Friday
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts is looking for, as you
might guess, "compressed creative arts." We accept fiction, creative
nonfiction, poetry, mixed media, visual arts, and even kitchen sinks, if
they are compressed in some way. Work is published weekly, without labels, and the labels here only exist to help us determine its best readers.
Our response time is generally 1-3 days. Also, our acceptance rate is currently about 1% of submissions. We pay writers $50 per accepted piece and signed contract.
We are currently reading for compressed poetry, compressed prose
fiction (including prose poetry), and compressed creative nonfiction,
and the reading period ends when we fill all the slots (12 as of October
14) for the year, on or before December 15, 2011. Also, please limit
your submission to a SINGLE POEM/PROSE PIECE per reading period in each
genre.
The readers for your submission include MFA in Creative
Writing graduates & degree candidates at Rosemont College. For
submissions that move on as a result of the voting and comments of
"first readers," a second round of consideration and conversation
ensues. The absolute final decision is made by the managing editor.
For fiction & creative nonfiction prose (and we think of the prose poem as such), we have a word-count limit: 600. Please be sure to submit in the correct category; we've been receiving several fiction submissions in the creative nonfiction category.
Word count alone doesn't create compression, so we ask that you also
consider why this piece works for a journal obsessed with what's
compressed. With the writer's permission, we publish the "best of compression statements" from the cover letters on our blog, along with the writer's name, picture, and link (of the writer's choosing).
For poetic forms, we will rely on you to determine what
compression might be. However, for those who want some guidelines, here
is what we've come up with:
- Poems should not exceed 20 lines or 75 words.
- If poems are broken into traditional lines, skinny poems are
preferred. Skinny refers to the way it looks on the page, as well as a
weightlessness. - The poem should have a swift, sudden feel; therefore, lean
language is imperative. Keywords are brevity, intensity, and precision. A
good condensed poem should be memorable for its reading duration and
its longer impression.
For the visual arts and those "hybrid" works that mix words and visuals, submit a .jpg of the work as you'd like it to appear.
For all submitters, we aren't as concerned with labels--hint
fiction, prose poetry, micro fiction, flash fiction, and so on--as we are
with what compression means to you. In other words, what form
"compression" takes in each artist's work will be up to each individual.
However, we don't publish erotica or work with strong, graphic sexual content.
In short, we want to fall in love with your work. That might happen
in the way we've fallen in love with work we've previously published, or
it might happen in a way we have yet to experience. Maybe reading that
other work will help in knowing whether you should send your work to us,
but in truth, such a thing might not be discoverable.
Here are things that matter:
- Please do not include any contact information, including your name, in the manuscript.
- Please include a statement about compression as it relates to
your submission as part of cover letter. Please include a brief bio,
also. - Please no more than one submission of a single piece per reading period.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, but please let us
know if the submission has been accepted elsewhere. Failure to do will
result in some facsimile of your face being put on the Matter dart
board. And no one wants that. - Please format prose to be double-spaced, 12-point Times New
Roman font, in a Microsoft Word document. Poetry can be single-spaced.
