art by Mattthew Skenandore
(Please note this is an old issue. Submissions are no longer taken for Exclusive.)
Submit through Submishmash using the link below:
If your work exemplifies or comments on Innovative Literature
Consider submitting to Issue 3: Paradise
From the editor:
Do you want to showcase what you're doing as an example of Experimental Writing? And, if you don't like that name, Non-Traditional, or Progressive Literature applies just as well. Innovative, or Avant-Garde. All one thing, as far as I'm concerned.
First, take a look at Issue 1: Untamable Worlds
and Issue 2: Elemental Mirror
General Guidelines
Submit through Submishmash using the link above. Your submission must be in one attached document.
As with any magazine, only some of the submissions are accepted. Some of them are solicited. Publication upon acceptance is also very fast.
If you have a totally different proposal from anything you see here, from music, to art, video, or any combination, chapbook, column, co-editing, collaborating, or whatever, I'm glad to consider it.
You are free to republish later in print anthologies or your own print chapbook or print book, with credit to Exclusive, after 6 months, but I don't accept anything that has been published anywhere at all, including your writing site, and whatever is published here should not be published again anywhere online. That's what makes it Exclusive. You'll find very few magazines that take previously published material anyway, so that's not asking a lot, really. I prefer that instead of copying it once it's published to someplace else to show it off, you put up a link there, instead.
If you have questions, you may write to me, the editor, Tantra Bensko, at flameflower@runbox.com with the subject line About EX submission. Include your submission in an attached document. Poetry should be centered on the page. Photos, illustrations, diagrams that accompany your pieces in addition to pictures of yourself are welcome. Text that is written within visuals, whether fully legible or not, is fine. For fiction, include word count.
If your work is accepted, I will need a 72 dpi photo of you, a photo of a book or books you've published if you like in addition, and your bio also in an attached document, with a link to your website if you have one; you may include those in the original submission or wait until acceptance. Larger photos are best, as I like to show people how you look without enlarging and degrading the quality of the photos too much. Please make sure it will look good in a large size, without being pixilated. I like creative photos, but don't care so much for ones made by adjusting a filter to make the colors overly saturated like a poster.
Please put spaces between all your paragraphs, no indentations. (Poetry, of course, is a different matter, but my preference is not to have long blocks of text.) Short paragraphs work best for reading online. Single space, and ideally, use Arial font.
For the Literary World Section:
Submissions are open for previously publication on this magazine for articles or casual posts about Experimental Writing:
If you are an editor, or publisher, or have an blog on the topic, feel free to send me anything about what you do, updates, theory, criticism, invitations and discussion topics, teasers, personal commentary.
If you have something coming out or already out, whether in a magazine or in book form, and would like to do an auto-review on it, as if you were someone else reviewing it, that would be great. Just send a link to the published work or where we can buy the book. Reviews of other authors' experimental work no matter how new or ancient, are welcome. I don't care how you obtained the book. Interviews are also welcome, and I don't care how much it's a dialog rather than a traditional review structure.
If you are a reader and would like to submit reviews of pieces in magazines, or magazines themselves, or of books, send them along, through the link above, using Submishmash. If your work is accepted, I'll ask for your photo, one of you, and if you wish, one of your book or books, and and also a bio (as an attachment.)
I'm open to anything here. A "blog" for a virtual book tour, rants, contemplations on the scene, certain trends, magazines and publishers or schools of thought, literary theory or criticism, interviews, dialogues, creatively, casually, or formally written essays on any topic at all that's relevant.
For poetry and fiction:
If you are a writer of Experimental Fiction or Poetry, and would like to submit unpublished work to be published along with an analysis of its innovations, please do. Just make sure you will be able to write the commentary if you send the creative work, and prefer to wait until acceptance to write the commentary. Creative pieces will not be published without commentary. This magazine is different that way. You are free to send multiple pieces to me of any length. There isn't much reason for you to send simultaneously to other magazines, I'd think, as I respond probably more quickly than most editors you've come across.
Submissions are always open for previously unpublished of poetry and fiction and they go up as they are accepted. If it's unclear which type we should consider yours, let me know. If your piece is under 1000 words, it will go in the short fiction section, so let me know the word count.
This magazine nominates for Pushcart Prize and Best of the Web.
