A London-based literary print magazine for the Romantic, accepting poetry, essays, short fiction and experimental work. 

Writing a love letter is a deeply intimate act with a costly price. The writer of such pages has opted to perform a kind of pre-mortem autopsy for the receiver. They have made a Y-shaped incision, used rib shears to an effective degree, and shifted their left lung aside to bare their heart. Through this bloody ordeal, these letters become a reflection of who we are and what makes us whole. 

Unlike ordinary correspondence, a love letter aches for a reply. An unspoken contract has formed between the writer and the recipient. I have shown you my heart, please answer. Thus, the pieces in this magazine require such a response from our readers, whether that be rejection and disgust to amorous acceptance and reciprocation.

The throes of passion take root in honesty. Yet the flowers are hardly innocent. Even the starving bee knows well of obsession, and to walk these lines of devotion is a feat in itself. In the eyes of the Romantic, a love letter may take many forms: a bus route you take twice a day, the calluses on your fingers, a receipt kept in your wallet, a peculiar-shaped rock found at the beach, or a jar of baby teeth your mother still keeps around. A love letter can be to a place, a dream, a person, even oneself.
 
The monotony of life is ensnaring: an endless cycle of tasks and an infinite series of choices that make themselves. The trials of living often obscure the act of living itself. And so, it is the quiet compulsion of the Romantic who finds  time to remember that we are alive; in living there is love, and in love, there is both beauty and bloody struggle.

Be part of the first issue: EPHEMERA

One-time-use coffee pods tossed every morning, fleeting friendships and flings that flutter your heart for weeks, glowsticks that glow for only a day.

Whether these pieces of ephemera hold significance or not, The Love Letter requests that you share your evanescent experiences.

We are looking for work that reflects your thoughts and ideas on the brief and the momentary: from people to paraphernalia, the impermanent and short-lived parts of our lives.

FORMATS
Poetry, short fiction, personal essays, letters, reviews, interviews, plays, metafiction, autofiction, and experimental literary work.

DEADLINE: April 17th 2026


The Love Letter

Highlights

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