Reintroducing Ourselves

Cicada has evolved a lot over the years. This isn’t the first time I’ve said this, and it won’t be the last, but I want to focus on explaining where we are rather than discussing how we got here.

Who we are

Cicada Creative Magazine is an all-arts periodical that publishes online twice a year. We launched CCM in 2018 as a university-affiliated publication but have expanded our mission and reach. We now review work of all genres and media from people of all ages and backgrounds. You can read more about our history here.

What we do

We invite creative people of all backgrounds to submit work they’re proud of. CCM’s goals are to expand conventional definitions of what art can be, cultivate a sense of creative community, and showcase work that may have struggled to find a home elsewhere. CCM’s philosophy is that art can be anything. We believe this expansive definition of art encourages artists to experiment with form and create more novel work.

How we do it

Our readers select each issue’s theme through popular vote. Once we have established a theme for an issue, we open submissions to the general public. Then, we organize our staff into review teams to evaluate them on a rolling basis. After anonymizing these submissions, we discuss and vote on them to determine if they will be published.

To expand beyond the traditional barriers of a literary magazine, we organize submissions into five broad categories: Visual, Spatial, Auditory, Language, and Cultural/Social. Work doesn’t always cleanly align with one category, and we encourage interdisciplinary experimentation.

Considerations

As far as what we will review, the sky is (almost) the limit. There are a few things to keep in mind, though.

• For logistical purposes, we currently limit written pieces to 5,000 words.
• We accept a maximum of three submissions per submitter within an issue cycle.
• We cannot publish expressly threatening or discriminatory work.
• Neither staff nor submitters are compensated, but we plan to change this.
• More detailed submission guidelines can be located here and our documentation is here.