Has it been a month already since Gamut first opened its doors? Gamut has chosen to cap submissions at 300 a month for two main reasons. 1) We want to reply in a timely manner, hopefully in 31 days or less, and 2) we don’t want to suffer staff burnout. One we reach 300 subs, we close while we get everything read. Last month we reached 300 submissions in less than 24 hours, so you might want to be quick to submit.
The staff put together a wishlist of things we’d like to see, and a few suggestions of things we’d prefer not to. These are: more psychological, magical realism, diversity, hooks and endings that matter, ghostly atmosphere, poetry in general, speculative in general, actual non-fiction. Less telling, gore, misogyny and hate, waking up to start a story, cliche and formulaic stories, goofy humor, needlessly purple prose, violence without redemption, slow starts, less genre poetry, less exposition, camp/satire, rape/abuse, etc.
We’ve already chosen some gorgeous stories, and I hope you’ll send us yours! Please remember that we read blind, so follow the guidelines and strip your information from your work. And please don’t send me messages saying, “Mercedes, my story is the one about the pink unicorn who dances the flamenco. Please watch for it in the slush!” We choose to read blind for a reason, so please respect that.
I can’t tell you how excited I am about this endeavor. This is a time of stunning art, where we’re able to read, write, and share things in a way we couldn’t do before. I love it. Just adore it. Write on, my friends.
2 Comments on “Gamut Reopens Tomorrow!”
Thanks, Mercedes! You are such a crucial part of Gamut. I know you put at lot of yourself into this process and it shows in the quality and range of work we’re publishing. Couldn’t do this without you. So excited for our 2017 launch, and all of the new work that will certainly be pouring in this September.
Reblogged this on firefly465.