The NOMADartx Review publishes fiction, personal essays and poetry (preferably to 5,000 words), industry specific articles (topics may include ideas for selling pieces, the artistic process, how to build resumes and portfolios, etc.) critiques/interviews/reviews, and visual art. Read the complete guidelines here.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Lydia Paar: We started this magazine through our website, which was built to help creative people working in different fields of practice connect, network, and learn from each other. We truly mean all fields of creativity: the more traditionally conceived “art” forms but also things like cooking or gardening or architecture or textiles. We created the journal as another interactive component to the site that already offered posting and sharing abilities around subjects like job-sharing, grant-sharing, creative service offering, etc. The journal features writing and visual art, but we especially welcome writing and visual art that ventures into territory where different creative disciplines and the creative process, as a whole, are explored.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
Lydia (writing editor): I love writing that takes the right amount of time and space for the content being explored: not rambling if the content doesn’t demand it, not so short that it feels incomplete or unfinished.
I also love submissions that indicate the author has familiarity with the goals of the magazine and has attempted to send us something relevant to the creative life or process (in their interpretation), especially if they are focused on a creative form we have fewer submissions about: Chelsey Clammer’s essay, “Knit Beyond,” about knitting as a means to cope with heartbreak, or Lily Kosmicki’s “The Circadian Diary,” about her journaling practice, for example, were thrilling in this regard.
Thirdly, I love writing that engages with larger issues: not just one character who experiences something like heartbreak, in fiction for instance, but a character whose experience creates questions or learning about the nature of people or the nature of culture.
Lindsay Kelsey (visual art editor): At this point in NOMAD’s journey, most submissions have been literary. We are looking for more visual entries, possibly repeat contributors, and works that not only compliment written pieces but create a discussion on their own.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
Lydia: writing that contains overt or subtle racism or sexism. Works that seem self-aggrandizing. Also, for me, work that features a lot of drug use or drinking, unless it’s undertaken meaningfully. We’ve seen a lot of the “depressed/ecstatic” inebriated character in written submissions, but often the fact that the character is inebriated doesn’t contribute to character development or change, and then feels like a crutch or a gimmick. Lastly, work that seems like it’s been sent our way without any indication the author read about the goals and focus of the magazine…we mostly pass on.
Lindsay: Tropes. Beautiful lost women with trembling upper lips gripping a sweaty glass of vodka with clinking ice about to be saved by the unconventionally (conventionally) handsome man stepping in the corner. Visual tropes, like B&W photographs of abandoned swing sets or rusty cars in the forest. I also struggle with violence (especially rape and racism) that doesn’t add to character and plot development or create a worthwhile discussion in visual pieces.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
Lydia: Something surprising.
Lindsay: Something that I have to read twice. Once to understand, and secondly, to appreciate. I can apply this to visual art as well. I want to have a conversation in my head with the piece that I am looking at.
SQF: Why types of submissions would you like to receive more of?
Lydia: We’d love to receive submissions from a wider range of writers: younger and older, of varying ability, of different heritage and socio-economic backgrounds, more international writers, writers with specific niche interests or obsessions, etc. We also tend to receive a lot of poetry and fiction, which is wonderful, but I’d also love to see more nonfiction/essay work, and more genre-blended or hybridized forms.
Lindsay: More visual submissions!
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
L&L: There aren’t any other questions we’d like to answer, but we thank you for showcasing our journal. We hope folks take a read when they can, and submit their own work! And tell their friends!
Thank you, Lydia and Lindsay. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
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