We publish fiction, poetry, critical essays, reviews, interviews, novel excerpts, and the unclassifiable.
If you have artwork that fits our aesthetic, we would be happy to consider pairing it with the work of our authors. Please send up to 5 images. Keep in mind that horizontal images work best with our website layout.
First and foremost, fiction/poetry should be true to the author’s intentions and censor nothing in response to the vague concept of an audience. From there, ensorcell us with your language, with your brain-bubbling phrases, and make us question whether we are awake or dreaming. Stimulate both our intellect and our emotions. Sparse language can be just as evocative as bedizened language, it all depends on that arcane combination of words, but we prefer the latter. For something approaching a manifesto, read “In Defense of Purple Prose” by Paul West. Nota bene: if your story begins with a description of the weather and/or sky, please do not submit it.
We gravitate mostly toward magical realism and the surreal/slipstream. This is not the place for slice-of-life fiction unless your language is experimental. See the About page for more on our aesthetic.
A review/critical essay should have an intellectual foundation that judges the work based on what it is trying to accomplish while comparing and contrasting it with the canon of humanity’s literature or culture or politics, etc. We are most interested in reviews of buried/forgotten books or books published by independent presses.
Interviews should consist of thought-provoking questions and answers from authors who fit with our overall aesthetic.
Within reason, novel excerpts should be able to work as standalone pieces. Only send excerpts from novels that have been recently published or are scheduled to be published.
We do not believe in limiting words. The rule of thumb, though, is that a piece should be as long as it needs to be (a subjective rule, admittedly), with also keeping in mind that this is an online publication. If forced to name a limit, we would put the cap at 15,000 words, but if we receive something longer than that and truly love it, we will consider publishing it in installments.
We accept reprints, as long as you retain the rights to the work.
We consider simultaneous submissions, but if your piece is accepted elsewhere please let us know.
The author retains all rights to their work. If republished, we ask that you credit The Collidescope as the original publisher.
We will never charge fees to submit, but we are unable to pay.
Guidelines
- All submissions, except poetry, should follow the proper manuscript format or close enough.
- Poetry (2-5 poems) should be sent to CollidescopePoetry@gmail.com. Please don’t submit fewer than two poems.
- All other submissions should be sent to CollidescopeSubmissions@gmail.com.
- The subject of your email should indicate the genre and title of your work.
- Limit one piece per genre and only submit again once you have heard back from us.
- Please attach all submissions in a Word document.
- Include a brief 3rd-person bio in the body of your email.
- If you would like to include an author photo, attach it to the email as a hi-res jpeg.
We will respond to your submission within 3 months. Any inquiries about the status of a submission before 3 months will be ignored.
The Collidescope 