Beautiful Design - Best Lit Mags of 2025

An independent magazine for brewing creatives steeped in San Francisco.

Vellichor Literary is replete with bittersweetness—things that take time to chew, and go down with an aftertaste, leaving filaments in the teeth, and a heaviness in the abdomen; that are jocoserious or agathokological, ripe and rotten, acute yet abiding; with the ipseity of a yellow poppy amidst a barren field and the grit to love the weeds anyway; that fill the margins while savoring the negative space; that always, like a good cup of coffee, leave a stain.

The genesis of Vellichor in a coffee shop perhaps explains its esse. We dither in liminality—in the white space between departure and arrival, beginning and end—because in it lies creation. In a modern zeitgeist defined by speed and disposability, it is coffee shops, train stations, bus rides, and magazines that slow us down. Thus, you are cordially invited to our equal parts cult, literary café, and zine, for however long you’d like to linger.

What we publish: The acidulcic; the pungent, raw, and affecting. Not limited to: poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, scripts, screenplays, journalism, biographies (auto- and otherwise), photography (digital and analog), visual art (traditional or digital; any medium), vignettes, love letters, hate letters, multimedia hybrids, artist-author collabs, comics, sequential illustration, and short films. As long as you adhere to our guidelines, give us your genref*ck.

The quill, poison pen, fountain, glitter gel, and plain ol’ ballpoint are all welcome here. (Though we prefer Times New Roman.)

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Vellichor Literary

General call

<div><span style="color: rgb(20 20 20/var(--tw-text-opacity,1));">Like a good cup of coffee, Vellichor is equal parts bitter and sweet. For Issue 08, we consider this concept of duality in the twofold definitions of sobremesa. As always, the theme is up to interpretation; submissions may either focus on the Spanish or Portuguese definition or combine elements of both.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Issue 08 centers on comfort, family (blood or chosen), food as a means of connection, mealtime nostalgia, and the (bitter)sweetness of gathering. Sit at our dinner table; stay longer than you should.</div><div><br></div><div><b>THIS ISSUE PUBLISHES:</b></div><div><ul><li><span style="color: rgb(20 20 20/var(--tw-text-opacity,1));">POETRY</span></li><li>PROSE</li><li>SCRIPTS</li><li>SCREENPLAYS</li><li>ESSAYS &amp; NONFICTION</li><li>PHOTOGRAPHY</li><li>VISUAL ART</li><li>VIGNETTES</li><li>LETTERS</li><li>MULTIMEDIA HYBRIDS</li><li>COMICS &amp; SEQUENTIAL ILLUSTRATION</li><li>JUST ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE!</li></ul></div><div><br></div><div><b>THIS ISSUE DOES NOT PUBLISH: </b></div><div><ul><li>AUDIOVISUAL WORKS (MUSIC &amp; SHORT FILMS)</li><li>NOVELS</li></ul></div><div><br></div><div><b>How do I submit?</b></div><div><br></div><div><ul><li>Submissions are open from now until June 30, 2026. Please send your work through the Issue 08: Sobremesa submission portal linked in our bio.</li><li>We do not accept email submissions. Any submissions sent to our email address will be automatically ignored and not considered for publication.</li><li>Lastly, before sending us your work, please thoroughly read and understand the guidelines detailed on the following slides and in the description of the submission form.</li></ul></div><div><br></div><div><b>GUIDELINES:</b></div><div><br></div><div>★ Works submitted must not exceed 5 pages. There is no required font size or word count; however, the page limit is strict.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Written works must be in a legible serif (e.g., Times New Roman, EB Garamond) or sans-serif (e.g., Arial) font, in a legible size (we recommend 11 or 12).</div><div><br></div><div>★ Written works must be sent in either doc, docx, or pdf form. If you send writing as a screenshot or image, your submission will be immediately rejected. We love Notes app poetry, but please do not send us a screenshot directly from your phone!</div><div><br></div><div>★ Works in all languages are permitted and welcome for submission! If your piece is written in a language other than English, please send an English translation alongside your original piece so our editors can understand the bare meaning of your work. As a multilingual team with editors hailing from around the world, we understand that translations can oftentimes lose the magic of the original work. Thus, you will not be judged by or faulted for your translation.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Visual artworks must be sent as a jpg or png.</div><div><br></div><div>★ You may not submit multiple works on the same document. You are permitted to submit as many pieces as desired, but you must fill out the submission form a new time for each piece.</div><div><br></div><div>★ All submissions must be on theme. The theme for Issue 08 is sobremesa. For this issue, we are looking for comfort, familial love (blood or chosen), food as a means of connection, mealtime nostalgia, holidays/family reunions, and bittersweetness. Themes are up to interpretation, and can be taken literally or metaphorically.</div><div><br></div><div>★ The use of generative Al (including, but not limited to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Deepseek) is strictly prohibited and will result in immediate disqualification. Similarly, plagiarism is absolutely forbidden.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Submissions that promote, glorify, or romanticize hate speech are strictly prohibited. As a BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodivergent-owned magazine, we are committed to keeping Vellichor a safe space for all.</div><div><br></div><div>★ We are not a book publisher. While we wish we could publish your novel, we are but a humble magazine. Alas. Please refrain from sending us your 300-page manuscripts.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Audiovisual submissions are not permitted for Issue 08. Unfortunately, that means no film or music submissions.</div><div><br></div><div><b>FAQ:</b></div><div><br></div><div>★ As an independent, underfunded, and grassroots publication, we do not have the means to pay our contributors. Vellichor Literary is managed by an entirely volunteer-based team that runs on coffee, community, and passion. 100% of donations to Vellichor go right back into funding the magazine, keeping our mission of accessible publication alive, and financing future endeavors such as physical magazine copies.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Both acceptance and rejection emails will be sent for Issue 08, and you can expect a decision in your inbox within 2 weeks of the deadline (June 30, 2026). Please be sure to double-check the email you provide on this submission form, as typos can yield the absence of a decision email. Also, please ensure that your email has storage, as we cannot send mail to full inboxes.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Issue 08 is projected to be released in August, and the exact release date will be posted on our Instagram closer to that time.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Creators of all ages, backgrounds, experience levels, locations, and identities are invited to submit! There are no eligibility requirements for publication in Vellichor, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, ability, age, socioeconomic status, or nationality. All are welcome here.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Simultaneous submissions and previously published works are allowed! However, if your piece has been published elsewhere, you must disclose so on the submission form so we can attribute proper credits to the first place of publication.</div><div><br></div><div>★ Accepted contributors retain full ownership of their work. By submitting to Vellichor Literary, you grant us the right to publish, distribute, and display the work in our publication in digital and print (coming soon) formats, as well as promotional materials on social media. However, ownership of the copyright to your work does not transfer to us. Should you wish to publish your work elsewhere upon publication in Vellichor Literary, we kindly ask that you credit us as the first place of publication when appropriate.</div>

Issue 08: Sobremesa

Each month, a new prompt (in the form of a song lyric that pertains to the month) will drop and a number of submissions will be selected as the winners for the month. Two mini issues will be published from this contest - one for January-June and one for July-December.

(Hybrid)

Vellichor Literary

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