Send all Submissions and general inquiries to syntax editor: here. WHAT TO SEND Provocative works dealing with madness, sex, death, general mishaps, strange infirmities, unique situations and the like; sociological criticism/assessment; philosophy, physics; interesting use of language (within reason). We enjoy wit, and clever pieces that play on words, while keeping focus on the storyline (yes, we all need a story to follow a piece through). GENERAL GUIDELINES In your cover letter, keep it brief – but include a short, general bio. We’re not pompous and don’t care if you have an MFA, or whatever sophisticated degree, from whatever institution. We let the work speak for itself. We are curious, however, about previous publication credits. The subject heading of your email should include the word "submission". Do not use weird fonts or formatting. Times and Arial work just fine. All submissions must be sent as an attachment, in MS Word format. Do not paste your submissions into the body of your email. Simultaneous submissions are fine – just let us know if your work is going to be published elsewhere, immediately. All submissions must include your name, the work’s title, your phone number, email address. POETRY GUIDELINES Submit 3 – 7 poems at a time. One submission batch per issue please. Poetry must be intelligent and intelligible – no flowery, academic crap that takes a team of argyle-wearing scientists to decipher. Most contemporary poetry is either obscure or trivial. Often what people believe to be poetry is nothing but a series of words strung together with references so esoteric that the text has no meaning. Clear and clever wordplay, with a focused through-line is what we’re looking for. We would like people to actually read the poetry section, for once. SHORT FICTION GUIDELINES Submissions should be a maximum of 4,500 words, but as prime time television begins at 7 p.m. or so, we encourage pieces to be under 2,000 words. And, for crissakes, no Oprah Book Club material. At least try and push the boundaries – yours and ours. VISUAL ARTWORK GUIDELINES Images should be no larger than 750 K – and that’s for a very large image, around 500 pixels square. Attach images in .JPEG format to your email. EDITORIAL/ESSAYS Submissions should not exceed 3,000 words. Subject matter: Philosophical inquiries, sociological criticism, music, psychology, science-related. No politics. But if you’re a socialist or a communist, please indicate this in your submission, and please include your address and phone number – so we can hunt you down and lynch you. Send all Submissions and general inquiries to syntax editor: here.