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Open for submissions

Deadline

Jan 31, 2024

General theme

Issue Four General Submissions

Submit

"We publish consciousness-forward fiction and thought. Send us short stories, creative non-fiction, critical essays, autotheory, and novel extracts in the revolutionary spirit of High Modernism. We want the most fearless, risk-adept writing we can find."

Current Theme

Issue Four General Submissions

"We publish consciousness-forward fiction and thought. Send us short stories, creative non-fiction, critical essays, autotheory, and novel extracts in the revolutionary spirit of High Modernism. We want the most fearless, risk-adept writing we can find."

Vibe

Send us your best but less intimidating

Response Time

1-2 months / 14 days

Acceptance Rate

3% / 9.09%

  • Payment

    Yes: $10

  • Fee

    No

  • Simultaneous submissions

    Yes

  • Previously published

    Yes

  • Expedited response

    Yes: $10

  • Available in print

    Yes

  • Provides contributor copies

    Yes: Digital

  • Examples online

    Yes

  • Active on social media

    Yes

Accepted genres

9 genres

Fiction

Max words: 7000

Max pieces: 2

The most fearless, risk-adept, revolutionary writing you have. Word count is always flexible.

Nonfiction

Max words: 7000

Max pieces: 2

Alongside traditional CNF, we're very interested in critical essays exploring literary theory and engaging in scholarship. Send us your work...

Review

Max words: 1200

We're interested in both traditional reviews and extended review essays of multiple books.

Interview

Max pieces: 2

Translation

Max words: 7000

Max pieces: 2

Especially interested in translations from the French.

Art

Max pieces: 2

L’Esprit is open to submissions of original works of art, to be used as accompaniments to stories in each issue. They should be high-resolut...

Photography

Max pieces: 2

L’Esprit is open to submissions of original works of photography, to be used as accompaniments to stories in each issue. They should be high...

Play

No specific limitations

Wtf is genre, send anything

Max pieces: 2

Fiction

Max words: 7000

Max pieces: 2

The most fearless, risk-adept, revolutionary writing you have. Word count is always flexible.

Nonfiction

Max words: 7000

Max pieces: 2

Alongside traditional CNF, we're very interested in critical essays exploring literary theory and engaging in scholarship. Send us your work...

Review

Max words: 1200

We're interested in both traditional reviews and extended review essays of multiple books.

Interview

Max pieces: 2

Translation

Max words: 7000

Max pieces: 2

Especially interested in translations from the French.

Art

Max pieces: 2

L’Esprit is open to submissions of original works of art, to be used as accompaniments to stories in each issue. They should be high-resolut...

Photography

Max pieces: 2

L’Esprit is open to submissions of original works of photography, to be used as accompaniments to stories in each issue. They should be high...

Play

No specific limitations

Wtf is genre, send anything

Max pieces: 2

Statistics

We're able to provide them because you use our tracker!
You're the best!

Track submission

26

Total submissions tracked

14 days

Average response time

3% / 9.09%

Average acceptance rate

3 days

Fastest response time

37 days

Slowest response time

*Weird response times we excluded from calculations: 64 days, 180 days

How to submit

Process

We use Submittable and email.

Cover letters

Please include the following: Your name, and the title and genre (fiction, CNF, criticism, review, etc.) of your piece. A third-person bio, to be used as the contributor’s note should your work be accepted. Social media handles (Twitter and Instagram), if you’d like to be promoted online. An optional cover letter to introduce the work, yourself, or provide some context to your submission; please note that this in no way impacts the likelihood of publication. Finally, we would appreciating knowing how you found the journal (social, ad listing, database search, reference, etc).

Eligibility

No specific eligibility requirements

Formatting

For all submissions, please use Times New Roman or similar, 12 or 11pt., 1.5 or 2x line spacing, maximum two pieces per contributor per reading period. We prefer but do not insist upon footnotes over endnotes and Chicago style of citation.

Rights for published work

L’Esprit reserves all publication rights for each issue’s design and content, as well as for first North American publishing rights. Please note that work accepted for one of our full issues will be published in print, digital, and online formats. The journal also retains rights to use works for promotional and publicity pieces. We nominate for the Pushcart and other literary awards. Authors and artists retain their rights for future publication and use, but we ask that L’Esprit be credited with original publication.

Additional info

Accept previously published Offer expedited response: reply within 72 hours for $5 Offer personalized response: 1-2 paragraphs $10; page $20 Multiple submissions (across genres or within the same genre; no more than two at a time) are welcome. We nominate for the Pushcart and other literary awards. We look for ambitious, voice-driven literary fiction and criticism that emphasizes consciousness and interiority in the Modernist tradition.

About the Magazine

Founded in 2022 | United States

L’Esprit was founded in February 2022, the centenary month of the publication of Ulysses. The journal was thus born in celebration of the literary revolution of consciousness represented by High Modernism, and seeks to publish work in that spirit. L’Esprit searches for fearless, audacious, innovative writing that takes risks at the sentence level and immerses itself in the slippery, wondrous underworld of the mind. Interior-focused, character-driven, language-first work is core to our aesthetic principles, writing that eschews convention and experiments at both the technical and formal levels. From Associate Editor Jessica Denzer’s conversation regarding her essay but all is to be dared: “But I think all those writers, even though they’re doing different things, have perfected something that I’m always trying to do: they work from the flow of the sentence, the poetry of it. Even in the most gut wrenching of moments, it’s their language that roots it onto the page and so into the reader’s mind. It’s the language that comes first to reveal the idea, the experience, and the feeling.” The rendering of consciousness via advanced literary techniques allows fiction to portray the human experience across disparate cultures and societies, and discuss important realities of the modern world by shedding light on the universal nature of diverse lives. Think Virginia Woolf—both Mrs. Dalloway and “Modern Fiction”—think James Joyce—both Ulysses and Finnegans Wake—and think Rachel Cusk, Lucy Corin, David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, Renata Adler. Think Margaret Anderson’s Little Review and T. S. Eliot’s Criterion. Rich prose and vividly rendered scenes, peopled by psychologically complex characters engaged in authentic, verisimilar stories constitute L’Esprit’s raison d’être.

Masthead

We currently list only main editors, more will be added later! If you are an editor, you can edit your masthead in our admin panel :)

D. W White

Jessica Denzer

Editor