Stop Getting Rejection Letters in the Mail - Submit Online

Are you a creative writer tired of getting rejection letters in the mail? Tired of seeing your own handwriting on the SASE and being filled by that familiar sinking feeling that accompanies the "thanks, but no thanks" letter, the "better luck next time" letter, the "whatever you do, keep on writing" letter?

Now you can get those letters...online!

Here are two literary magazines, Elimae and Cerebration, published on the internet and accepting electronic submissions.

Elimae

Overview

Elimae focuses on very brief fiction and poetry. The fiction of their most recent issue reads like a cross-section of narrative and non-narrative prose. The works graphically present moments in the life of characters who feel absent from their own stories. These are "imagings" of the poetic mind.

There are plenty of contradictions in these short fictions, which you may expect from narrative fiction assorted into pieces of less than 500 words. A cacophony of details and sensory language lays thinly over a sense of burgeoning quietude.

It is as if these were final speeches given, not by generals or presidents, but by the little men and women that stand at the back of our minds watching the world rush past us.

At times, the poetry of Elimae similarly takes up a stance that suggests the present moment can be treated like the past, held at arms length, if only to see it better and clearly (example). At other times the poetry expresses a verve and freedom that escapes the pathos of the prose (example).

Tying the work together is a thread of tenuous detachment. The work on Elimae, presented in uniform, elegant 10 point font, is poised on the webpage very quietly so that the words begin to feel as if they are waiting, waiting for the fuller detachment that time will bring when they will go off into silence and forget their yearning.

Business End

Elimae does not pay for the works it publishes, but it accepts electronic submissions year-round and responds to submissions in 72 hours. Authors retain rights to their work.

This publication is not attached to any graduate school or university program(!).

Cerebration

Overview

Cerebration has a goal of bridging the gap between the creative writing worlds of academia and non-academia. In doing so, Cerebration publishes a variety of types of writing, from very short character-driven fiction to idea-oriented fiction and poetry. (It bears mentioning, however, the majority of writers in Cerebration actually do list a university writing program in their bio.)

Variety is the keyword for Cerebration. There is a wide range of variety in terms of length of the fiction published in Cerebration.

Continuing the theme of variability, the poetry of Cerebration is sometimes lyrical and sometimes intellectual. The list of author names gives final emphasis to the cosmopolitan nature of the online publication. A random string of poets from the Cerebration poetry page reads as follows: Shivinand, Linder, Desai, Bartolo.

You get the picture.

Business end

Cerebration, like Elimae, does not pay its contributors. They have an open electronic submissions policy and accept submissions at any time, promising a timely response as to the status of your submission.

Sources:

Elimae:http://www.elimae.com/index.html
Cerebration:http://www.cerebration.org/