Harpur Palate is a student-run literary journal, a fact that shapes both its editorial culture and its relationship to contributors. The journal's reading periods are structured in two annual windows—Spring/Summer from January 1 to March 15, and Fall/Winter from July 1 to October 15—with the Fall/Winter window also open to cover art submissions. For the Fall/Winter cycle, fiction and non-fiction submissions are capped at 200, while poetry caps at 750. The journal states that its goal is to offer each submission the attention it deserves, and asks contributors to allow at least four months for a response. The absence of a submission fee is notable in a literary landscape where reading fees have become commonplace. For fiction writers, this means the cost of entry is the work itself and the patience required by the journal's review timeline. The 200-submission cap on fiction is a structural constraint worth understanding: it is not a measure of prestige scarcity but a practical limit tied to the capacity of a student editorial staff. Submissions that arrive early in the window are read within a defined cohort; the cap closes the door once reached, regardless of the calendar date. Because Harpur Palate is student-run, its editorial vision is shaped by emerging editors who are themselves immersed in contemporary literary study. The journal does not publish a stated aesthetic doctrine in the provided materials, and contributors should not infer one. What is verifiable is the journal's commitment to careful reading and its two-window submission structure. Fiction submissions for the Fall/Winter period should be directed through the journal's submission system, with attention to the cap and the stated response timeline.