The last of the light of the sun
That had died in the west
Still lived for one song more
In a thrush's breast.
Far in the pillared dark
Thrush music went —
Almost like a call to come in
To the dark and lament.
But no, I was out for stars;
I would not come in.
I meant not even if asked;
And I hadn't been.
- Robert Frost
Here would be what I would call a normal set of submission guidelines. It will serve as a control.12 Gauge Submissions GuidelinesThere, now that wasn't so bad. Seems like a reasonable group, other than their magazine is named after a shot gun. Come on. Little bacon never hurt no one. 
Other magazine call for submissions!That wasn't so bad either. In fact, I'd be happy to be in these people's lovely journal, or even just sit down beside them under a shady tree somewhere, shady. |
During the last few years, while you've been finishing the The God Particle guidelines, I've had the good fortune to be able to travel abroad and see some of the world's exciting places. Petra. I've made new friends, lost friends, and then gained newer, even better ones, which more than makes up for the ones I had lost. I've read The Bible, The Koran, The Torah and a few other lesser known works by a distant relative of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Next, we have the inimitable Absinthe-Literary Review.
S U B M I S S I O N G U I D E L I N E SPreferences: transgressive works dealing with madness, sex, death, disease, and the like; the clash of archaic with modern day; archetype, symbolism, Surrealism, philosophy, physics, existential and postmodern flavoring; experimental or flagrantly textured language; alternative poetry; intense crafting of language from the writer’s writer. For more direction, see our Recommended Reading List.
Anathemas: mainstream storytelling; rhyming couplets; Oprah fiction; poetry or fiction without capital letters or punctuation (done to death and usually a sign of a lazy or arrogant beginner); hot trends; all genre fiction including horror, sci-fi, crime, western, vampire, romance, erotica, porn etc.; high school fiction or poetry; victim lit; ethnic lit where hip ethnicity supercedes universality; excess flipness or irony; first, second, and third drafts (“I just wrote this yesterday and thought I’d send it to you”); pieces that exceed our stated word count by thousands of words; writers whose work is above editing; writers who do not read readily available submission guidelines before submitting.
Please note: We do not recommend that beginning or hobbyist writers view this site as a good market for their work; however, semi-pros and talented up-and-comers are encouraged to submit. Absinthe writers have been published by the highest tier of the literary industry (The New Yorker, Glimmer Train, Zoetrope, Paris Review, Mississippi Review, Triquarterly, Iowa Review, Exquisite Corpse, Ploughshares, Web Del Sol) and have won major literary awards (Pushcarts, NEA grants, Aga Khan, etc.) so be aware that your work will be judged against some of the best, most innovative writers working today. We are neither resistant to new movements in literature (quite the opposite) nor are we elitist, but we do believe this nearly universal truth: if you haven’t run the industry maze at least once or twice, you probably have no idea what “publishable” means.General Submission Information: Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please inform us AT ONCE if the piece is accepted elsewhere! Previously published pieces (reprints) are acceptable if you inform us of the fact when you submit. You, the author, retain all rights except first electronic. Please send only polished final drafts; otherwise you are wasting your time and ours. All submitters should be aware that we do not post works, we publish them. Pieces should be submitted with the implicit and explicit understanding that minor editing may take place. Any writer rabidly averse to the editorial process would probably be better off submitting elsewhere. (That said, we almost always go with the writer’s view if he or she feels strongly about a particular editorial change.)
Fiction: Short stories and novel excerpts should be under 4,000 words, but we are somewhat flexible. Limit each prose submission to one piece per reading period. Subject line of email submission must read “Fiction Submission.” Please send a two to three line bio with your submission.
Essays: We publish essays on literary topics only: writers, literature, philosophy, literary history, the literary approach, etc. Essays should generally be under 5,000 words. Send essays with a subject line reading “Essay Submission.”Poetry: Please submit 3-7 poems, and send a two to three line bio with your submission. Subject line of email submission must read “Poetry Submission”
Art: We do not accept art submissions—no exceptions. All art for ALR is done by in-house staff. Do not send any photo/art with your submission under any circumstances.
Book Reviews: ALR accepts review copies throughout the year and publishes a few reviews in each issue. Publishers, publicists, editors, and authors should send Absinthe — appropriate books (see our material preferences for guidance) for review to our snail mail address. Please direct to Book Reviews Editor. Review copy deadline for each issue is two months prior to advertised publishing date (see below), but we make exceptions occasionally. For financial and eyestrain reasons, we do not accept or review books in electronic format—no exceptions.File Format: Subject line of e-mail submission must read “Fiction Submission”, “Essay Submission” or “Poetry Submission” as appropriate. Use of any other subject line may result in accidental deletion. We prefer Word or RTF attachments (PC platform) but will accept almost any compatible document form we can recognize /open, including text of e-mail messages, but excluding PDFs. Mac users would be generally well advised to submit in the body of an email. No ZIP, SIT, JPG, GIF, PDF, or EXE files please; they will be deleted unopened. See below for snail mail submission details.