I'm a proponent of the genre I label Lucid Fiction, and I have found some writers very excited to produce that style. There are articles linked here about it in the section About Experimental Writing. If you feel yours fits that, please feel free to label it so in your commentary.
I love meta-narratives, mystical prose, anti-stories, absurdism, references to things the mass media hides, sophisticated concepts, quantum fiction, word-driven prose, complex spiritual ideas, uniquely surprising voices that are passionately beautiful. I publish experiments that are unlike anything I've seen before, really pushing beyond the boundaries, "gimmicks" being fine with me. If what you send is not obviously innovative but you really feel it belongs here, even if you don't send the formal commentary with it to begin with, at least let me know why, briefly, you feel it belongs here.
This website is a resource for many people to understand and delve deeply into Experimental Writing, and your work can be used as an example of what it is, what's hot in the avant-garde literary world, and who you are. Include links to your sites or publications if you like.
For concrete poetry and anything similar, consider sending a jpg of it as well as a doc. It can take a long time to recreate the piece manually, and if a jpg works, that would be awfully nice.
About me, the editor:
I put up notations of some of my publications on the blog on the Experimental Writing site, as well. And you may want to order a copy of Watching the Windows Sleep from Naissance Press or the tiny Swinging on the Edge of Day, or the chapbook from ISMs Press The Cabinet of What You Don't See, or my full length book from Night Publishing, Lucid Membrane.
I teach Experimental Fiction Writing online, in groups and one one one, with a fiction writing class coming up next through UCLA Extension Writing Program. I run the FlameFlower Experimental Fiction Contest, and the resource website, Experimental Writing. I have over 170 creative writing publications in magazines, and have won various prizes such as the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies' prize, Medulla Review's Oblongata Award, The Academy of American Poets Award for a poem at Carolina Quarterly, a prize at PunkPen, two awards from Cezanne's Carrot, honorable mention by Glimmertrain, placements in the Best of Bewildering Stories, and nomination for the Pushcart Prize by Rose and Thorn Magazine. Ten Pages Press published my poetry echapbook, Liminal. I have a Masters in English from FSU, and an MFA in writing from Iowa.
I make my living by teaching writing as well as editing it, tutoring it, and coaching it.
I recently guest edited the Lucid Fiction issue of Medulla Review.
I live in Berkeley, California.
From the editor:
Do you want to showcase what you're doing as an example of Experimental Writing? And, if you don't like that name, Non-Traditional, or Progressive Literature applies just as well. Innovative, or Avant-Garde. All one thing, as far as I'm concerned.
First, take a look at Issue 1: Untamable Worlds
and Issue 2: Elemental Mirror
General Guidelines
Submit through Submishmash using the link above. Your submission must be in one attached document.
As with any magazine, only some of the submissions are accepted. Some of them are solicited. Publication upon acceptance is also very fast.
If you have a totally different proposal from anything you see here, from music, to art, video, or any combination, chapbook, column, co-editing, collaborating, or whatever, I'm glad to consider it.
You are free to republish later in print anthologies or your own print chapbook or print book, with credit to Exclusive, after 6 months, but I don't accept anything that has been published anywhere at all, including your writing site, and whatever is published here should not be published again anywhere online. That's what makes it Exclusive. You'll find very few magazines that take previously published material anyway, so that's not asking a lot, really. I prefer that instead of copying it once it's published to someplace else to show it off, you put up a link there, instead.
If you have questions, you may write to me, the editor, Tantra Bensko, at flameflower@runbox.com with the subject line About EX submission. Include your submission in an attached document. Poetry should be centered on the page. Photos, illustrations, diagrams that accompany your pieces in addition to pictures of yourself are welcome. Text that is written within visuals, whether fully legible or not, is fine. For fiction, include word count.
If your work is accepted, I will need a 72 dpi photo of you, a photo of a book or books you've published if you like in addition, and your bio also in an attached document, with a link to your website if you have one; you may include those in the original submission or wait until acceptance. Larger photos are best, as I like to show people how you look without enlarging and degrading the quality of the photos too much. Please make sure it will look good in a large size, without being pixilated. I like creative photos, but don't care so much for ones made by adjusting a filter to make the colors overly saturated like a poster.
Please put spaces between all your paragraphs, no indentations. (Poetry, of course, is a different matter, but my preference is not to have long blocks of text.) Short paragraphs work best for reading online. Single space, and ideally, use Arial font.
