 words in third person.

O:JA&L claims first international rights, first North American rights, and the right to archive the accepted works on its website and to consider them for inclusion in future collections and anthologies to be compiled and published by the O:JA&L imprint BUTTONHOOK PRESS.

All other rights revert to the author upon publication. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters asks to be identified as first publisher if published works are reprinted elsewhere.

“Expedited” consideration is available for a fee.

Works of less than 500 words accepted and published in this category are eligible for production as an O:JA&L YouTube/Rumble event. To make this content available for an O:JA&L YouTube event, mark the Affirmative Permission/Release box on the submission form.

Spoken-word performers and slam poets are encouraged to submit audio or video files. Such submissions must be in mp3 or MP4 file formats. Submissions accepted in this category are assumed to be available for production as an O:JA&L YouTube/Rumble event. To make this content eligible for O:JA&L's YouTube channel, mark the Affirmative Permission/Release box on the submission form. These videos will be linked to your content on the journal page. Accepted submitters in this mode should provide a text version of the performance pieces for simultaneous release on the O:JA&L website.

Expedited evaluation of your submission is available (see fee option below). Payment of this fee encourages a 72-hour response by the O:JA&L editors.

Open: Journal of Arts & Letters will consider submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir up to 10,000 words. Submissions may contain one title with a total word count of no more than 10,000 words, not counting its title, byline and any epigraph. Submissions must be in one of the following file formats: .doc, .docx.

Submit one title. Submissions may contain no more than 10,000 words, not counting its title, byline, and any epigraph. Submissions must be in one of the following file formats: .doc or .docx. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in this category with the understanding that O:JA&L will be notified promptly if a piece under consideration here is accepted elsewhere.

Previously published works are not accepted.

A cover letter should include the writer's contact information, the title of the work and the category (fiction, nonfiction, CNF, memoir, vignette), and the writer's professional biography of up to 100 words in third person.

O:JA&L claims first international rights, first North American rights, and the right to archive the accepted works on its website and to consider them for inclusion in future collections and anthologies to be compiled and published by the O:JA&L imprint BUTTONHOOK PRESS.

All other rights revert to the author upon publication. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters asks to be identified as first publisher if published works are reprinted elsewhere.

“Expedited” consideration is not available in this category.

STUDIO ARTS: Painting & Drawing. Open call for submissions as Featured Artist in the 2023 O:JA&L Portfolio Series

2023 Featured Artist: Portfolio

OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters(O:JA&L) and its imprint Buttonhook Press, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation registered in California.

For 2023, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters will consider submissions of painting and drawing in appropriate media under the following additional guidelines:

Submitted images should be previously unpublished and not available to an image search on the internet.

Submitted images may be executed in any artistic tradition in any medium and may be the product of any physical painting or drawing process or technique. Digital art should NOT be submitted in this category. Submissions of digital art will be considered in a separate category.

Artists should include a single representative .jpg/.jpeg image file with the submission and a link to a portfolio/gallery containing at least 6 additional .jpg/.jpeg images. All images must be available to O:JA&L as .jpg/.jpeg image files that can be reproduced at 1,650 pixels wide. O:JA&L art editors will assume that images provided through the provided link meet guidelines and that permission is granted to O:JA&L by the submitter to select among and publish any or all images from the linked portfolio/gallery.

Submitters must specify title, series (if any), completion date and other pertinent information for each image. Links to professional and commercial sites where this art is available for purchase are encouraged.

In order to qualify for inclusion and promotion in the Featured Artists Portfolio Series, submitters must include as part of the submission, a cover letter containing the following information:

1) a professional biographical statement in third person. This biography should contain at least 100 words (minimum) up to 250 words (maximum) and should include educational and training background, past exhibitions, and notable awards.

2) a statement of artistic philosophy, a summary of artistic practice (preferred subjects, treatments, and techniques) and other pertinent information (not to exceed 500 words)

3) a catalog of scheduled exhibitions, with contact information, for 2023

This information will be subject to editing for form and correctness by O:JA&L staff editors.

O:JA&L claims first international rights, first North American rights, and the right to archive the accepted works on its website. In order to maximize exposure and promotion of our contributing artists, submitters acknowledge and affirm their consent by submitting, that individual images published as part of the O:JA&L Artist Portfolios Series may be selected for further promotion (always with appropriate artist credit and links) and released in the Journal separately as focusing art for featured poetry and prose texts and/or released through the O:JA&L imprint Buttonhook Press as cover art for broadsides, pamphlets, chapbooks, and/or KDP titles.

All other rights revert to the author upon publication. OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters asks to be identified as first publisher if published works are reprinted elsewhere.

Expedited evaluation of your submission is available for an optional fee. Payment of this fee supports O:JA&L writers and artists and encourages a 72-hour response by the O:JA&L editors.

Submissions open October 15, 2022

Submissions close July 1, 2023

First releases for 2023 will be in January

Last releases for 2023 will be in October