Submission Deadlines/Reading Periods: We accept manuscripts year round, but read and select only during the month preceding each issue—January, April, July, and October. Deadlines are:
Submission
Deadline:We Notify By/
Published On:Winter January 1
February 1st
Spring
April 1
May 1st
Summer July 1
August 1st
Eros/Thanatos October 1
November 1st
We respond to every submission so keep us updated on your present e-mail address! A fair number of rejections and an occasional acceptance come back as undeliverable. Feel free to contact us with questions.
Eros/Thanatos subs will only be accepted in the appropriate period (July 1st-Oct. 1st). Any regular subs received during the E/T period will not be read until the following January. For Eros and Thanatos guidelines, CLICK HERE.
Payment: Starting with the Winter 2003 issue, ALR will be issuing payment for all accepted work. International writers should note exception below.* Payment schedule:
Fiction/Essay: $2-10 for each accepted story/essay
Poetry: $1-10 for accepted poetry
Absinthe Editors’ Prize: $25 for the best story or poetry published in Absinthe in each calendar year. The winner will be announced and featured in the winter issue starting in 2004. There is no need to submit for the Editors’ Prize; only stories/poems published in Absinthe are eligible for consideration.
Eros and Thanatos Prize: $25 for best story or poetry published in our annual Eros and Thanatos issue. Again, there is no need to submit for the E&T Prize; only stories/poems published in the E&T issue are eligible for consideration.
As we are a non-profit online magazine and dependent upon the persistent vagaries of existence, we reserve the right to alter these payment guidelines at any time with or without notice; however, we are committed to paying every Absinthe writer. Payment will be sent out 1-2 months after publication. For online submissions, please include a mailing address for payment.*
* Exception: International Writers: Writers from outside the USA who wish to receive payment must snail mail submissions and SASEs with appropriate return postage. International writers may send electronic submissions; however, such submissions will only be considered for publication, not payment, since the price of a registered letter will often supercede the amount of payment. We are sorry for this but simply don’t have the overhead at this time to support significant overseas mailing costs. This policy is likely to change in the not too distant future. (—Exception: International writers picked as the winner of the Eros and Thanatos Prize or the Absinthe Editors’ Prize will be paid, whether electronically or materially submitted.)
Where to Submit (Electronic): We prefer e-mail submissions. Submit by clicking on the appropriate link below and attaching your submission to the e-mail form. Please include “Fiction Submission”, “Essay Submission” or “Poetry Submission” in your subject line or your submission may be deleted. If you have problems with the addresses below, you may also submit to absinthe
execpc.com or submit via snail mail.
Submit fiction to
fictionSubmit essays to
essaysSubmit poetry to
poetryWhere to Submit (Snail Mail): You may also submit via snail mail, though we would prefer you include an email address and have an electronic version available for transmission if possible. Please do not send your only copy since all mail submissions will be recycled. Please include a self-addressed stamped envelope and/or e-mail address for reply. We will not be held responsible for submissions mailed without strict attention to these guidelines. We will also not be held responsible for submissions with inadequate postage. Mail hard-copy submissions to:
The Absinthe Literary Review
P.O. Box 328
Spring Green, WI 53588Please be aware: Though we will be putting out a print issue within the next two years, we are at this time exclusively an online market.
If Your Work Is Accepted: You will receive an e-mail informing you that your piece has been accepted. By submitting your work, you grant authority for ALR to publish your piece on the WWW for three to four months and then to archive it online.
If your work is accepted, you should just kill yourself right now, because nothing you will ever do in life could possibly be even half as good as one single page of the Absinthe-Literary Review, which is an online literary journal. And then kill me too, because I could not live another day knowing that you, and not I, were published in———————————in—————————Absinthe-Literary Review [falls down in heap].
The best mix of funny and down-to-earth guidelines has to go to Flak Magazine. And I'll stand by this statement until death or they reject my work.
Submissions should be in plain text format, if possible. Microsoft Word is just a pain in our ass. We're eventually boiling stuff down to HTML, and we move content around in emails, so text is best. If you're HTML-savvy and can embed links with the A HREF= tag, more power to you. That's helpful.
Broken Boulder is open to new writers, except you.Broken Boulder is open to new writers, but most of neotrope's contributors are fairly experienced writers. We're interested in publishing work that goes beyond anything that's been done before, and this kind of work usually comes from people who know a lot about what has been done before. We often get submissions from writers who think they're doing experimental work, but really haven't read enough fiction to know what experimental work is. To be as honest as possible: if you're a brand new writer, your chances of getting into neotrope are quite slim. But if you've seen our samples and you think your work is right for us, please send it out, because if we like it we're going to take it no matter whose name is on it.
Here are my official submission guidelines:
Official Submissions Guidelines Submit something. It doesn't matter if it's good or not, I'll still probably do something with it. You won't get any money. But a lot of people will see it. But they may be dumb and fourteen. But hey, they may grow up and go to college. And one of them may even amount to something. And he'll have read your work. So come on.
Please make submissions via this page.
- =.
Literature Real Writers Experience Rejection Now (Why Wait) Home