42 is a new quarterly print magazine seeking submissions for its inaugural, Spring 2009 edition. The editors invite submissions of articles, poems, and stories that illuminate the themes of a meaningful life, whatever that means to you. See below for details of what we are looking for, but don't be constrained by any lack of imagination on our part -- send us your work and give us a chance to love it.
Currently, 42 is accepting submissions via email only. Submission address is 42magazine@serenepages.com. Please include the word "submission" somewhere in the subject line to bypass our spam filters. In the future, these guidelines will be updated to include a postal mail submission address. Simultaneous submissions and previously published work are fine, but please let us know that's what you're submitting, and please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere. There is no limit on the number of items you may submit, but please submit separate genres (e.g. poetry and fiction) separately. All rights revert to the author/artist. Please submit your written work in the BODY of your email; sending it as an attachment will slow response turnaround time. Standard response time is from five to ten business days.
Yes, this is a paying market. Yes, we plan to be picky. Yes, we also plan to encourage new and emerging writers and artists. We're all about the Yes around here.
We pay on publication. We don't pay a TON, but we pay. In addition, it's an innovative experiment in collaboration, so any profit we make (we don't expect to make a profit right away, or maybe ever, but hey, it's possible) will be divided among the people who make the magazine happen -- that is, the publishers AND the contributors -- through a point-based system. Everything you do to help birth this magazine earns you points, and your points earn you a piece of the pie, if there ever are enough pieces to go around.
Current fee and point structures, subject to change until a week before our January 15th deadline, are at our Fees and Points page.
What we're looking for in general are articles, poems, stories, and art that express how you are increasing the level of meaning and meaningful interaction in your life, and in the lives of others. There's a LOT of wiggle-room there, and if it's well written, there's almost nothing we won't consider. That said, here are some decent guidelines for the kinds of things we're hoping to see.
We need articles about the things that add meaning to your life. As you can guess, this will cover a broad range of topics, from self-sufficiency to meaningful work, from meditation to slow food, from political activism to personal relationships, from science to arts and crafts. (Note that we are an explicitly Materialistic publication, in the nonreligious sense rather than the acquisitive sense, so we're not interested in pro-spirituality articles.)
If you have a column idea, pitch it. The following columns are already in the works, so don't pitch these particular columns, but give it your best shot:
Let your truth shine out of your fiction, if you want, or just spin us a good yarn. We'd like to see short or serialized fiction in any format, on any topic. We'll be especially happy with literature whose theme meshes with our own, but we're really seeking quality here. There's no length minimum or maximum, but longer fiction should be able to be broken up into natural chunks for serialization.
We want your sex. Um, that is, we want your literate porn. If it uses the words "throbbing member" unironically, it's probably not for us. This is a queer/LGTB/trans*/alternative-friendly publication.
We will consider any and all poems you want to send, because poetry is one of the meaningful things in our own lives. Regardless of content or genre, we will, frankly, publish the ones we find to be the best in terms of quality. Formal poetry, free verse, experimental poems, light verse -- we're happy to consider it all. Please submit up to ten poems per submission; there are no length or form limits.
We need your best original, black-and-white art in high-resolution digital format, with clear captions. We're also hoping for a comic strip or two, if that's what floats your boat.
If you are an illustrator and work well on deadline with a two-week-or-so turnaround, and would be willing to illustrate one or more of our stories, let us know. We need your illustrations to be in black and white, submitted in high-resolution digital format.
We welcome short (300-1,000-word) reviews of recent books, music, cinema and other forms of media. Your review should give readers a clear sense of what to expect from the work and provide a brief critical appraisal of its merits. Don't dumb it down, don't make it dull. Priority will be given to reviews of things accurately described with any of the following adjectives: small-press, independent/indie, home-grown, DIY, etc. Book and media reviews must not be simply factual; we're looking for high-quality prose. If you can make us laugh, even better.
Now, we'll tell you this up front: we are not impressed by consumerism. We're of the mind that having more stuff is not a reliable path to creating a meaningful life. That said, there's some stuff out there that's better than other stuff, and some of the stuff (a good disaster kit, for instance, or a sewing machine that's user-serviceable, or an electric car) can contribute to making life simpler, better, and more meaningful. If you've found some stuff like that, let us know! As with media reviews, product reviews must not be simply factual; we're looking for high-quality prose. If you can make us laugh, even better.