Make us think.

Make us question.

Make us stark raving mad.

We want to laugh and weep.

We want to be angry.

We want to be confused; scared.

Make us uncomfortable.

Write something we’re turning over in our minds for days; weeks.

Write something that makes us reconsider everything we believe.

We want sleepless nights and distracted days.

We want to be checking for monsters under the bed.

And in parliament.

Introduce us to your muse.

The theme may be subtle but it must be there. We are clever, please don’t bore us with explanations.  Only one theme should be addressed in each piece. But if you touch on the other side of the coin, that’s fine. Just be sure it’s clear which side you’re on.

We prefer original, unpublished work. But if it’s great and you preformed it at your local Poetry Slam or it was published in your campus paper, then send it in. Just let us know.  We favour new writers! We are open to everyone, regardless of writing history but we are most interested in helping struggling writers. We can’t offer payment – yet. But hopefully we soon will. And of course you’re welcome to publish your work elsewhere after it’s had its run with us.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let us know in your cover letter that it’s being considered somewhere else. And if it’s accepted there while we’re looking at it, let us know. We will get back to you in about four to six weeks. If two months go by and you don’t hear from us, send us an email – sometimes things get lost.

When you send, please put the theme and style in the subject heading along with the title and your by-line. We are unlikely to publish work that doesn’t cover one of our upcoming themes. If you are sending a piece with a theme suggestion please make that clear in your subject heading and int he body of the email.

For example: Beginnings – Flash Fiction – The Great Story – Your Name

or: Theme Idea - Flash Prose - Original Thought - Your Name

Send all submissions to: [email protected]

All written submissions should be in the body of the email. Emails with attachments, other than art, will be deleted, unread.

Include a cover letter in the body of the email as well.
Your cover letter should include:
Your name and Pen name
Your address, telephone and email address
Title of the piece, word count, style
A very short Bio of yourself – think Twitter. This can be previously published work, the Poetry Slam you attended, the famous authors you’ve rub shoulders with, the novel under consideration, why your mother named you after a Shakespeare character. We REALLY do want to know, just keep it short.

Multiple submissions are ok, but one piece per theme per style please. And send each submission in a separate email with separate cover letters. We will look at each piece on its own merit; however if your two flash fiction stories are volume one and volume two of the same story, by all means tell us that - in BOTH cover letters. Extra work makes us cranky.

We’re against most forms of censorship, so you’d have to be pretty shocking not to make it past our criteria. We’re not interested in erotica and we hate violence or crude language for the sake of it. We won’t publish any hate-literature that embraces prejudice or intolerance towards any group. We’ll know it’s inappropriate if we cover our eyes as we read.

POETRY

50 lines
We aren’t crazy about rhymes and lyrics, and a poem about your boyfriend will be a hard sell. We don’t want to define poetry. We like Mary E. Choo, Robert Frost, Brendan McLeod, and Shel Silverstien, but we don’t like copy cats.

FLASH PROSE

1000 words
This is not a story, but a thought. We want ramblings of wisdom and expressions of emotions. Poetry without the poetry. Send us your rants, your journals, your experiences and your opinions. It can be flowery if it must be, but we’re more interested in thorns.

FLASH FICTION

1000 words
Strong narratives. Strong characters. Interesting plots. Short doesn’t mean incomplete.  And Mark Twain was right about adverbs.  All genres are welcome. We like mystery, we love humour, we like fantasy and sci-fi. Whether you write YALit or speculative fiction; are a master of deception, or crime.  If you like a genre, then we’re interested in it.

ART

Your art should convey meaning, tell a story or be a picture in a poem. We like photography and original art in any medium.  Just one piece at a time for artists and it should convey both themes. This is the only time we’ll accept attachments, and we only accept JPGS. Your subject line and file name should be the same as writing submissions.
For example: Beginnings-Endings – Art – The Great Image – Your Name
No erotica. (Can’t stress this enough.) We welcome both colour and black and white, but it has to be catching. This is the cover.

If you are still unsure, feel free to query [email protected].