We are seeking beautifully-written, original short stories by writers with distinct voices, and a clear, sweeping vision. We want to read stories not simply for the pleasure they give us, but also for the way they dare to dream, to take risks, to question or to speak out for/against our ever shifting world–stories that possess both the courage and craft needed to execute on their ambitious intent: the melding of art with entertainment. Our favorite kinds of stories are those that are still emotionally haunting long after their plots have slipped from our memories, the fingerprints of their ghosts left behind on our day-to-day lives. To paraphrase Flannery O’Connor, the ending of a short story should be at once surprising and inevitable, gifting us with some kind of intangible – a deepening awareness of the fragile conditions of being human.

We are strong advocates for intoxicating language and pleasing sentences. That said, stories should also be clear and readable. Proper grammar and punctuation are vital to crafting a story which is fluid, artfully-written, and also easy to comprehend on a line-by-line level.

We welcome both traditional and experimental forms of literary fiction, as well as genre fiction provided we feel that the work shows some “literary” aesthetic. We highly encourage submitting intrepid stories that slip across borders, elusive to strict marketing conventions while staying in full control of their geography at all times. Genre-blending should have purpose and direction.

We’ll take any great story that can be classified under the umbrella of commercial or genre fiction (romance, mystery, crime, etc). What gets us excited is speculative fiction in all its guises (fantasy, science-fiction, magic realism, surrealism, slipstream, urban fantasy, horror, steampunk, silk punk, cyberpunk, etc). We are fans of humor, but our tendency is towards dry wit, satire, or absurdity treated with a flat acceptance, rather than anything slapstick or vulgar.