California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State) very own annual literary publication, Penumbra, has opened submissions for it’s 2017 edition. These dates span from Sept. 1 through Feb. 3 2017. 
Artists, poets, writers and photographers can visit www.csustan.edu/penumbra and follow the guidelines provided for submitting to the publication. Penumbra accepts poems, short fiction/nonfiction, photography and art from the Stanislaus region, throughout the United States and abroad.
Submitting is free with an automatic entry into a contest to win prizes. Penumbra will award a $150 Amazon gift card to the winning entry and $50 Amazon gift cards to each of two Honorable-Mention entries in each of three categories: (1) Prose (fiction and non-fiction), (2) Poetry and (3) Visual Art.
The judge for prose and poetry is a Stan State alumni, Lee Herrick. The judge for visual art will be Georgia Herrick.
People from various regions submit to Penumbra. These submissions also include students from Stan State.
Hayley Perry, an English major at Stan State, emphasizes how submissions help writers and other creators learn more about themselves and their work as others read.
“It feels good to put your work out there and to know that someone else has read it. It forces you to think about the effect your work would have on an audience,” she said.  
Penumbra has been an entire student run publication since it’s establishment on campus in 1991.
In every Spring semester, the Editing Magazines course (English 4019) compiles a publication with the work that people have submitted. Every piece is put through a democratic voting process by the students in the class. Once the literary magazine is finished, there is a reading at the end of that Spring semester where the contributors are invited to read their work and enjoy the company of other creators.
Editor-in-chief (s), Amy Machado and Dr. Jesse Wolfe, of the English department are there to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Dr. Wolfe has been the faculty advisor for both the Penumbra class and club for four years. Amy has been involved with the publication for three years.
Dr. Wolfe and Amy agree that one of their favorite parts of Penumbra is the hands-on experience students engage in while the publication is in process.
“The fact that it’s a very Democratic process in the class and the students deliberate about what’s going to go in, makes for a really interesting kind of classroom,” Dr. Wolfe said.
Students will read the pieces, vote on all of them and then come to class and discuss about the pieces that fell in the middle. The class is a unique experience that can be beneficial to English, Business and Art majors alike.
Make sure to check in with Penumbra’s Facebook page,  www.facebook.com/PenumbraCSUS  for updates about submission, upcoming literary events and the Penumbra reading in Spring Semester.
For any inquiries about Penumbra or to support the publication, email [email protected]