With the opening of the Spring/Summer 2025 submissions period, our art and genre editors have taken time to review pieces from our recent editions and to curate advice for our submitters.
As the Genre Editors of Élan Literary Magazine, we work very closely with all submissions. While all staff members participate in first-round voting, only the Genre Editors and the Editors-in-Chief participate in second-round voting and in final discussions. As we execute this role, there are several key factors we look for in the submissions we process.
While flawed grammar will not disqualify your piece, we love to see work which has been thoughtfully proofread and edited. This shows care and attention to detail.
We also love to see innovation in the writing we receive. We understand if you may feel apprehensive about submitting work which could be considered unconventional or experimental. However, we absolutely adore writing which pushes the boundaries of our expectations. An exceptional example from our latest edition is “Crepuscular, a portrait of matrilineal scoliosis” by Ariel Wu. This poem, apart from being beautifully written, drips with creativity and poetic innovation. It displays a distinct sense of originality which allowed it to stand out compared to other poems we considered.
We would also like to see experimental techniques in our fiction submissions. We believe Élan would sincerely benefit from some experimental genres like absurdism, surrealism, speculative fiction, and psychedelic fiction. We want to represent a wide range of storytelling subjects and techniques. We strongly encourage you to let yourself experiment: the weirder, the better.
"good & chinese, grandmother / lets poison flow in ivory rivulets in her body but sees everything as omens: / my refusal to eat chives, shrapnel of the broken plate mama scraped her / palms on, mama’s confessions to her faceless, bloodless heathen god."
Every submission period, we receive a disproportionate amount of poetry. While we deeply love poetry, we are always looking for strong prose to include in our publication. We strongly recommend you submit fiction and creative nonfiction, as doing so will drastically improve your chances of acceptance. Rowan, our Senior Genre Editor, can attest to this as both an editor and as a writer whose work has been accepted twice before. In our 38th Print Issue, Rowan has two pieces of writing featured. One, published in the 2023 Fall/Winter Edition, is an excerpt from their novel, titled “Farewells.” The second is a print exclusive piece, an excerpt from their memoir, titled “Sweet Tea & Vinegar.” We love receiving fiction and nonfiction submissions because of their rarity. If you feel strongly about your prose, we highly encourage submitting it, as our submissions are currently open!
"'What?' Ludovica mumbled, her heart skipping a beat. She clung to the woman’s clothes, yearning to never let go. 'How do you mean?' // The woman did not respond. She gently freed herself from the child’s grasp, tenderly holding Ludovica’s hands before her. 'Ludovica,' she whispered. 'What have you done to yourself?' She smoothly lifted the small hands to her lips, placing a soft kiss on each of Ludovica’s bleeding palms. 'All better,' she hummed, still holding them."
We hope this advice will inspire you to embrace your style as we move into our next submission period!
Signed,
Rowan Paton and Hannes Duncan, Genre Editors
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