Author: kelsey b.

Spring 2015 Issue is Available!

We are very excited to announce that our Spring 2015 issue is now available! You can download it for free through Amazon.com from now until Friday, January 16th at midnight. In addition, our previous issues are also for free until the 16th. After that, they will be $4.99 each, so get them now! All of our issues can be viewed on your Kindle, smartphone, desktop, or tablet. This new issue is particularly exciting because there is a wonderful blend of original, creative written work and unique, visual art. Our contributors submitted their best, most publishable work, and we were thrilled about the variety of talent that we received.

That being said, we are already looking forward to what is to come for our Fall 2015 issue. So if you were unable to submit your work last time, we are now accepting submissions. Please send us your original written or visual work of fiction, photography, non-fiction, drawings, poetry, sculpture, etc. If you’ve never sent your work to 13th Floor Magazine before, our submission guidelines are listed below. A fresh issue filled with local talent is a great way to begin a new year and a new semester.

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator

Please encourage your students to submit their best work. It’s a great way to get experience submitting professionally, and may result in publishing credits! Your help is crucial to making our campus magazine a success!

Review of Lisa Sandlin’s Story, “Phelan’s First Case”

Author and Instructor, Lisa Sandlin

Happy Holidays from 13th Floor Magazine, and hooray to being finished with finals! A special congratulation goes out to those who have recently graduated, two of whom being our Photographer, Chelsey Richardson (Risney), and our former Promotions Editor, Ali Hodge. These ladies have contributed so much over the last few semesters, and we are thankful for their creative talents.

Lisa Sandlin, an instructor in the Writer’s Workshop program and sponsor of the only literary magazine at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, has a short story featured in USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series (October 2013). Her story, “Phelan’s First Case” has received a positive review featured in The Austin Chronicle. The article’s author, Wayne Alan Brenner, thought Lisa’s work was a must-read. He says:

“Sandlin’s tale of a young PI and his ex-con insinuation of a secretary was engaging as hell. The writing was brisk, the genre style familiar enough – not quite subversive, nowhere near trite. The plot was jake, too, but it was only a hanger for characters – the private dick Phelan and his canny amanuensis Delpha Wade – that you wanted to spend entire novels getting to know. Over too soon, the story, goddammit – as if it were too good to last. ”

To read the full review of Lisa’s story, click here. While our resident creative writing instructor and supporter of 13th Floor Magazine is featured in this collection, there are other worthwhile stories included in Akashic’s USA Noir. If you’re interested in having this book for yourself, or know of a friend who wants some quality reading material to curl up with over the holiday break, you can purchase it here.

As always, we are accepting submissions for our next issue. If you are unfamiliar with the submission guidelines, please review below.

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator

Foreign Fame and Finals

An exciting announcement: After a recent meeting, our Business Manager, Kristen Pothast, informed the rest of the staff that some of our issues have been downloaded in six other countries. If you’ve been published by 13th Floor Magazine, there have been people in Germany and Canada and the United Kingdom that have read your work. So, that’s extremely cool. It was one thing to want to bring literary and artistic talent to the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s campus, but to have gone so far beyond our city limits is something our staff members are proud of.

December has begun, and right now that only means one thing to most of you: finals. They’re right around the corner, so be sure to keep pushing yourself to stay on top of your studying, project preparations, rewrites, and for some, senior capstone presentations. The excitement of upcoming holidays and a three week break can easily be distracting when you have that “I just want to be done already” feeling. Here are some helpful tips for those of you who are about to take your first college finals or those who need a reminder:

Get good sleep, eat right, and implement some exercise to help declutter your mind.
Make daily or weekly study schedules.
If you’re struggling with a particular unit or chapter, form a study group.
The Criss Library is a wonderful place. Give it a look around.
Rewards are necessary. Take well-deserved breaks after you’ve put in ample time studying.
Most importantly, have confidence in yourself and your ability to do well.

From all of us at 13th Floor, we’re rooting for you to get those grades. And if you really feel stuck and just can’t seem to look at one more note card, during that study break you could give yourself a writing prompt or sketch an image that has been in your brain for a few days. Those might just turn into pieces you’re fond of, and who knows, they might be submission worthy next semester.

Final Reading Series Installment Next Week!

From all of us here at 13th Floor Magazine, we’d like to thank everyone who took time to submit some of their writing and/or art to us. We received nearly 70 submissions of prose, poetry, and various kinds of art, and we couldn’t be more excited to begin the selection process. To those of you who were unable to submit anything for this upcoming issue, we hope to see your work next time there’s a call for submissions.

