Twin Pies Literary wants your weird. The magazine publishes creative nonfiction, flash and micros to 1,000 words, and poetry to 25 lines. Read the complete guidelines here.
We want the push and pull between dynamics. We don’t want the haunting, we want reason beyond the haunting. Give us the pieces of the puzzle
Specifically, we’re looking for the following:
Microwork - how much can you make me feel with as few lines as possible
No context stories
Experimental poetry
Form altering CNF
2nd person POV in original ways
Vernacular work - non-traditional conversational speech, writing you can hear
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Jessica Evans: Co-Founder DT Robbins and I felt like there was a need for a place in the lit world that showcases the weird. Writing is already so subjective, and Twin Pies aims to be the landing place for pieces that might be too “strange” for others. We took our name from Twin Peaks and our love of pie. The two are congruent in so many respects - both are homey but both can be messy. We want to see the intersection of writing that encourages that congruence. Our aperture is all about highlighting it. The combination creates a really inventive space where writers can be freer than they might be with other journals.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
JE: Unconventional use of language and/or subject matter, an exquisite eye to detail, and an understanding that the world is layered. We like nuance.
I think our name throws off a lot of writers - they think submissions either have to be about pie or Twin Peaks. And it’s true that we love both, but what we really love is the act of making pie, the assembling of ingredients, the tension Twin Peaks, the underlying culty classicism that comes with being a fan of the show. We’re open to any submissions that get underneath what it means to be human and explores the grit, the love, the loss. Send us pieces that answer the question, “What do we do to each other?”
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
JE: Pedestrian submissions. We’re not the mag for the linear. Sure, a piece needs a beginning, middle, and an end, but we’re fans of meanders, spirals, anything that’s not a “classic” narrative structure. Help us see story in a new light. We really don’t like “expected” stories. We want campy and melodramatic love stories and the shadows that linger but are actually full of light. Twin Peaks wasn’t as much about murder as it was about the individual lives that surrounded the murder. If your piece isn’t about the middle, it might not be best for us.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
JE: Transport us right away. We’re working in small forms, so there’s little time for an extensive backstory. We want something that lingers, simmers, sizzles. This isn’t even so much about language as it is about heat. Make us forget we’re reading, forget the world, forget the cup of tea, the cat, the chores. We look to be consumed, wholesale.
SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?
JE: We're completely against and won't stand for any -ism. We don't want to see violence or erotica just for the sake of including it in a piece. We ask that submitters include CWs for pieces that include eroitca. Sex for sex's sake seems superfluous for our journal - we really don't want the sex but what happens in the moments before, after, years later.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
JE: How can you describe the literary journal in three words?
Harsh but homey.
Thank you, Jessica. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment