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"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
Acceptance Rate
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!
26
Total submissions tracked
14 days
Average response time
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
Examples
4 pieces from Chill Subs people