Submission Guidelines for United States Race and Childhood Fiction
Before submitting to United States Race and Childhood Fiction, please be sure that all necessary permissions have been cleared. You retain the copyright to your work and grant us the nonexclusive right to publish this material, meaning that you may also publish it elsewhere.For questions about submissions, please contact Prof. Susan Eckelmann Berghel at .
Guidelines for Illustrators
- What types of illustrations will be considered?
- What texts are available for illustration?
- How should I format my illustrations?
- What do I need know when I am ready to submit illustrations?
- What happens after I submit illustrations?
- What am I agreeing to when I submit?
- How do I submit?
- What is a Creative Commons License?
- How do I make revisions to my submission?
What types of illustrations will be considered?
Submissions for illustrations to accompany the texts in the United States Race and Childhood Fiction collection are being accepted as part of an illustration contest sponsored by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Public Library, and THiRDspace Stories.The contest is limited to amateur illustrators of the Hamilton County Public School System and UTC students. All advanced high school students and UTC students are eligible to submit their artwork.
Submissions to the illustration contest will be accepted from August 15th, 2018 through November 15th, 2018.
Any drawing or painting medium is permitted, including pencil, watercolors, crayons, and acrylics can be used. Any graphic design software, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, or open source product, can be used. Each submission must be the creative and original work of the submitting illustrator. Any submissions with more than one illustrator listed, will be considered a single entry and will share any prizes possibly awarded. If your image infringes upon another's copyright it will be disqualified. Artwork may not be submitted without artist’s consent.
Chattanooga Public Library and UTC staff members are ineligible to participate. All dates are subject to change. Contest organizers reserve the right to refuse submissions that are not appropriate for a general audience.
What texts are available for illustration?
Texts available for illustration are available in the United States Race and Childhood Fiction collection.- Sky's Limit
Sky’s Limit is about a 5-year-old biracial girl named Sky, growing up during the Civil Rights period. As she reaches the age of understanding, Sky begins to wonder why her mom cannot join her and her dad on their adventures. One day, her dad takes her to the ice cream shop and Sky realizes that no one else looks like her, nor do the other moms look like her mom. She eventually questions her dad about why her mom can never get ice cream with them. Her dad then reaches for her hand and begins to describe the racial tension currently going on in the United States. As the two arrive home, Sky runs into her mom’s arms in tears questioning the actions of the world. Her mom embraces her and explains that the racial tensions will soon die down and they will all be able to get ice cream together. In the end, the “white only” sign is taken down. - The Unexpected Alliance
An Unexpected Alliance, which is set in the United States during WWII. The main character of our book is an adventurous seven-year-old girl named Betty whose father is fighting in the war. To help her father win the war, Betty sets off one day to go ‘scrapping’ for metal. Along the way, she meets an African American boy named Stanley who is also out ‘scrapping’ to help his brother who is away at war. Despite their societal differences, the unlikely duo combines their resources to not only find scrap metal to help their loved ones, they also develop a friendship during the process. - This is What America Looks Like
This is What America Looks Like. The name, inspired by the protest chant currently used to support to reinstatement of DACA, is intended to signify an embrace of the diversity of modern day America. After Nicholas makes a snide remark telling Eleanor, a Guatemalan immigrant , to go back to her own country, Mrs. Baker 's 3rd grade class is tasked with exploring their families' immigration history and journey to America. The story centers around a group of four students: Nicholas, a descendant of Eastern European immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island over a century ago; Grace, who came from Chinese immigrants searching for a better life in California; Gabriel, whose distant grandmother came to New Orleans from Haiti ; and Eleanor, who immigrated with her family from Latin America ; telling the stories they learned about their unique and diverse family histories. The story wraps up with Nicholas realizing that his own family history is not much different than the life of Eleanor, and concludes with him apologizing to her. - What Are Slaves?
