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Propagule is an independently-run convergence of the arts, focused on fiction, music, visual works, theory, and more.

We are especially interested in the aesthetically novel, experimental, transgressive, and uncategorizable. Immanent in everything Propagule publishes is a dedication to imagination and boundlessness.

We aim to release new issues of our eponymous journal of fiction multiple times a year, featuring a carefully selected entourage of original stories. We also aim to publish interviews with artists, essays, and other nonfictional ideations.

At the center of Propagule is commitment to the notion that there is always new art to be discovered and shared, and that artistic stagnation is mere myth to the dedicated seeker. As such, we hope that Propagule will serve as a place to find meaningful content and connect with others in the community.

We can be reached at [contact@propagule.co]

Editors

William Dempsey

David Reichek

Nick Siviter

What we are looking for: short stories that are intrepid with regard to experimentation and oddity; the strange, the surreal, the atypical, the unexpected. Traditional genre divisions do not matter to us—we do not care whether a piece qualifies as strictly ‘literary’; we only care that it is high-quality, that it is well-written, and that it is interesting. Please send us pieces that you feel do not fit in anywhere else, or are beyond the pale of any given trend. Send us content that causes us to experience feelings we do not have names for.

We highly recommend reading our previous issues to get a sense of the kind of stories we are interested in; that said, we are also always looking to be caught off guard with unprecedented content.

Currently we do not charge for submissions.

Propagule is prepared to offer $5 per 1,000 words (up to a maximum of $20) upon our decision to publish your work.

Submissions must be received by June 15th, 2023 to be considered for Issue Three.

Propagule
accepts only previously unpublished material. 

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait until the reading period of the next issue to submit another story. 

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted elsewhere, so that we can remove it from consideration.

Submissions may range from 500 to 10,000 words; any submitted pieces below or above this will not be considered.

Upon publication, Propagule acquires First World Serial Rights, First World Electronic Rights, and Non-Exclusive World Anthology Reprint Rights, as well as the right to publish your work on Motif, an upcoming mobile app for literature.

Please send your submissions through Submittable.

No items found.
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Propagule is currently preparing Issue One for publication.

No items found.
No items found.

Consider becoming a member of our e-mail list to stay up-to-date on all things Propagule, which includes new releases, announcements, and other interesting Propagule initiatives.

Subscribe to our e-mail list:

Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong while submitting the form.

p

Propagule is a literary magazine, founded in 2022.

Propagule champions experimentation, transgression, and aesthetic novelty.

Propagule is engrossed by narrative, style, and form.

Propagule rejects the literary/genre divide.

Propagule is Speculative Surrealism. All good writing is literary.

Propagule releases new issues biannually, featuring a carefully selected entourage of original fiction. Also published: interviews with artists, essays, and other nonfictional ideations (Musings); flash fiction (Motes); and visual art (Scrawls).

We can be reached at [contact@propagule.co]

Masthead

William Dempsey - Editor-in-Chief

Will is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in metaphysics and language.

David Reichek - Managing Editor

David is a software engineer living in NYC.

Nick Siviter - Editor, Creative Director

Nick is an artist based out of Rochester, New York.

Propagule is currently preparing Issue One for publication.

close up of the bottom half of a woman's face

Book of the Month

November 2024

Clarice Lispector

The Passion According to G.H.

the depths of a darkened forest

Album of the Week

November 3rd 2024

Autumn's Grey Solace

Within the Depths of a Darkened Forest

Propagule is OPEN for all genres

What we are looking for: art that is stylistically unique and pushes boundaries both visually and conceptually. Images which are both thought provoking and striking. Genre, subject matter, and medium are not restricted.

Propagule is accepting submissions for visual artwork on a rolling basis for our Scrawls section.

Upon acceptance, your art will be both published to Scrawls and shared via Twitter.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material.

You are invited to submit pieces of work one at a time or in a related series of up to 7 images.

If your work is non-digital in medium, please be sure your documentation is clear and professional.

File size should be under 5mb. Dimensions are not restricted as long as the file falls within size limits.

Files will only be considered if submitted in .PNG or .JPEG.

sRGB color profile is recommended.

We accept simultaneous submissions.

Upon acceptance, Propagule acquires the right to publish your work online. We do not acquire exclusive rights to your art, meaning that the artist remains free to publish the same art elsewhere and profit from it.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

What we are looking for: strange and surreal flash fiction.

We highly recommend reading our previous issues to get a sense of the kind of prose we are interested in; that said, we are always happy to be caught off guard with unprecedented content.