While the semester is undoubtedly growing more hectic each day for everybody, hopefully there will still be time in your schedules next week to see UNO faculty authors Margaret Lukas and Cat Dixon. Both of them are adjunct faculty members of the Writer’s Workshop program and are known for their fiction and poetry, respectively. This is the final event of the UNO Writer’s Workshop Fall Reading Series, and like the four previous readings, it should be great. So mark your calendars for Wednesday, November 19th, at 7:30 in the Dodge Room of the Milo Bail Student Center. Best of all, this event is free and open to the public. Two awesome authors for free on the same night? There’s really no reason not to attend!

This reading series is presented each fall and is meant to get writers and artists involved in a literary community beyond the UNO campus grounds. Sometimes, that might seem quite overwhelming to those who are apprehensive about what comes after the undergraduate chapter. Having the opportunity to interact with these authors, can help put into perspective what life might be like after obtaining a degree. Fortunately this year, the series has been comprised of readers who are based in and beyond Omaha. If you haven’t made it to any of the other installments of this semester’s series, this one might be exceptionally helpful, given Margaret and Cat are familiar faces for most of us. We hope to see you all there!

Submission Deadline is Today: Submit by Midnight!

Happy Halloween from 13th Floor Magazine! Before you go to your friend’s costume party or take your little cousin trick-or-treating, make sure you send in your polished, professional submissions to us by midnight. As always, we’re accepting all kinds of stuff: fiction, non-fiction, painting, photography, poetry, sculpture, comics, personal essay, pottery…if it’s something you’re passionate about, have been working on for a long time, or you’re looking to gain publication experience, then don’t miss this opportunity. We’re always looking to feature new writers and artists, so don’t be shy if you’ve never submitted before. Be sure to check out our Meet the Staff page as well. Most of us are likely to be in classes with you, so if you ever have questions about the submission process or about 13th Floor Magazine in general, feel free to ask us. To refresh yourself with the submission guidelines if you’ve not yet done so, please see below.

We hope all of you have been able to create some new, original work for this next issue, and we cannot wait to begin the selection process. Thank you to everyone who has sent in your work already. We know it takes extra time to prepare something for us, but there would be no “us” without you, the UNO writers and artists.

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator

Don’t be Spooked – Submission Deadline in One Week!

Hey UNO writers and artists, Halloween is only a week away! While this means that there’s an upcoming night filled with candy, costumes, and everything pumpkin, more importantly, Halloween is the submission deadline for 13th Floor Magazine’s next issue. That’s Friday, October 31st. If you haven’t sent us your work yet, don’t be scared; a week is plenty of time to refine something you’d like us to showcase. Send us your best, creative, original work of fiction, non-fiction, photography, poetry, sculpture, comics, paintings, personal essay, etc. For those of you who haven’t submitted anything to us in the past and are apprehensive about a selection process, think of it like going into a haunted house. You know it’s going to be frightening, and sure, there’s always a clown lurking somewhere with a chainsaw, but that’s half the fun, right? Submitting your work for others to judge can often feel the same way; it’s nerve-wracking, but you have to get through the house and prove to yourself you can get past the clown, no matter how freaked out you might be. We encourage all of our resident writers and artists to polish up their favorite works and get them to us soon. Every submission we get is another treat added to our metaphorical Jack-O-Lantern basket, so keep ’em coming!

On a note of holiday spirit, here’s a link to the origin story of how Halloween came to be. Did you know that this ancient holiday is of Celtic origin? This short read could also get your creative juices flowing if you’re still trying to create something to submit. To read about the interesting origin of Halloween, click here.

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator

Feedback: A New Reading Series at the Kaneko Library

Sarah Mason: Host of Feedback Reading Series

Mark you calendars, everyone. There are a lot of important dates coming up that you do not want to miss. First and foremost, the next submission deadline is Friday, October 31st! This is a busy point in the semester, so if you can send us your work sooner rather than later, that’s one less thing you need worry about. We know and appreciate that it takes extra time to prepare submissions for 13th Floor Magazine on top of your other school work, but we don’t want you to miss out on having your work published. If you are unfamiliar with the Submission Guidelines, see below.

