Current open submissions:

-“Your Awkward Family” #toadartchallenge

-“Embrace Your Awkward” Spiva exhibit

We are currently taking submissions for our collaboration with Spiva Center For the Arts. The prompt is “Your Awkward family.” All mediums will be considered, and unless otherwise specified, your entry will be entered in both our current art challenge (prizes for our winners!) AND our call for artwork for Spiva’s June “Embrace Your Awkward” exhibit.

Email your submission BY May 22nd to: joplintoad@gmail.com w/ subject line, “Embrace Your Awkward.”

You can find official entry form and more information here.

General Submissions

We are currently closed to submissions for our publication offerings “Tiny Toad Press” and the Joplin Toad magazine. If you have a pitch for online content that might be well suited for our website or social media presence, you’re still welcome to pitch your ideas for that!

The following guidelines apply to all work submitted to the Joplin Toad- for all online or print publishing as well as our monthly art challenges.

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The Joplin Toad is purely a community endeavor, from and for the folks in Joplin Missouri and its’ surrounding communities. Submissions are open to everyone- and we mean everyone! Regardless of your background, beliefs, orientation and craft.

General SUBMISSION GUIDELINES for all Joplin Toad projects:

-all work must be original. It’s ok if it’s been published elsewhere- just let us know. The important thing is that what you’re sending is your own work.

-work must be quality. This doesn’t mean you have to be a pro; but we do care about the professionalism, originality, and excellence of pieces considered. That being said…artists tend to get down on themselves and think everything they make is crap, so maybe you should send us your stuff even if that thought does come to mind? You never know.

-artwork needs to be formatted well. We can size things down if the files are bigger than we need, but we can’t fix files that are incorrectly colored, badly scanned/photographed, too small, or not sharp enough. Sometimes we CAN help you get better quality images of your work if the occasion allows, so if you’re not sure, go ahead and send it.

-all work must be tasteful and not disparaging. We’re fine with an occasional swear word or poking a little fun at Joplin, but try to keep it PG-13 and if you do make fun, do it like you’d tease a loved sibling.

-Work must be submitted by either current or former residents of Joplin Missouri and its surrounding communities. We like to keep things local. But we will note: when we say Joplin, we mean the greater Joplin area. Anywhere that considers Joplin a ‘hub’ qualifies- Neosho, Carthage, Galena, Nevada, etc.

Content related the area is always appreciated, but not necessary. You just have to have a connection to Joplin.

-We neither require a submission fee, or pay artists for submissions. Every magazine handles things differently; we’re right in the middle on that one. We don’t (at this time) have the money to be able to pay out to our submitters- but we also never charge for you to submit.

-We do not typically feature strong religious or political content. We do dip a cautious, tasteful toe in these areas every now and again, but on a case by case basis. If you are not sure, feel free to send it anyway and we’ll let you know.

-We love having diversity in our content and creatives. We do not have a limit on the types of folks we take submissions from. We want to actively include folks of color, LGBTQ+ community, folks from Christian and other belief backgrounds, seniors, teens- everybody.

We absolutely want more work from all walks of life. Do keep in mind, if you don’t see the amount of diversity represented that you’d like, that we are at the mercy of who submits. If you’d like to see more types of people represented in the Joplin Toad, help us by letting your own diverse friends know about the toad, and by encouraging creatives you know to send in their work.

-there are no limits on media submitted or strangeness of ideas pitched. The Toad is happy to consider any medium, so long as it can be displayed easily with the limitations of our 2D website or printed magazine.

—Let’s see what you’ve got!

Send us your feature pitch and we’ll consider it for a future issue!

TO SUBMIT:

email joplintoad@gmail.com, include a brief description of yourself and your work, and attach your files!