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 open for compressed poetry, compressed prose fiction (including prose poetry), and compressed creative nonfiction. We will close for submissions March 15, 2012. Also, during the month of January, Matter Press will be open for submissions of a prose collection (prose poetry, fiction, and/or creative nonfiction), 25–40 pages, each piece under 600 words. Individual pieces in your manuscript may have appeared in journals, both in print and online, as long as the entire collection itself is unpublished.
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.
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 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. Do not include a cover letter as part of the manuscript document. 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 in each genre 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.
Prose Chapbook
(pdf, doc, docx)
Size limit: 25-40 pages
During the month of January, Matter Press will be open for submissions of a prose collection (prose poetry, fiction, and/or creative nonfiction). Here is the place to submit your 25–40 page manuscript, each piece under 600 words to us. Individual pieces in your manuscript may have appeared in journals, both in print and online, as long as the entire collection itself is unpublished. Here are some additional details:
There is no reading fee. Your submission will be read by the managing editor (Randall Brown) and/or "blind" by Rosemont College MFA in Creative Writing degree-candidates. The readers will look to choose one manuscript to publish. Please submit only ONE chapbook during this reading period.
Please double-space the manuscript using Times New Roman 12 pt font (or something similar).
Please do not include any author-identifying information on the manuscript. Please do include a cover letter and bio (but not as part of the manuscript document). Please include with the cover letter the manuscript's category (prose poem, short short fiction, creative nonfiction) and a short statement regarding the role compression plays in your work. The manuscript can be a hybrid of these genres.
Please ONLY include a title page for the collection and the stories themselves; please do NOT include acknowledgments, blank pages, a table of contents.
Please include a page break between the individual pieces that make up the collection.
Manuscripts will be accepted January 1, 2012 until midnight February 1, 2012.
Matter Press will have a one-time only print run of 300 copies of the chapbook. The author will receive $500 and 25 copies; the chapbook itself will receive an ISBN number.
Any manuscript that does not meet the guidelines will not be considered for publication. If you have any questions, you can email Matter Press here.
Poetry
(pdf, doc, docx)
Size limit: no more than 20 lines/75 words
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. Please do not include any contact information, including your name, in the manuscript. 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. Please include a statement about compression as it relates to your submission as part of cover letter/bio. Please include a brief bio, also. As mentioned above, we read blind so please do not include your name on the submission itself. Also, please do not make the cover letter part of the uploaded poem. Please no more than the submission of a SINGLE POEM 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. Fiction—Compressed Prose (including prose poems)
(pdf, doc, docx)
Size limit: 600 words
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. THIS IS THE FICTION/PROSE POETRY CATEGORY.
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. Creative Nonfiction—Compressed Prose
(pdf, doc, docx)
Size limit: 600 words
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. This is the CREATIVE NONFICTION category.
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. Visual Arts
(pdf, jpg, zip, tiff)
We are currently looking for visual arts projects that incorporate the idea of compressed text into the work. We are especially interested in a series of visual arts pieces that can be published once a week over a period of a month or several months. We pay in the range of $50 - $100 for the rights to publish such a series. We might also be interested in purchasing the pieces outright. Please let us know in a cover letter if the pieces are available for purchase and the asking price. Please submit the visual arts series/project as a single PDF document or ZIP file. If your project is chosen for publication, we will be requesting the individual files (.jpg or .tiff).
Please include a statement about compression as it relates to your submission as part of cover letter/bio. Please include a brief bio, also. 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.