What kind of submissions are Lucent Dreaming actually looking for?

Do you write to tell a story? Do you write to distil an idea or an emotion? Do you write to imagine something anew? Lucent Dreaming is currently open for short story, poetry and artwork submissions for our second issue, but because we broadly ask for ‘beautiful, strange and surreal’ creative work, it can be difficult for writers and artists to be certain whether we are the right market for them. So, let us clarify!

What we want, above all, is high quality writing. The content of your story/poem should be coherent, thoughtful and evocative. In fact, we are less focused on publishing purely surreal and strange pieces, and more focused on the emotional outcomes of consuming creative work. We appreciate pieces that evoke feelings that last beyond a single reading. Like any market, we want to publish memorable and original work. If they verge on the surreal, if they posit interesting questions about how we perceive the world, what could be possible if we imagined a slightly different reality, that’s even better!

Imagine us as a less bleak version of Black Mirror. We love ideas, we love the weirdness of dreams, we love what creativity enables us to imagine and feel, but we want to recognise and give space to feelings like wonder and awe.

If that’s your thing too, we’d love to read your work! We are open for our second round of submissions and our theme is WONDER. Take a look at our submission guidelines and get your short stories and poems in before July 3rd 2018!