INTERNATIONAL ZINE SCENE
The Song Between Our Stars is to be a special one issue zine, an outlet for all those creative people frustrated by Covid-19. The editors want to showcase literary and artistic work created in 2020. They want storytelling about ‘listening, managing emotions and expectations’, written in 2020.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted but not reprints or multiple subs. The deadline is 31 January and the zine should be published before Summer 2021.
Response time is ‘reasonable’. Payment: if the anthology ‘turns a profit, we promise to share it. That’s our best hope.’
Website: https://thesongbetweenourstars.com
Forma is a weekly online zine with one or two print issues each year. The editorial team like to ‘contemplate ancient ideas for contemporary people’ through thoughtful, entertaining, argumentative work. They publish ‘original essays, reviews, interviews, and poetry… and miscellany, seeking out the sorts of things that book-lovers love.’
Submit a query or completed piece by email: FORMAmag@circeinstitute.com
Response time is ‘slow to reasonable’. Payment is ‘$15 per poem’ and ‘by arrangement’ for prose works.
Website: https://formajournal.substack.com
Anomaly is billed as an ‘intersectional journal of literature and the arts... a platform for works of art that challenge conventions of form and format, of voice and genre’. They will publish anyone, anywhere for ‘aesthetics are not neutral, and that difference tends to be marginalised’, and especially encourage innovation and experimentation. They welcome poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translations from 1 November to 1 March and 1 June to 1 September every year.
Submit 1-5 poems, that are unsettling, radical and confrontational. Translations are welcome.
Follow the detailed guidelines on the website: http://anmly.org
For response time, ‘We aim for a two-month response time, but we’re only human. Query after three.’
Ancient Paths is an oldfashioned US zine proud to be ‘a predominantly Christian publication’ publishing poetry, flash fiction, photography, and art work. The editorial team welcome work from anyone who likes to ‘explore spiritual themes such as redemption, sin, forgiveness, doubt, faith, gratitude for the ordinary blessings of life, spiritual struggle, and spiritual growth.’ Submissions are open from 1 November until 31 August every year.
Submit 1-5 poems, each of 12-60 lines, fiction, 100-1,500 words, preferably literary and contemporary, mainstream fiction, by
email: skylarburris@yahoo.com
Response time is ‘slow’. Payment $1.25 per work for electronic rights.
Website: www.skylarb.com/ancient-pathsliterary-magazine
Eater is a US publication ‘dedicated to reporting on, telling stories about, and critically examining the world of food and drink, with a particular focus on restaurants’. Pitches are welcome from ‘journalists, writers, academics, filmmakers, and other contributors of all backgrounds, especially those whose voices are often underrepresented in media’. You don’t need to be a foodie to write for them. The editorial team believe that ‘Food and restaurants are among the most dynamic and powerful lenses for storytelling,’ and so they ‘enjoy hearing from writers whose interests, experiences, and areas of expertise originate outside of the food world.’
They prefer reported stories rather than personal narratives and like ‘stories where food and restaurants intersect with, illuminate, or are illuminated by other subjects: business, technology, history, science, politics, society, activism, identity, the arts, pop culture, etc.’ Strictly no recipes, or stories about health, wellness, or diets.
Pitch first, with a clear, concise summary of the subject and story structure, your writing style and tone. For Reports, no more than 1,800 words, ‘inform readers about the things they obsess over: food, restaurants, and most crucially, why food and restaurants matter’. Features should be vivid style reported narratives, at least 2,500 words.
Most are 3,500-4,000. The stories should be extensively researched and note: ‘Our take on food culture is broad, curious, sceptical, and equally hospitable to the serious and the absurd.’
Travel pitches need to be about the food, not the place, and told in story form, but not ‘stories reported during one’s vacation’. Shopping pieces are ‘short spotlights on a single distinctive item... personal and obsessive’, 250-400 words, for the Buy This
Thing column
Submit pitches by email to the correct email address, listed in the guidelines, and expect to wait three to four weeks. Pay and rights are professional rates discussed on acceptance. Website: https://writ.rs/eaterguides
Boneyard Soup is a new and promising horror and dark fantasy digital quarterly. It plans to publish original short stories and artwork, ‘the best representative of the genre’s diversity... which celebrates the breadth and depth of horror’. They like work full of images of cemeteries, full moons, and ghoulies, to disturb readers’ peace of mind with ‘all manner of monsters, unnatural phenomena, and nasty eldritch horrors conjured up in the minds of new and emerging writers’.
Submit fiction, 2,000-6,000 words, in any of the horror subgenres like traditional gothic, pulpy horror with an 80s vibe, body horror, ghost stories, horror comedy, even dark fantasy.
Non-fiction, no more than 3,000 words, for the Cabinet of Curiosity, should ‘delve deeply into topics from the world of horror... urban legends, documented ghost stories, myths, odd, terrifying, or befuddling events from history. Anything creepy, weird, or horrifying is fair game’. Query first with details of the article and sources.
Submit a doc or rtf file by email: submissions@boneyardsoup.com
Response time is ‘as much as six weeks’. Payment is 5¢ per word for original fiction up to 6,000 words, for first world rights, 1¢ per word up to 6,000 words for nonexclusive reprint rights; for non-fiction 5¢ per word up to 3,000 words.
Website: www.boneyardsoup.com
Gulf Stream Literary Magazine is an online journal of ‘vibrant and eclectic literature and art’.
The editorial team seek subs of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and artwork. They enjoy a wide range of genres and styles, but tend towards work ‘innovative in form and progressive in content.’
Subs are open 1 June to 1 March each year for stimulating and original fiction and creative nonfiction, no more than 5,000 words, 1-5 form-stretching poems. Response time is ‘within one month of the reading period close date’. Website: https://gulfstreamlitmag.com