For the Literary World Section:
Submissions are open for previously publication on this magazine for articles or casual posts about Experimental Writing:
If you are an editor, or publisher, or have an blog on the topic, feel free to send me anything about what you do, updates, theory, criticism, invitations and discussion topics, teasers, personal commentary.
If you have something coming out or already out, whether in a magazine or in book form, and would like to do an auto-review on it, as if you were someone else reviewing it, that would be great. Just send a link to the published work or where we can buy the book. Reviews of other authors' experimental work no matter how new or ancient, are welcome. I don't care how you obtained the book. Interviews are also welcome, and I don't care how much it's a dialog rather than a traditional review structure.
If you are a reader and would like to submit reviews of pieces in magazines, or magazines themselves, or of books, send them along, through the link above, using Submishmash. If your work is accepted, I'll ask for your photo, one of you, and if you wish, one of your book or books, and and also a bio (as an attachment.)
I'm open to anything here. A "blog" for a virtual book tour, rants, contemplations on the scene, certain trends, magazines and publishers or schools of thought, literary theory or criticism, interviews, dialogues, creatively, casually, or formally written essays on any topic at all that's relevant.
For poetry and fiction:
If you are a writer of Experimental Fiction or Poetry, and would like to submit unpublished work to be published along with an analysis of its innovations, please do. Just make sure you will be able to write the commentary if you send the creative work, and prefer to wait until acceptance to write the commentary. Creative pieces will not be published without commentary. This magazine is different that way. You are free to send multiple pieces to me of any length. There isn't much reason for you to send simultaneously to other magazines, I'd think, as I respond probably more quickly than most editors you've come across.
Submissions are always open for previously unpublished of poetry and fiction and they go up as they are accepted. If it's unclear which type we should consider yours, let me know. If your piece is under 1000 words, it will go in the short fiction section, so let me know the word count.
This magazine nominates for Pushcart Prize and Best of the Web.
I'm a proponent of the genre I label Lucid Fiction, and I have found some writers very excited to produce that style. There are articles linked here about it in the section About Experimental Writing. If you feel yours fits that, please feel free to label it so in your commentary.
I love meta-narratives, mystical prose, anti-stories, absurdism, references to things the mass media hides, sophisticated concepts, quantum fiction, word-driven prose, complex spiritual ideas, uniquely surprising voices that are passionately beautiful. I publish experiments that are unlike anything I've seen before, really pushing beyond the boundaries, "gimmicks" being fine with me. If what you send is not obviously innovative but you really feel it belongs here, even if you don't send the formal commentary with it to begin with, at least let me know why, briefly, you feel it belongs here.
This website is a resource for many people to understand and delve deeply into Experimental Writing, and your work can be used as an example of what it is, what's hot in the avant-garde literary world, and who you are. Include links to your sites or publications if you like.
For concrete poetry and anything similar, consider sending a jpg of it as well as a doc. It can take a long time to recreate the piece manually, and if a jpg works, that would be awfully nice.
About me, the editor:
I put up notations of some of my publications on the blog on the Experimental Writing site, as well. And you may want to order a copy of Watching the Windows Sleep from Naissance Press or the tiny Swinging on the Edge of Day, or the chapbook from ISMs Press The Cabinet of What You Don't See, or my full length book from Night Publishing, Lucid Membrane.
I teach Experimental Fiction Writing online, in groups and one one one, with a fiction writing class coming up next through UCLA Extension Writing Program. I run the FlameFlower Experimental Fiction Contest, and the resource website, Experimental Writing. I have over 170 creative writing publications in magazines, and have won various prizes such as the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies' prize, Medulla Review's Oblongata Award, The Academy of American Poets Award for a poem at Carolina Quarterly, a prize at PunkPen, two awards from Cezanne's Carrot, honorable mention by Glimmertrain, placements in the Best of Bewildering Stories, and nomination for the Pushcart Prize by Rose and Thorn Magazine. Ten Pages Press published my poetry echapbook, Liminal. I have a Masters in English from FSU, and an MFA in writing from Iowa.
I make my living by teaching writing as well as editing it, tutoring it, and coaching it.
I recently guest edited the Lucid Fiction issue of Medulla Review.
I live in Berkeley, California.
