A hearty hello and welcome to Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to education through the publication of exceptional American Studies scholarship, 1900 to present, and creative writing. We are especially interested in publishing material that examines such issues as social action, social justice, human rights, environmental awareness, the human condition, diversity, love, compassion, ethical and moral obligations. In other words, we are passionate about projects that empower and uplift humanity.

The study of American history is not only a worthy endeavor it is a critical one. Only after knowing and understanding our past can we ensure positive change for the future. We, at Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture, believe that there exists no better record of the history of America and Americans than in our culture. There we will find the hopes, needs, dreams, and desires of the people. Through the careful analysis of our twentieth and twenty-first century American culture, we can more clearly understand where we have been and who we have been and thus consciously consider where we want to go, who we want to be, how we want to live, and what public policies we want to endorse as twenty-first century Americans. This process will also help us formulate our identities and find our political, sociological, and spiritual direction.

We also believe that creative writers contribute to cultural creation and the recording of crucial ideas. Thus we heartily support their work. Creative writers are as important as our historians in terms of understanding and recording important cultural moments. American citizenship is not a requirement for submitting to our journals, press, or contests; the only requirement is that the work hold some appeal for an American readership and bear some relationship with American culture.

To those ends, we publish three periodicals: Magazine Americana, Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, 1900 to Present, and Review Americana: A Creative Writing Journal. All of the work submitted to these periodicals goes through the rigorous process of peer and editorial review. We are a green, eco-friendly organization and, as such, do not print hard copies of our periodicals. By nature, these publications are ephemeral, fleeting. We believe hard copies of periodicals waste precious world resources and, thus, prefer to keep our periodicals online. We save our publication of hard copies for more permanent and lasting works like those published in our book division: we publish paperback creative writing and American Studies books through Press Americana. These books are also available as Kindle editions and as eBooks as well.

We hope you'll visit Press Americana. We publish American Studies and creative writing. Our featured title is A Child Turns Back to Wave: Poetry of Lost Places by Peter Neil Carroll from our poetry imprint The Poetry Press. To learn how to submit to our press, click here.

Review Americana: A Creative Writing Journal features the best in creative writing. We are dedicated to supporting exceptional writers, those who will be creating our future American culture and recording our ideologies, dreams, and difficulties. In the review, we publish poetry, short fiction, short drama for stage and screen, creative nonfiction, essays about the art of creative writing, and essays about the teaching of creative writing. In the Fall 2012 edition, you can read creative writing from Darren Demaree, Kathleen Kirk, Joanne Lowery, Agustin D. Martinez, Erin Murphy, Michael D. Sollars, and Paul Kareem Tayyar. The deadline for the Spring 2013 edition is 5 June 2013. You can find the submission guidelines here. American citizenship is not a requirement for submitting to this journal; the only requirement is that the work hold some appeal for an American readership and bear some relationship with American culture. You might also consider submitting to Prize Americana. Winners are published by our imprints: The Poetry Press of Press Americana and Hollywood Books International.

Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, 1900 to Present features scholarly research papers in American Studies written for an academic audience. All submissions are peer reviewed, and we publish roughly 10% of submissions. In our Fall 2012 edition, you'll find articles on Esperanza Spalding, Shakespearean improv, and the zombie in Stephen King's Cell as well as George Romero's Diary of the Dead. You'll also find an interview with the Director of American Studies at Stanford: Shelley Fisher Fishkin. We invite you to submit for the Spring 2013 edition. The deadline is 5 June 2013. You can find the submission guidelines here.

Magazine Americana features shorter blog or op-ed style articles as well as longer features written for a general audience. Our writers are not satisfied by observing a cultural phenomenon; rather, they seek to analyze that phenomenon, to answer the eternal question, "Why is it so?" Our hope is that answering this question will lead us to a better understanding of our culture and thus lead us to a better understanding of ourselves. This process is very important as we begin to formulate our political opinions, indeed our very identity, in the twenty-first century. We invite you to submit articles for MA. We publish on a revolving basis, so there is no deadline. Send your work whenever you're ready.

We also have our TV channel on YouTube where we post short films to accompany articles in Magazine Americana. We hope you'll visit us here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanaTVChannel

We are heartened that you have decided to wander through our site, and we welcome your comments and suggestions. We look forward to your contributions to this important American Studies and creative writing community.

Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief

Leslie Kreiner Wilson, Ph.D.

Board of Directors

Leslie Kreiner Wilson, Ph.D., Chairman
Melissa Croteau, Ph.D.
Randy Fallows, Ph.D.
Alexandra Weinberg Chusid

Technical Director

Don Wilson

Think Tank - Editorial Board - Advisory Boards

Roger Aden Jose Alamillo Roger Aronoff Joe Austin Christopher Bigsby Michelle Brattain Adam Braver Kevin John Brophy Joan Connor Melissa Croteau Tom De Haven David Haynes Kathleen Dixon Erica Doss Randy Fallows Cynthia Franklin Francis Frascina Lisa Gabbert Reebee Garofalo Philip Graham Anita Helle Marilyn Kallet Dawn Keetley Kit Kelen

Peter Kramer Bobby Kreiner John Lent Chuck Maland Wendy Martin Ron McFarland Jeff Meikle William Howard Moore Adam Piette Julian Pleasants T.V. Reed Don Rett Richard Schur David Simmons David Stuart Joseph Tate Zoe Trodd Janet Walker Amy Sage Webb Alex Weinberg Jeff Williams Don Wilson Leslie Wilson Richard Yarborough