Here’s What You Need To Know About FSU’s Literary Magazine, ‘The Kudzu Review’

Florida State University’s The Kudzu Review released its 71st issue on Dec. 8. Here’s what you need to know about the publication!

what’s the kudzu review?

The Kudzu Review is FSU’s undergraduate literary magazine that publishes literature and art. Issues are released once in the fall and once in the spring. Founded in 1988, Kudzu has published years of work created by undergraduate students at FSU, eventually expanding to accept pieces from undergrad students nationwide. Kudzu accepts fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, art, and photography. The submission link is included on their website, which is linked above!

how can i join the team?

While The Kudzu Review is not currently accepting submissions, they are accepting team applications for editorial assistants and an events coordinator!

Editorial assistants are selected to work in either one of the above sections or the social media and layout teams. Most of the teams are required to meet weekly, and there’s a bit of a writing/work commitment. As someone who was on the social media team this semester, I can say we definitely meet less often, and when we do, we usually meet on Zoom. Most of our work is done remotely. It’s not less of a time commitment though, as we still have assignments to complete, responsibilities to pursue, and other meetings to attend.

The events coordinator would be in charge of reaching out to local businesses, coming up with team-building events (ours this year was an escape room), and planning two fundraisers to support the magazine and the overall costs of publishing. The deadline for both applications is Jan. 5. 

can i get credit hours through kudzu?

Kudzu offers credit hours through ENG3943 and internship credit through ENC4942. I completed the ENC4942 internship with Kudzu this year. For the Editing, Writing, and Media baddies who need those credits to graduate, it was a great experience! I was able to meet so many interesting and creative people, network in my community, and gain experience in publishing. I participated in Market Wednesdays, gave a few classroom presentations, wrote and edited a few blogs, decorated a blind date with a book, and volunteered to be a (temporary) tattoo artist for our fundraiser.

The Kudzu Review also has a staff blog! Heard Through The Vine is a cumulation of the Kudzu staff’s voices. The staff blog has articles about smut in modern novels, popular book tropes, online reading, mother-daughter relationships in fiction, gothic stories, and more. As a part of the internship and class requirements, members must write at least one blog article, usually about any topic related to literature and the reading community. Students participating in the internship are also expected to edit at least one blog article written by someone else, but they’re so interesting and fun to edit that it hardly feels like work at all. 

Considering submitting?

Deadlines for the spring issue have yet to be released, but The Kudzu Review does have some general guidelines to consider when submitting work. First, they recommend submitting before midnight if considering the early decision, as it’ll allow for a faster decision and specific feedback. All visual art received during the early decision will be considered for the cover of the issue! Second, all submissions must be from current undergrad students or those who graduated one semester before the current period, and completely void of all identifiers to ensure a lack of bias. It’s very important that there not be any identifying information in all the documents.  

The genre-specific guidelines are more specific and tend to differ depending on each section. Fiction requires pieces to be more than 750 words but no more than 6,000 words, which is an insane amount of pages (20). They cannot be fanfictions or a part of a larger work. Nonfiction will accept anything from 100 words to 4,000. They will not accept research papers, news, press releases, or listicles. Poetry requires individual poems to not exceed three pages in length, single-spaced. Visual art simply requires students not to submit more than five works in a semester, fan art, or anything besides PNGs. 

With all of this in mind, Issue 71 has come together beautifully. The cover is titled “Racing” by Riley Galpin. An interview done with the artist discussed their motivation, art style/inspiration, and the creative process. The magazine opens with a thank-you page to the donors, followed by a heartfelt letter from the editor. The table of contents reveals the 34 pieces that made it into the magazine out of the hundreds of works that were submitted. Scrolling through the edition, you’ll find one fiction piece (consisting of several pages), and a multitude of non-fiction, poetry, and visual art. 

The work that goes into getting a magazine to publication without fail every semester isn’t surprising, exactly, but awe-inspiring. There are so many moving parts that have to come together perfectly for anything to happen at all. It was such a great experience to work alongside everyone and to know that I contributed to something this cool. With all of this great knowledge, check out Issue 71 and prepare to submit in the spring!

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