Although most of The Stray is produced by staff and students in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York, we are always open to outside submissions.

In all of the work we feature, the emphasis is on open-endedness. We want pieces that take aspects of literature or literary culture as a jumping off point – asking questions, starting conversations, or responding to ideas elsewhere. Is there a book you can’t stop thinking about, or a new author we should be reading? Is there a historical trend we need reminding of? What, for you, are the most pressing issues in publishing? The relationships between creativity and critique, theory and practice, the past and the contemporary, and art, politics, and commerce are all welcome in that dialogue.

Our guidelines are meant to encourage that openness:

• Written work (flash essays, critical anecdotes, interviews, reports from the field, etc.) should be 500 words or less.
• Audio material (sound essays, one-off podcasts, interviews, performance recordings, etc.) and video material (video essays, etc.) should be 3 minutes or less.
• Visual material (photographs, photo essays, art, and other visually oriented work) should fit reasonably within a desktop browser window.

Submissions should be made via email (thestray.editor@gmail.com). Please contact us with any questions about these or other possible formats.