We will be accepting submissions to Conjunctions:84, We Love All We Voices, edited by Bradford Morrow (with a portfolio of vernacular fiction edited by Robert Antoni) from November 27 – December 15, 2024. 

Please read the submission call for the issue below before submitting your work. All submissions will additionally be considered for our weekly online magazine, which does not have thematic restrictions.   

SUBMISSION CALL

William Burroughs hypothesized that language is a virus from outer space. Agree or disagree, language does inhabit us just as we inhabit it. Language represents—and is—imagination in action. It dances in an everyday state of evolution and is the shared invention of us all, whether we love, loathe, or have never heard of each other. We treat words with great care or with abandon. We are reckless with language, sloppy, incoherent, liars. But words are truths in themselves, precious, each one special, incandescent. No matter whether we realize what daily miracles they are, they will always survive us, gifts we pass down the generations. We Love All We Voices celebrates the languages of poetry, fiction, essays, in all their glory, with works by some of our most pioneering writers. 

Conjunctions has always been language-centric. In that spirit we are also featuring a special portfolio edited by Trinidadian-American novelist Robert Antoni, in which vernacular writing is explored as an agent of its own authenticity—open, malleable, subversive, aggressively multi, overtly political, plenty rude, and alive. Nowhere have English-based vernaculars proliferated so vociferously as in the Western Hemisphere’s first melting pot, the Caribbean. Writings from this far-flung diaspora, as much or more than any other, make melody central to their meaning. Glossaries and footnotes are out; this cognitive and acoustic work must be accomplished in context. Perhaps most challenging of all, until fairly recently, there were few models to follow. Now they accrue with a vengeance: here, for instance.

Contributors to this language-celebrating issue, We Love All We Voices, include Zain Kahlid, Edie Meidav, Alyssa Pelish, among others, along with some of the Caribbean’s finest vernacular practitioners such as Marlon James, Tiphanie Yanique, and Marcia Douglas.

What We Publish

• Conjunctions publishes short- and long-form fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid texts. We do not publish academic essays or book reviews.
• All submissions must be in English and previously unpublished. We will consider works in translation for which the translator has secured the rights.
• Although we have no official restrictions regarding word count, most of the manuscripts we select for publication are under 8,000 words long. For poetry submissions, we suggest sending half a dozen poems, depending on length.

Submission Guidelines

• Along with your manuscript, please include a brief cover letter. Be sure to list your name, the title of your submission, and your email address.
• Former contributor to Conjunctions, in print or online? Please note this in your cover letter.
• All submissions are also considered for publication in the weekly online magazine, which is not subject to thematic restrictions.
• We cannot accept revisions after a manuscript has been submitted. If a manuscript is accepted, there will be an opportunity to make edits then.
• While we strongly prefer to receive exclusive submissions, simultaneous submissions are permitted. If a simultaneous submission is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it from Submittable.
• Our small editorial staff reads every manuscript carefully; we do our best to respond to your submissions in a timely manner.
• If a manuscript is accepted for publication online or in print, our editors will contact the author via email and Submittable.
• Writers published in print issues of Conjunctions receive a small honorarium from our publisher, Bard College.

Accessing Conjunctions

Are you familiar with our work? Sign up for our newsletter to read new writing in our online magazine every week or order a print issue. Conjunctions charges a $3 submission fee to help us cover administration expenses. If this fee is a hardship, please email conjunctions@bard.edu and we will waive the cost. If a disability prevents you from using Submittable, please call 845-758-7054 or email conjunctions@bard.edu. Love our publications? Support Conjunctions into the future by making a tax-deductible donation and writing "Conjunctions" in the notes.