Submissions may range from 250 to 750 words; any submitted pieces below or above this will not be considered.

Accepted works will be published on a rolling basis to our (upcoming) Motes page.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material. 

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait until the reading period of the next issue to submit another story. 

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted elsewhere, so that we can remove it from consideration.

Upon publication, Propagule acquires First World Serial Rights, First World Electronic Rights, and Non-Exclusive World Anthology Reprint Rights.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

What we are looking for:

(a) Reviews of new works of literature (novels, single-authored short story collections, categorial chimeras such as fiction/nonfiction hybrids or books that are structurally experimental). We are not interested in reviews of ‘well-known’, ‘mainstream’, or ‘industry-recognized’ books—we leave the expectably vague boundaries of this delineation to your intuitions (we trust them). As always, we aim to focus on transgressive and stylistically and conceptually novel content.

(b) Reviews of new albums of music. As with literary reviews, we are looking for commentary on content outside of the mainstream. Introduce us to new sounds.

(c) Other nonfictional ideations, such as analytic essays or CNF.

Accepted works will be published on a rolling basis to our Musings page.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material.

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait at least a couple months before submitting another.

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

We accept simultaneous submissions.

Upon acceptance, Propagule acquires the right to publish your work online.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

We are looking for:

\\ atypicality \\ unexpectedness \\ unreality
\\ defamiliarization \\ intrepidness \\ transgression
\\ escalation \\ unrest \\ alienation
\\ disassociation \\ lyricality \\ hypnosis
\\ Speculative Surrealism

While we are interested in abstraction and experimentation, we prefer stories that involve event-progressions or narrative development.

We are excited about stories that have traditionally not been considered literary, such as science fiction and fantasy. For some examples of our taste in this regard, see here, here, or here.

We champion new and underrepresented voices in our publications, and aim to prove that experimental fiction belongs to all. If you consider yourself someone traditionally unwelcomed by the genre, we strongly encourage you to share your work.

Submissions must be received by December 15th, 2024 to be considered for Issue Six.

Submissions may range from 1,500 to 10,000 words; any submitted pieces below or above this will not be considered. We are open to accepting flash, though we strongly prefer to receive a set of multiple related pieces.

Propagule is prepared to offer $5 per 1,000 words for the first 2,000 words, and $10 per 1,000 words thereafter (up to a maximum of $30) upon our decision to publish your work.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material. 

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait until the reading period of the next issue to submit another story. 

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted elsewhere, so that we can remove it from consideration.

Upon publication, Propagule acquires First World Serial Rights, First World Electronic Rights, and Non-Exclusive World Anthology Reprint Rights.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

Consider becoming a member of our e-mail list to stay up-to-date on all things Propagule, which includes new releases, announcements, and other interesting Propagule initiatives.

Subscribe to our e-mail list:

Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Shop
Explore
close up of the bottom half of a woman's face

Book of the Month

November 2024

Clarice Lispector

The Passion According to G.H.

the depths of a darkened forest

Album of the Week

November 3rd 2024

Autumn's Grey Solace

Within the Depths of a Darkened Forest

Propagule is a literary magazine, founded in 2022.

Propagule champions experimentation, transgression, and aesthetic novelty.

Propagule is engrossed by narrative, style, and form.

Propagule rejects the literary/genre divide.

Propagule is Speculative Surrealism. All good writing is literary.

Propagule releases new issues biannually, featuring a carefully selected entourage of original fiction. Also published: interviews with artists, essays, and other nonfictional ideations (Musings); flash fiction (Motes); and visual art (Scrawls).

We can be reached at [contact@propagule.co]

Masthead

William Dempsey
Editor-in-Chief

Will is a PhD student in Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in metaphysics and language.

David Reichek  
Managing Editor

David is a software engineer living in NYC.

Nick Siviter
Editor, Creative Director

Nick is an artist based out of Rochester, New York.

Propagule is OPEN for all genres

As of August 2023, we are accepting submissions for our 2024 fiction contest. The contest winner will receive a $150 prize, and their story will be included in Propagule Issue #5, to be released Summer 2024. We are particularly looking for longer pieces with narrative focus, in addition our usual aesthetic preferences of experimentation, surrealism, and otherworldliness.

Contest entries may range from 2,000 to 20,000 words.

The submission deadline for this contest is July 1st, 2024.

Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but please notify us and withdraw your entry if it is accepted elsewhere.

