Submit, Slut

Submit, Slut

WE ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR SUBMISSIONS! :'(

We’ll open these up again a bit later this year. Think, like… FALL/WINTER 2023.

In the meantime, please continue licking the gut (FOR GLORY).

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SUBMITTING TO GUTSLUT IS FREE, BUT PLEASE CONSIDER TRYING OUT ONE OF THESE FEEDBACK OPTIONS TO SUPPORT OUR PRESS!!!

Expedited Response (48 hours): $6

General Feedback: $8

Expedited General Feedback (72 hours): $12

Detailed Feedback: $15

Let us know in your email header that you paid for one of these feedback responses so we don’t fail you! We can be found on both Paypal and Venmo @AmiJSanghvi (though we also just went ahead and linked them both for you a few words ago). Just include whatever name you submitted your work under and the type of feedback response you selected in the little text area so we know what your payment is for!

WHAT WE ACCEPT

*** We intentionally keep the descriptions on what we like, want, and accept broad and vague. Experimental, rule-breaking work comes in various shapes and forms. We want to celebrate that. If you’re not sure about something or have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email us. Otherwise, submit your work however you deem best, and we’ll let you know if there is anything that needs changing. This applies to all Gutslut submissions unless otherwise specified.

Here at Gutslut, we accept just about any medium from all types of artists — if you can link it or attach it to the email in any fashion or form, we will consider it! Just be prepared for us to reach out to you with questions, if necessary. A decent amount of what we take are writing submissions, especially for print, but we also encourage 2D and 3D visual artists (including but not limited to sculptors, tattoo artists, fashion designers, chefs, and makeup artists), dancers, models, filmmakers, musicians, etc. to submit your work for the digital supplement. “I’m not sure if this is art, but I enjoy doing it” is a good rule of thumb. Submit photos or videos of your work and we’ll let you know if we need anything else.

Gutslut especially vibes with the hybrid, the multimedia, and the experimental, but we are open to reviewing just about anything — even if your creations don’t fall in these categories. Mostly, we just require that your work be original, creative, and authentic. We will reject any work that attacks systemically targeted or marginalized individuals, groups, beliefs, and/or lifestyles. This isn’t the place for that.

We accept work that’s been published on social media, personal websites, and personal blogs. Although we prefer previously unpublished work, we are also willing to consider work that’s been published elsewhere so long as you have the appropriate rights to it and let us know where the piece was published so we can credit those lovely people accordingly.

We especially— and we mean this from the bottom of our weird little gutslut hearts — welcome and prioritize submissions from QTBIPOC, as well as disabled, incarcerated, and other marginalized or underrepresented creators.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We ourselves have struggled with how to verbalize exactly what it is we want from you. The following is some of what we came up with:

  1. Creatures, monsters, demons, aliens, cryptids, unidentified species, and anything with tentacles. We are big fans of strange, scary creatures who would totally murder you, but are also somehow cuddly and huggable to anyone with that Gutslut sense of being.
  2. Felines. Logan Hogan has decreed it so.
  3. Profanity. And by profanity, we mean fantastic words like “fuck” — not slurs against groups that are not your own. We don’t accept the latter.
  4. LGBTQIA2S+ content by LGBTQIA2S+ creators, and work by BIPOC that breaks away from eurocentric norms or tells stories we don’t normally hear in mainstream western media.
  5. Kink, polyamory, and non-monogamy. Tell us a fun story about your quad or how kink changed your life.
  6. Leftism. To say Gutslut leans left would be an understatement.
  7. Anarchy. We love anarchy.
  8. Chaos, mayhem, the catastrophic, and the general act of just… setting stuff on fire. Gutsluts are temporary, but chaos is forever.
  9. The mental, emotional, physical, metaphysical, and pataphysical. Just go for it.
  10. The dark, the absurd, the nonsensical, and the sinister — together, or separate. Extra points for making it goofy and adorable (in a blood dripping down from a teddy bear’s mouth way), too.
  11. Stuff that is creepy, geeky, gutty, horrifying, and/or weird. We have a soft spot for speculative fiction, and especially adore the grotesque.
  12. Puns, irony, even Hot Rod type humor. We want to chuckle, we want to groan.
  13. The political, the theoretical, and the philosophical. We especially love pieces that incorporate nihilistic existential dread.
  14. The serious. Your past, your trauma, your afflictions, your agony — we will take it and treat it with care. We want to welcome your darkness and your truths — all that stuff that is too uncomfortable for most people to acknowledge, let alone publish. We have our own demons here, and so we want to provide a safe space for others to share theirs, too. We want the stuff about your experiences with sexual assault, abuse, loss, tragedy, suicide, suicidal inclinations, self-harm, eating disorders, and every kind of mental illness. And by every kind, we mean EVERY kind. Don’t feel the need to bend your work to fit the vibe of the rest of this list either. We know what we’re asking for, and would be honored to publish it.

HOW TO SUBMIT

We are not setting limitations on quantity or length. All we ask is that you be considerate. There are only two of us reading here right now and while we are doing our best, our guts do get tired and we are bound to this man-made construct of time. Also, please keep in mind that we are planning to put out open calls for long/longer-form work in the near future.

Email gutslutpress@gmail.com. Put your name, what you are submitting to (ex: “Bonemilk”), and your best attempt at defining your discipline and/or genre in the subject line. In the body of the email, please include the following:

  1. a short cover letter telling us about your work, including anything about yourselves (however serious, silly, or weird) you want us to know,
  2. a brief third person bio,
  3. any social media, project, and website links you want us or the world to have,
  4. (for writers) a word count and the flexibility of your formatting,
  5. any applicable content warnings,
  6. (optional) if this work has been rejected for publication before, and if so, how many times

DOC, PDF, JPEG, PNG, etc. attachments are preferred, but other types of files and links are also acceptable where necessary. Include/attach your work, whisper an enchantment for a ghostie-alien several galaxies away, and press “send.” We’ll get back to you within two months of the submission deadline.

Chapbook Submissions: CURRENTLY CLOSED

Submissions are currently CLOSED. Regardless, we’ve included submission information below incase you are interested in submitting a chapbook to us in the future.

We have a pretty lax definition for what a chapbook can be. Send us your poetry, fiction, nonfiction, hybrid, experimental stuff, visual art, and/or whatever else. We love combinations of some or all of the above. We just want the opportunity to read your work. If there are any multimedia aspects you wish to include or want us to be aware of, let us know in your submission email. Individual pieces that have already seen publication or are forthcoming elsewhere are also welcome. Just let us know in your submission email.

Something else to think about is whether your submission is a Gut or a Slut. We’ve determined that these are the two genres of great literature. If you’re not sure, let us know and we can discuss this later! Moreover — and this is not a requirement at all — but if you submit a slightly ~spookier chapbook, we will do our absolute best to aim for a Halloween release.

For this call, Gutslut has no specific length or style restrictions. We just ask that you keep it reasonable, and don’t submit excessively long or full-length manuscripts. Submissions for those are in the near[ish] future.

Keep your eyesluts peeled!