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The Match Factory

Logo of a factory building with vertical match-like protrusions jutting out of the buildings roofLogo of a factory building with vertical match-like protrusions jutting out of the buildings roof
Colin Goldberg

The Match Factory is an Humanities & Sciences online literary magazine. We only publish work that has been stirred in the cauldron of creation, born out of a hail of sparks, the incendiary, the new, art that stings & blasts and has the high sheen of hot-rolled steel. Here we hope to bring you creative writing and visual art trundled out of the mysterious past by regional rail or the Trans-Europe Express, art that fumes into all our tomorrows by bullet rail through Oriental Transways of the mind and swoop-along cable-car dispatches through the Machu Picchus of the heart. Atavistic and shamanistic, work that cuts to the bone, unravels to the bleeding edge, punk and salsa, cyber and human, a mixture of yesterdays and the now and the never-was.


We believe, as the poet Stephen Dobyns believes, that one “cannot be timorous and reticent” when engaged in the act of creation; the artist “must be original and loud . . . new metaphors, new rhythms, new expressions of emotion can only spring from unhindered gall.”


The Match Factory will produce a maximum of two issues a year, featuring work by SVA students and instructors.


Please see the Submission Guidelines accordion below if you wish to submit your work.


Staff

Editor—Edwin Rivera (erivera3@sva.edu)

  • Submissions Instructions

    The Match Factory accepts all submissions online. Please send an email containing the following information to Edwin Rivera at :


    • Your name
    • Your email
    • The title of your submission
    • The genre of your work: poetry, fiction (short stories or novels), nonfiction (essays and reviews), art (graphic novels, photography, illustration, paintings, cartoons, etc.), news and media, drama (plays and one-acts), or other
    • A brief bio
    • A document containing your submission in .doc or .docx format
    • Before we can publish your work, you must submit the Artwork and Model Release Form, which is part of SVA policy. This in no way means that you will lose any rights to your work—you retain ownership to your material from the outset. This is merely to give SVA and any of its publications the right to reproduce your original content.
    • Submission Format: Please write your name and address on the title page of your submission

    Writer's/Artist's Guidelines

    Fiction: A short story or novel excerpt up to 3,500 words. Anything longer than 3,500 words may not be considered.

    Poetry: No more than five poems in a single document. The poems can be any length (unless you are Pushkin reborn typing a sequel to Eugene Onegin).

    Nonfiction: Critical essays, personal essays, memoirs, interviews, book/music/film criticism up to 3,000 words.

    Drama: Play excerpts up to fifteen pages—one-acts may be submitted.

    Art: Photography, illustration, cartoons, paintings, short films and multimedia projects can be submitted.

    Reading Period

    The Match Factory will produce two issues per year. The next reading period will be from January 15 - April 15, 2023.

    Restrictions

    We do not accept previously published work. If you are sending us a simultaneous submission, please let us know. Please allow a 1–2 weeks response time concerning your submission.


    Any further questions, please contact Edwin Rivera at erivera3@sva.edu

  • The Humanities and Sciences department is holding their Annual Writing Contest for undergraduates, and we'd like to invite all of you to submit your work. First prize is still a whopping six hundred smackeroos (and second and third prize ain't so bad neither, at $300 and $100 respectively). The deadline is extended to MARCH 21, 2025 

     

    So, if you have a script about reanimated bones that are supernaturally soldered together in order to enact justice, why not road-test it in the contest before selling it to SYFY? If you have a crackling story to tell about a mystical child who talks a foul-tempered tornado out of decimating a sleepy fishing village, why not submit it to the contest and snatch up boodles of cash and become the envy of all your friends? 

     

    The categories are as follows: Poetry (no longer than 3 pages each), Short Story, Personal Essay, Critical Essay (up to 3,000 words each), and Film Script or One Act Play (up to 15 pages--excerpts are accepted, but please make clear in your script that you are submitting an excerpt).

     

    Send your submissions to: Edwin Rivera, editor, The Match Factory and coordinator, Writing Contest. Make sure you send Word docs only--and since the contest is judged anonymously, be sure that your name is nowhere present on the document itself.  Submissions should be emailed to: erivera3@sva.edu


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