What Are Slaves? is about an eight-year-old, biracial boy named Danny who visits a historical antebellum era plantation with his mother. While observing the now present day museum, a picture of slave children working in a field catches Danny’s eye. Curious and having never learned about slaves, Danny inquires to his mother about what the children his age are doing. Danny’s mother gives him an explanation of what slaves are and how they ended up in their situation. Going from one photo exhibit to another, Danny asks his mother for reasons regarding the slaves’ appearance, workload, and education, all of which she patiently explains. After grasping the concept of a slave and realizing that their oppression was all based on the color of skin, Danny becomes upset and mentions that the whole thing seems unfair. His mother replies that keeping slaves is unfair and explains how slavery ended because of people working together to change an unfair problem. She then makes sure Danny knows that unequal treatment towards people of color still exists today, and tells him to always make sure he treats everyone with respect regardless of their skin color. - Mrs. Venus's Class Exploring Jim Crow
Mrs. Venus’s Class Exploring Jim Crow. This story revolves around a classroom on a different planet full of alien children who are learning about American history, specifically the Jim Crow era. The teacher and the students discuss the injustices and oppression experienced by African Americans and other non-white citizens. The next day, American student Jimmy Turner joins them, and he is faced with animosity by some of the alien children in the class. The alien teacher points to the similarities in the children’s prejudice against the human and the prejudice that was prominent during the Jim Crow era.
For reference on how to integrate illustrations and text, consult published children’s books appropriate for the designated age group such as Where the Wild Things Are or The Giving Tree. For more samples visit your library.
How should I format my illustrations?
All illustrations must be submitted in a single digital file. Your images are best represented at 600 dpi. Illustrations should not be larger than legal-sized (8.5 by 11 inches). Files should be submitted as PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1) (*.pdf).For assistance in digitizing your submissions in the correct formats, high school students can visit the Chattanooga Public Library 4th Floor, and UTC students can visit the Studio at the UTC Library.
What do I need when I am ready to submit illustrations?
Before you submit, make sure you have the following information and files ready. Most of the information you will need can be found within your submission.- Title
The title of your submission should be the title of the manuscript and illustrations, for example, This is what America looks like illustrations. - Authors
The illustrator(s) of your work - Date
The date that your work was created - Abstract
Optionally, include a brief description of your work. - Keywords
Optionally, include keywords, tags, or phrases that describe the content of your work. - Extent
Optionally, include the number of pages in your work. - Upload Full Text
Have an electronic copy, preferably in Portable Document File (PDF) format, ready.
What happens after I submit illustrations?
After you submit your illustrations, they will be reviewed by a panel of library staff, UTC Students, UTC history faculty, and local professionals. Illustrations will be evaluated based on creativity, originality, and quality. Illustration contest finalists will be notified by email by 1 December, 2018. Finalists' illustrations will be combined with texts. Illustrated publications will be displayed at the UTC Library, and included in United States Race and Childhood Fiction collection.What am I agreeing to when I submit?
You agree to our Non-Exclusive Distribution License. Basically, you retain copyright and give us permission to disseminate your work as widely as possible.How do I submit?
- Make sure your work is in an acceptable format. We can accept papers in Microsoft Word (DOC) or (DOCX) or Rich Text Format (RTF). We prefer illustrations to be submitted in Portable Document Format (PDF).
- Create a new account by clicking on My Account and clicking on the Sign up button. If you already have an account, sign in and skip ahead to step 5.
- Complete the user account form. If you are a UTC student, please use your UTC email address. Be sure to choose a password you will remember. Click Sign up.
- After you've created your new account, you will see a page directing you to check your email. Check your email and click on the link in the email. This will take you back to UTC Scholar.
- Once you’ve successfully logged in to UTC Scholar, click Submit Research.
- Choose United States Race and Childhood Fiction.
- Check the box to agree to the Non-Exclusive Distribution License.
- Fill out the form and upload your file. Required fields are indicated by a red flag.
What is a Creative Commons License?
When you submit your manuscript, you will be asked to choose a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License. This gives UTC and others the appropriate permissions to create a bound volume featuring your work. Here is information that license:- Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
How do I make revisions to my submission?
If the work has been submitted, but not yet posted, you may revise it via your My Account page:- Locate the article on your My Account page, and click the title.
- Click Revise Submission from the list of options in the left sidebar.
- Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form, and click Submit at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. (You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.)