Black Sun Lit accepts 100 submissions per month for digital vestiges, an online miscellany of poetic ephemera, and Vestiges, a print journal of thematically curated literature, art, and poiesis. Please be familiar with the type of work we publish before submitting. We do not accept unsolicited book manuscripts or tolerate AI-generated work.
Poetry
We are interested in thresholds of silence, ecstatic utterances, and aesthetic infinity. We favor work which engages in the traditions of Ghérasim Luca, Mina Loy, Gertrude Stein, Francis Ponge, Aimé Césaire, Alejandra Pizarnik, Vicente Huidobro, Friederike Mayröcker, Gustaf Sobin, Lyn Hejinian, and Rosmarie Waldrop. Work overtly concerned with form may not be taken seriously.
Prose
We are interested in meanderings, stammerings, and heteroglossic maelstroms. Some admirable examples include Samuel Beckett, Clarice Lispector, Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, Julio Cortázar, Claude Cahun, Benjamin Péret, Gisèle Prassinos, Unica Zürn, Franck André Jamme, Christophe Tarkos, and Danielle Collobert. We are not particularly fond of genre fiction, suburban realism, or narratives driven by references to popular culture.
Essay
We are interested in close readings that present intuitive positions on the works of marginalized writers and philosophers, theorists, critics, and/or visual artists whose work has largely been neglected by mainstream scholarship. We do not want book reviews, personal essays, or the politically saturated.
Translation
We are interested in translated poetry and prose that give expression to our influences and literary objectives. Submissions should include the original work and documentation from the author or the author’s original publisher/copyright holder indicating that permission has been granted, or the rights are available, to publish the translation online and/or in print.
Visual Art
We are interested in abstract paintings, collage, minimalist drawings, and photography with Cubist, Surrealist, and Formalist tendencies. Mimetic art, cartoons, or comics are better suited elsewhere.
We allow simultaneous submissions and request all submitters wait until they’ve heard back from us before sending more work. For past contributors, please wait at least 2 years (online) or 2 issues (print) after your work last appeared before submitting to us again. If your work is accepted elsewhere, or if you need to withdraw a part of a submission (e.g. a poem), please notify us immediately via Submittable. We aim to respond to all submissions within 3–6 months.
We reserve the right to immediately dismiss—without notification—any work that does not observe our submission guidelines.
Black Sun Lit (generally) reads and remains open to submissions year-round and considers only unpublished work, including original or translated poetry, lyrical prose, essays, interviews, visual art, and short works of drama.
For consideration, please submit—in one .doc or .docx file—up to 5 poems (no more than 10 pages), 1–5 works of prose (no more than 3,500 words), or 3–5 images (including artist statement).