Upon acceptance, Propagule acquires the right to publish your work online, as well as the right to publish your work on
Motif, an upcoming mobile app for literature.

To enter a piece in the contest, please see the relevant section on our Submittable page. The price of entry is $3.00.

What we are looking for: art that is stylistically unique and pushes boundaries both visually and conceptually. Images which are both thought provoking and striking. Genre, subject matter, and medium are not restricted.

Propagule is accepting submissions for visual artwork on a rolling basis for our Scrawls section.

Upon acceptance, your art will be both published to Scrawls and shared via Twitter.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material.

You are invited to submit pieces of work one at a time or in a related series of up to 7 images.

If your work is non-digital in medium, please be sure your documentation is clear and professional.

File size should be under 5mb. Dimensions are not restricted as long as the file falls within size limits.

Files will only be considered if submitted in .PNG or .JPEG.

sRGB color profile is recommended.

We accept simultaneous submissions.

Upon acceptance, Propagule acquires the right to publish your work online. We do not acquire exclusive rights to your art, meaning that the artist remains free to publish the same art elsewhere and profit from it.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

What we are looking for: strange and surreal flash fiction.

We highly recommend reading our previous issues to get a sense of the kind of prose we are interested in; that said, we are always happy to be caught off guard with unprecedented content.

Submissions may range from 250 to 750 words; any submitted pieces below or above this will not be considered.

Accepted works will be published on a rolling basis to our (upcoming) Motes page.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material. 

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait until the reading period of the next issue to submit another story. 

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted elsewhere, so that we can remove it from consideration.

Upon publication, Propagule acquires First World Serial Rights, First World Electronic Rights, and Non-Exclusive World Anthology Reprint Rights.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

What we are looking for:

(a) Reviews of new works of literature (novels, single-authored short story collections, categorial chimeras such as fiction/nonfiction hybrids or books that are structurally experimental). We are not interested in reviews of ‘well-known’, ‘mainstream’, or ‘industry-recognized’ books—we leave the expectably vague boundaries of this delineation to your intuitions (we trust them). As always, we aim to focus on transgressive and stylistically and conceptually novel content.

(b) Reviews of new albums of music. As with literary reviews, we are looking for commentary on content outside of the mainstream. Introduce us to new sounds.

(c) Other nonfictional ideations, such as analytic essays or CNF.

Accepted works will be published on a rolling basis to our Musings page.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material.

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait at least a couple months before submitting another.

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

We accept simultaneous submissions.

Upon acceptance, Propagule acquires the right to publish your work online.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

We are looking for:

\\ atypicality \\ unexpectedness \\ unreality \\ defamiliarization \\ intrepidness \\ transgression \\ escalation \\ unrest \\ alienation \\ disassociation \\ lyricality \\ hypnosis \\ Speculative Surrealism

While we are interested in abstraction and experimentation, we prefer stories that involve event-progressions or narrative development.

We are excited about stories that have traditionally not been considered literary, such as science fiction and fantasy. For some examples of our taste in this regard, see here, here, or here.

We champion new and underrepresented voices in our publications, and aim to prove that experimental fiction belongs to all. If you consider yourself someone traditionally unwelcomed by the genre, we strongly encourage you to share your work.

Submissions must be received by December 15th, 2024 to be considered for Issue Six.

Submissions may range from 1,500 to 10,000 words; any submitted pieces below or above this will not be considered. We are open to accepting flash, though we strongly prefer to receive a set of multiple related pieces.

Propagule is prepared to offer $5 per 1,000 words for the first 2,000 words, and $10 per 1,000 words thereafter (up to a maximum of $30) upon our decision to publish your work.

Propagule accepts only previously unpublished material. 

Please only submit one piece at a time—if your piece is rejected, we welcome you to send us another; if your piece is selected for publication, we ask that you wait until the reading period of the next issue to submit another story. 

Please do not resubmit the same piece more than once, even if somewhat changed—we do not accept unsolicited rewrites.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please notify us immediately if your piece has been accepted elsewhere, so that we can remove it from consideration.

Upon publication, Propagule acquires First World Serial Rights, First World Electronic Rights, and Non-Exclusive World Anthology Reprint Rights.

Please send your submissions through
Submittable.

Propagule is currently preparing Issue One for publication.

Consider becoming a member of our e-mail list to stay up-to-date on all things Propagule, which includes new releases, announcements, and other interesting Propagule initiatives.

Subscribe to our e-mail list:

Thank you for subscribing.
Something went wrong while submitting the form.