top of page

gINKgo Zine

Empowering LGBTQ+ community members and allies through visual art and writing. 

Resistance,

Resilience,

Utopia

(Optional) Theme for 2026 Edition:

*Resistance, Resilience, Utopia

Important Dates

Deadline to Submit for 2026 edition: 

February 14th, 2026

2026 Cover Art Competition submission deadline:

February 1st, 2026

Submission Rules and Guidelines are in the Form and at Bottom of the Page

Purpose 

Printed each summer with soft rolling deadlines for submissions year round

 

Westerville Queer Collective's gINKgo is a community zine that features LGBTQ+ community members and allies. Centered around their written and visual creations that uplift and empower the realities of LGBTQ+ people and their stories.

​

Its first publication launched in 2025 with each following volume being released annually each summer.

​

gINKgo's purpose is to empower and lift voices who speak for and about LGBTQ+ people, communities and culture in an intentional way; including all people under the LGBTQ+ umbrella and their supporters. 

Art Piece -WES.png

Who Can Submit?

  • No age requirement or limit

  • Anyone can submit up to 2 creations (Text Creation, Visual Art Creation, and/or Mixed Media Creation)

    • Visual Art submissions will have the OPTION to be considered for the Cover Art Competition

      • The Cover Art Competition is a chance for Visual Art submissions to be considered for being featured as the cover on the gINKgo zine; this does not remove the submission from consideration for inclusion in the zine itself 

      • By indicating you would like to include a submission for consideration for the Cover Art Competition, that is giving WQC permission to use that specific submission as the cover art for the year it was submitted

      • There is no additional ‘prize’ other than the artwork being featured as the cover for the zine 

      • Westerville Queer Collective Board Members CANNOT submit for Cover Art Competition 

  • Publication in gINKgo is under a first come, first serve basis for inclusion into the zine

  • Cost for submission is… FREE! 

Guidelines

  • Submission must be original, non-AI generated, and have been created by the person submitting them for publication

    • Submitting plagiarized work will result in the submission being removed from consideration for gINKgo

  • All creators must own the rights to their submissions 

  • Submitted creations should not have been previously published 

    • This does NOT include publication via social media posts as long as the creator has the rights to the submitted creations

  • Limitation: All submissions will be reviewed by WQC for inclusion into gINKgo. If there is hateful speech or sensitive topics include content warning BEFORE the piece 

    • Don't feel the need to censor your words; however, any submission containing language that belittles or degrades members of a marginalized community will be subject to disqualification upon review

    • Some themes included in the umbrella of this limitations are: themes of domestic violence, sexual violence, and self-harm, any and all graphic depictions of violence, as well as slurs (This list is non-exhaustive) 

      • If the piece is deemed unfit for gINKgo, the creator will be contacted and their submission will be withdrawn 

Formating

  • On 8.5x11 Inch with 1-Inch margins PDF documents for all visual submissions and Word documents for all text submissions

  • Note: All creations will not be editable following submission, please double-check your work for any necessary edits before submitting

  • All submission files should be named in the following format “Author/Artist Name_Title”

  • Easy-to-Read black text on white background for Text Submissions, smallest font at 12 pt, double spaced; Recommended font: Helvetica

  • White border around Visual Art and Mixed Media submissions 

  • Maximum of two pages (one-sided pages) per submission

  • Pieces must include the following information:

    • Title of the creation or “Untitled”

    • Creator’s name, pen name, pseudonym, or “Anonymous” 

      • This information should be listed at the top of Text Creations and at the bottom of Visual Art and Mixed Media Creations​​

​

*We might edit text submissions to better fit the style guide or for readability/accessibility. Format will attempt to be kept the same for poetry and in cases where spacing is intentional

​

**There will be no monetary transaction for the publication of submitted pieces 

bottom of page