About

Passages North publishes one annual print issue and weekly bonus content throughout the school year. Subs to shorts, poetry, and nonfiction/hybrid categories are usually open from September 1 through April 15.  Fiction is open September 1 through October 15, and January 1 through February 15. While we allow authors to have active submission in different genres, we ask that you use your best judgement and avoid overloading our editors. Additionally, we accept simultaneous submissions, but ask that you withdraw the piece and let us know as soon as it is accepted elsewhere. See specific genre guidelines in submittable. 

Passages North welcomes submissions from anybody. We are an accomplice to LGBTQIA+ communities, Black Lives Matter, and abolitionist movements wherever they may be found, comprised itself of many editors at the intersections of various communities, so we strongly encourage BIPOC, disabled, economically marginalized, and queer and trans writers to submit. Though Passages North does not pay contributors at this time, we promise to treat your work with care and to shout our love via our social media platforms. Contributors receive two copies of their issue of the magazine.

Please be mindful of our editorial staff when you submit to Passages North. Before you click submit, consider that our staff is comprised of queer editors, editors of color, editors with their own personal histories of assault and trauma and disability. We understand how difficulties of living in a highly imperfect world can and should make their way onto the page in our creative work, and PN is excited to publish work that handles those difficulties with nuance. If you’re wondering if your submission needs a content warning, go ahead and add it to your document and know that we appreciate your care.

Passages North, the annual literary journal sponsored by Northern Michigan University, has published short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid writing since 1979. Email us at passages@nmu.edu or write to us at Passages North, NMU, 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette, MI 49855.

Masthead

Editor-in-Chief : Jennifer A. Howard (she/her) lives in the lowest point in her neighborhood, making her an unwilling expert on sump pumps. Her collection of flash stories, How to End Up, was published by New Delta Review, and her second chapbook, You on Mars: Failed Sci-Fi Stories, was published by The Cupboard Pamphlet. She tweets at @jferhow.

Managing Editor: Dacia Price (she/her) is a Creative Nonfiction writer concerned with the inner lives of animals, the natural world, and how both inform our understanding of what it means to be human. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, The Forge Literary Magazine, Chestnut Review, 45th Parallel, and others. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net in both 2019 and 2020 and in 2022 her flash essay "Here // Not Here" won the Roadrunner Nonfiction Prize. Her chapbook "This is for the Naming" is available through Chestnut Review and on Amazon.

Fiction Editor: Esperanza Elizabeth Vargas Macias is a writer born in Mexico and raised in the U.S. (smh). She currently resides in the upper peninsula of Michigan where she is an MFA student at NMU. Outside of writing and working on Passages North, Esperanza enjoys singing badly, rewatching the same three animes, and shaking what her momma gave her. You can find her on Twitter @esperanzawrites.

Poetry Editor: Lisandra Perez is a Mexican-immigrant queer poet residing in Marquette, Michigan. Their work has been published in The Acentos Review, Heavy Feather Review, and others. They wear crocs often and enjoy the pastime of vacuuming. Find them on twitter @perezlisandra_.

Nonfiction/Hybrids Editor: Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the nonfiction books, The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America’s Food (a Paris Review Staff Pick, and one of Ploughshares’ Best Books of 2015), Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer (a New York Times Editors’ Choice, NPR Notable Book, and New Yorker Book to Watch Out For), Pot Farm, and Barolo; the poetry books, The Morrow Plots, Warranty in Zulu, and Sagittarius Agitprop, and 2 chapbooks. He persevered through this past winter via the occasional one-handed cartwheel in his mind.