Secondly, and just as important, Poet and Adjunct Professor, Sarah Mason, will be hosting a new reading series at the downtown Kaneko Library called feedback. This reading series coupled with a follow-up workshop will be a new and exciting opportunity for experienced and up-and-coming writers in the Omaha area. The reading event will take place on Thursday, October 16th from 7-9 p.m. How it works: The readings will feature two writers who are seeking feedback on writing they have previously completed. They will present their chosen works to the audience, who will, in turn, give their feedback to the reader. Then, on Saturday, October 18th at 2 p.m., the same readers from Thursday will continue their dialogue with the audience members as they lead a workshop session to conclude the feedback process. The featured readers/workshop leaders this month will be Jen Lambert and Stacey Waite. Both authors are fantastic for agreeing to be part of the first feedback session, and it should be a blast getting to work with them. If you’d like to know more about Jen, click here, and for Stacey, click here.

The goal of feedback is to spark a conversation between writers – whether they are seasoned authors or students in their first semester of the Writer’s Workshop program, it doesn’t matter. It’s important that there is good attendance at this event in order to have substantial dialogues between the readers and the audience. Best of all, feedback is free and open to the public! As these readings will be every three months, once per quarter, you will want to attend as many as possible to really immerse yourself in the feedback process. Get excited, this is going to be great for the literary and art community in Omaha. Hope to see you all there!

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator

Sue William Silverman and Submission Deadline!

Author Sue William Silverman

Hope everyone is still having a great semester. It’s crazy to think that it’s already about half way over. Which means that our next submission deadline is approaching at the end of this month, on October 31st. Make sure to send us your work of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography, sculpture, personal essay…whatever creative written or visual art you do! If you’ve got it, we want it. See the submission guidelines below.

The third installment of the Writer’s Workshop Reading Series takes place this evening, Wednesday, October 8th, in the Dodge Room of the Milo Bail Student Center at 7:00. Tonight’s reader will be Sue William Silverman, author of Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, Love Sick (which has been made into a movie featuring actress Sally Pressman), and her latest memoir, The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as an White Anglo-Saxton Jew. Sue is a victim of sexual abuse and sex addiction. While the topic of some of her writing is quite serious, she is very talented at crafting her pieces to be full of wonderful language and strongly written prose. This event will be a memorable one, so make sure you head to the University of Nebraska-Omaha this evening. As always, these events are open to the public and are free for everyone, so bring a friend! Hope to see you all there!

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator

Why Should You Write?

Hope those submissions are coming along nicely. Make sure to send them in by Friday, October 31st!

There are some of you who are polishing up paragraphs here and there for your submission, but for those of you who have not yet started or aren’t sure how to further develop your work, an interesting article on Mic.com gave a little insight into writing. Although this article, entitled “Science Shows Something Interesting About People Who Love to Write” was more geared towards people who have suffered injury or loss and are encouraged to write as an act of healing, there was some great information that is applicable to all writers and artists of every kind. Writing (and art) is a wonderful, necessary to express oneself, yes, but it also a healthy, creative, constructive way to heal any wounds that have been caused by a little thing called life. Honing in on creative ability takes talent, time, and patience, but when it is harnessed, there are truly beautiful achievements to be gained. You may want to pursue a career in writing, film, studio art, photography, etc., to make a living, which is great, but the most important part of focusing on the Arts is to find something within yourself that enables growth, understanding, comfort, and at times, closure. The literary and art community is not only important for simple aesthetics, but for the soul.

So, if you’re still stuck on your submission, click here to read the full article, “Science Shows Something Interesting About People Who Love to Write” to get a little inspiration.

Submission Guidelines

All files should be in .doc, .docx, or .rtx formats
Do not put your name in the document. Do not put your name in the filename. Please use only the title of your work in the filename. This is very important to us as we want to maintain a fair and unbiased selection process for each of our submissions.
In the body of your e-mail, please include a brief biography. You can write whatever you’d like, but feel free visit our Meet the Staff page if you need some ideas. If your submission is chosen for publication, your biography will be included in the magazine as well. Remember, the biography needs to be in the body of your e-mail, NOT your submitted work.
For visual art, sent us pictures of your artwork. If there is any special information about the art, like the medium, influences, etc., feel free to include that as well.
All prose and poetry should be double spaced and in standard fonts Times New Roman or Arial.
Be sure to thoroughly edit your work for spelling and grammar errors so you can represent your best work possible. If you need editing assistance, don’t hesitate to use campus services like the Writing Center.
If you would like more tips on professionally formatting your document, please read Formatting 101 by Marlys Pearson.

E-mail Submission

Once you have professionally prepared your submission, e-mail it to 13thfloormagazine@gmail.com Remember, include your biography in your e-mail!

If You Are an Educator