You are invited to participate in a new local arts publication!

The O-Town Oddity is a new community poetry and arts zine created by CANO's City of the Hills Festival. Thank you for considering participation in this local publication. We hope that with your help that we can grow our arts community together.

Call for entries: Visual Art, Poetry, Essays, & Microfiction from people living in the counties of Otsego, Delaware, Chenango, and Schoharie. Submissions must follow a Spooky Fall theme with a focus on local legends, ghost stories, and historic sites. Selected entries will appear in our preliminary issue #0 of the “O-Town Oddity” zine produced by the Community Arts Network of Oneonta.

Email submissions to artcityofthehillsfest@gmail.com with “O-Town Oddity Submission Oct21” and category of submission: Poetry, Visual Art, Essay, or Microfiction in the subject line. Include all relevant information in the main text of the email. Only one submission per applicant per category. The deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2021. Information to be posted with the work will include: the creator or creators' name(s), the county or counties in which they reside, the name of the work, and contact/promotion line to include an email, website, gallery phone, address, or other relevant information.

Poetry: Poetry is submitted in one of three categories based on length: short, medium, and long. Each of the three categories will have one poem selected for a full-page broadsheet printing. Additional select poems will be featured grouped on the following pages: 17 short-form poems, limited to 3-13 lines, such as fragments or haiku; 9 medium-form poems, limited to 14-30 lines, such as sonnets and song lyrics; 5 long- form poems not to exceed 50 lines.

Poems must be sent in standard fonts with no special formatting, although any notes as to line formatting should be sent along with the poem. Formatting may be altered for the needs of the zine's layout. The exact number of poems featured may be adjusted to accommodate space. To avoid editing issues involving spelling and grammar, please ensure all submissions are print-ready final texts.

Visual Art: All forms of visual art are accepted, including traditional media, digital art, and photography. Photographic submissions that document 3D works such as sculptures, textiles, and hobby-crafts are also accepted in this category. Submitted works can be in color or black & white, but are subject to cropping, color correction, contrast adjusting, or alteration to suit the printing and formatting needs of our various printed, digital, and archival editions. Images should not exceed a file size of 25MB, may be in JPG, PNG, or PDF format, and should be no more than 1200 pixels on their longest side. Seven total works in this category will be selected.

Essays: Includes all traditional forms of essays, as well as editorials, local humanities, and event reporting. Two essays between 450-500 words will be selected. To avoid editing issues involving spelling and grammar, please ensure all submissions are print- ready final texts.

Micro-fiction: Short-form fiction will be accepted in two categories based on length: tiny and small. 4 tiny stories between 200-250 words will be selected. 2 small stories between 450-500 words will be selected. Contributors should be aware that formatting may be altered for the needs of the zine's layout. The exact number of stories featured may be adjusted to accommodate space. To avoid editing issues involving spelling and grammar, please ensure all submissions are print-ready final texts.

Works are accepted or declined by the O-Town Oddity Chief Editor and their affiliates, and are under no obligation to print any works they deem inappropriate or not otherwise in line with the values of the publication. Thus it is advised that applicants avoid submissions that entail images of partisan political propaganda, hate speech, expressions of excessive violence or sexuality, as well as attempts at commercial or religious solicitation. Such images or text may be included in a censored form with a note of censorship, but only with the contributor's permission.

Artists submitting to the O-Town Oddity retain ownership of their work while granting publication rights to reproduce these works for up to two years after submission without reply to notice. Additionally, works may be reprinted in archival collections of the magazine and used in the publication's promotional material without compensation. The O-Town Oddity is produced in accordance with a non-profit mission, with any proceeds being reinvested in the publication itself.

CANO and the City of the Hills Festival Committee thank you for your time. We look forward to reviewing your submissions.

Panik EVlynn Bedlam
O-Town Oddity Editor in Chief
Art Director of the City of the Hills Festival