Deadline: March 20th, 2024
Payment: Does not say in this call, previous payments were: £100 per article, interview or short story and £50 for poetry and rituals
Theme: Sound and Vision
Note: Not open to fiction submissions from North America at this time

We are open to print magazine submissions.

Our next theme is Sound and Vision.

Artists have long spoken of the mysterious nature of creation – where do their great works come from? Tell us about found stories, the automatic process, of pictures and songs invoked in séances, of musicians and poets who found magic by unorthodox means, and occult-derived art. Some songs and paintings are like spells, speaking to our unconscious and activating something within us, from war cries to the songs with revolutionary spirit to the secret chords that please gods and the folk songs that invoke lives lead outside the mainstream. Tell us about subliminal messages in advertising and how the aesthetic and auricular world influence us. A pioneering artwork might predict the future, or change the course of history. It might show us a piece of the world and mind we never knew before. Sight is a privileged sense – what is it to see clearly, or to not see at all? Visual aids such as spectacles changed our ways of seeing – so too did the emergence of various -mancies and scrying mirrors that offered an alternative perspective; there is seeing with our eyes and then there is seeing with our other senses. For this issue, we draw inspiration from Hilma af Klint, David Bowie, William Burroughs, Ithell Colquhoun, Leonora Carrington, WB Yeats, William Blake and a whole host of other artists, musicians and writers who had visions. We are looking for interviews with musicians and artists, personal essays, articles, rituals, poetry and short fiction that speak to sound and/or vision. Submit fiction or poetry and pitch non-fiction by 20th March 2024.

We are committed to paying writers, and offer a fee for contributions to the print magazine. Unfortunately, we have not found a way to pay digital contributors, though we are open to ideas for personal essays, articles, recipes and craft how-tos, if this is not a dealbreaker. Please keep pitches brief. We like to see the essence of the idea in a short elevator pitch, with an additional sentence or two to flesh it out/give details of any leads.

Please note: Successful pitches have a clear sense of narrative, a good balance between specificity and universality, and do not simply repeat the theme. We want to learn something new, hear new ideas, or approach a topic from new angles and perspectives. Please send us your pitch in the body of the email, and submissions as attachments. Due to limited capacity, we are not open to fiction submissions from North America at this time.

Spiritus Mundi: we accept essays, short fiction and poetry via our online platform Spiritus Mundi. Read more about it here. The current theme is Speaking with Plants. Please read the guidelines carefully. This is a generative prompt, not a thematic one. Plants will probably not appear in your piece. Send short fiction as an attachment, with a short cover letter in the body of the email.

General guidelines

• Please include in the body of your email a short bio of less than 50 words, noting any bylines, with links to 1–3 previous publications, if applicable.

• Unfortunately we do not accept reprints.

• Submit fiction or poetry but pitch non-fiction ideas.

• We do accept simultaneous submissions. Do let us know if they get accepted elsewhere.

• Please format the subject line of your email like this: Pitch/Submission: (proposed title or headline).

• For a better idea of what we like, buy one of our issues.

• Send your ideas to [email protected]

Thank you for trusting us with your work. We are very grateful to have the opportunity to read and consider it. Due to the volume of submissions, we are unfortunately unable to respond to unsuccessful pitches or submissions. Work for the Vampire issue has already been selected, but we will be open for submissions for the next print magazine later in the year.

Via: Cunning Folk.