The Cornell Public Journal
who we are old journals submit! FAQ
FAQ
H
ow do I submit an entry? What kinds of things should I submit? What shouldn’t I submit?
It’s easy to submit an entry! You can send us an email at submit@thepublicjournal.com. You can attach a word document or include your submission in the body of the email. Or, you can submit here on our webpage.

Submit short, long, skinny and fat. Submit once, twice, three times! Pour out your insides! Submit AIM conversations. Journal entries. Dreams. Letters. Notes on napkins. Funny, sad, gross, depressing, sexy—all that you are. Make them all as TRUE and as YOU as you can make them. Be as REALER than you’ll ever be. Remember, our motto is: self-obsession, confession, & nothing-but-the-truth. The only things we don’t publish are fiction and poetry. Affected writing, begone! We are the anti-literary!

W
hat’s the deadline? When can I submit?
Really, you can submit to us any time, but there are deadlines if you’d like to make it in by the upcoming issue. We email the listserv with these, and it’s usually about two months before the end of every semester. If you want to know the deadline for this semester email submit@thepublicjournal.com.


H
ow do I get the confession prompts? How do I join the listserv?
I guess we’ve answered our own question: you get confession prompts by joining the listserv. You join the listserv by either submitting a piece or emailing us asking to join.

W
here can I get a copy of The Public Journal?
Old copies of The Public Journal can be found here on our website in .pdf format. New issues are distributed throughout campus. If your submission is in the book or if you’re on The Public Journal listserv we’ll be sure to send you an email and let you know where to get your very own fresh issue. They’re on the house! The Student Activities Fee House!

H
ow often do new issues of The Public Journal come out?
Good question. We get at least one issue created a semester, but sometimes it (um, oops) gets distributed a semester late. Sometimes we have mini-issues in-between big issues. Sometimes we don’t. We do what we feel like. Yeahhhh!

I
’m submitting SUPER PERSONAL STUFF to you: why do you need my name or net ID, and what do you do with it? First of all, we want your name for basic reasons: we want to let you know if you’re getting published and we want to let you know when you can get your very own copy of The Public Journal. Seeing your name in print is cool. Trust us.

Also, names give us a vital sense of community. These people are cutting in the coffee line at Olin. Schlepping up Tower Road to Horticulture classes. Inhaling wraps at the Statler. Stinking slightly after hours in Uris. All co-habitating Cornellians. And hey! You know what? You are no mere shot of confession in the dark! You a PERSON! With a NAME!

But don’t worry: the Inbox is managed by one single staff member. Your name is immediately separated from your submission, replaced with a number and filed accordingly. The rest of the editorial staff really has no clue of what’s what. Additionally, names of published submitters are printed only on the first page of The Public Journal, disconnected entirely from the actual submission or confession. You get to see your name in print and you get to be anonymous – what could be better?

However, if it still makes you iffy, feel free to contribute here! You can contribute REALLY anonymously. Nameless, faceless. (A net-ID would be nice, though)

S
o, you really don’t edit anything? No editorial process whatsoever?
We just weed out the fiction and poetry. And stuff we think is made up. It’s gotta be real, guys.

I
’m not a Cornell student, but The Public Journal is so cool, can I submit anyway?
We’re trying to keep The Public Journal at Cornell University connected to Cornell. The Public Journal is a bunch of thoughts and confessions from a tangible community, which for us happens to be Cornell. The PJ mainly focuses on us college students, but we’ve had alumni, staff, or faculty included in the past.

If you are a Tufts or Michigan student you can submit to their PJ. Or, you can always start your own – just contact PJ founders Dylan Greif: dg[dot]rosal[at]gmail[dot]com or Jonah Green: green[dot]jonah[at]gmail[dot]com.

W
hat’s this Blue Table Project I’ve heard about?
Imagine this: you are walking home from class, across one of Cornell’s quads, and suddenly a table with a blue table cloth appears before you (okay, so it’s already there, it doesn’t really appear). On it, a journal lays open, a pen by its side. You begin to write in it. Others have written before you. You write about anything – what you are thinking, what you did yesterday, whatever – because nobody will ever know it’s you.

That’s it. That’s the Blue Table. Then, we of The Public Journal re-write your entries to keep them extra-anonymous. We scan these entries and put some of them in a book, somewhere, sometimes.

Some semesters we make an entire Blue Table Project book. Other semesters we include Blue Table entries in the very same Public Journal you know and love. Some semester’s life is so crazy there is no Blue Table at all! We’ll let you know what’s going on via the listserv.

T
he Public Journal is so amazing, how can I join the staff?
The Public Journal staff meets once a week, but the time and place varies by semester. Email us for more info.

I
 love you and I have even more questions you haven’t answered here. Where can I send fan mail?
Email us.

©2010 The Cornell Public Journal

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