The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts is looking for, as you might guess, "compressed creative arts." We accept fiction and creative nonfiction, as long if they are compressed in some way. Work is published weekly, without labels, and the labels here only exist to help us determine its best readers.
Our response time is generally 1-5 days. Also, our acceptance rate is currently about 2% of submissions. We pay writers $50 per accepted piece and signed contract.
The reading period is March 15 to June 15 & September 15 to December 15. If you've been previously published by the press, please wait a year until submitting again. Thanks.
The reader for your submission is, during this round of submissions, the managing editor.
Please be sure to submit in the correct category; we've been receiving several fiction submissions in the creative nonfiction category.
We do not publish poetry that has line breaks, but we are thrilled to consider prose poetry without line breaks.
For all submitters, we aren't as concerned with labels—hint fiction, prose poetry, micro fiction, flash fiction, and so on—as we are with what compression means to you. In other words, what form "compression" takes in each artist's work will be up to each individual. However, we don't publish erotica or work with strong, graphic sexual content.
In short, we want to fall in love with your work. That might happen in the way we've fallen in love with work we've previously published, or it might happen in a way we have yet to experience. Maybe reading that other work will help in knowing whether you should send your work to us, but in truth, such a thing might not be discoverable.
Here are things that matter:
- Please do not include a cover letter as part of the manuscript document.
- Please include, as part of your cover letter on Submittable, a brief bio. Also, in the cover letter, let us know why you feel this piece works for a journal obsessed with "compression."
- Please no more than one submission of a single piece in each genre at a time. Please feel free to submit again after receiving a response, but please no more than 3 submissions per genre per reading period.
- Please do not submit work that has been previously published anywhere: blogs, personal websites, print and online journals, and so on. Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, but please let us know if the submission has been accepted elsewhere. Failure to do will result in some facsimile of your face being put on the Matter dart board. And no one wants that.
- Please format prose to be singled-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, in a Microsoft Word document, with an extra space between each paragraph. We do not consider poetry with line breaks.
- If you've been previously published by The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, please wait a year before submitting again.
Randall Brown—the managing editor and founder—will critique your single flash piece (under 1000 words).
- Please no more than one submission of a single piece per critique. Please feel free to submit again after receiving a response.
- Please format prose to be double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, in a Microsoft Word document.
- You will receive commentary directly on the piece, both in-line editing and developmental editing suggestions.
- Feel free to include in the cover leter any specific questions or concerns you have about your piece.
For fiction & creative nonfiction prose (and we think of the prose poem as such), we have a word-count limit: 600. Please be sure to submit in the correct category; we've been receiving several fiction submissions in the creative nonfiction category. THIS IS THE FICTION CATEGORY. Also if you are writing prose poetry that is also FICTION, this is the category for you.
If you've been published by the journal previously, please wait a year to submit.
- Please do not include a cover letter as part of the manuscript document.
- Please include, as part of your cover letter on Submittable, a brief bio. Also, in the cover letter, let us know why you feel this piece works for a journal obsessed with "compression."
- Please no more than one submission of a single piece in each genre at a time. Please feel free to submit again after receiving a response, but please no more than 3 submissions per genre per reading period.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, but please let us know if the submission has been accepted elsewhere. Failure to do will result in some facsimile of your face being put on the Matter dart board. And no one wants that.
- Please format prose to be singled-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, in a Microsoft Word document, with an extra space between each paragraph. We do not consider poetry with line breaks.
- If you've been previously published by The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, please wait a year before submitting again.
For fiction & creative nonfiction prose (and we think of the prose poem as such), we have a word-count limit: 600. Please be sure to submit in the correct category; we've been receiving several fiction submissions in the creative nonfiction category. This is the CREATIVE NONFICTION category. If you are writing PROSE POETRY that is also CREATIVE NONFICTION, then this is the category for you.
If you've been published by the journal previously, please wait a year to submit.
- Please do not include a cover letter as part of the manuscript document.
- Please include, as part of your cover letter on Submittable, a brief bio. Also, in the cover letter, let us know why you feel this piece works for a journal obsessed with "compression."
- Please no more than one submission of a single piece in each genre at a time. Please feel free to submit again after receiving a response, but please no more than 3 submissions per genre per reading period.
- Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, but please let us know if the submission has been accepted elsewhere. Failure to do will result in some facsimile of your face being put on the Matter dart board. And no one wants that.
- Please format prose to be singled-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, in a Microsoft Word document, with an extra space between each paragraph. We do not consider poetry with line breaks.
- If you've been previously published by The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, please wait a year before submitting again.