Guidelines
for Regular
Submissions

(Guidelines Updated 1/10/10)

What We're Looking For

At Cezanne's Carrot, we're looking for high-quality literary work that explores spiritual, metaphysical, transformational, visionary, or mind-expanding themes. We are most interested in stories that push us into a transcendent realm, that give us a higher understanding of our expanding, multidimensional selves.

We're looking for work that:

• Creates a sense of possibilities.
• Explores the range and depth of our experiences with what lies beyond the five senses. Call it the Universe, God, a different dimension, or simply the great, mysterious unknown, but show us how you see our common reality blending with other realities.
• Shows us the extraordinary, whether in ourselves, another timeline or parallel world, or in something overlooked as mundane and ordinary.
• Work that leaves us feeling inspired or hopeful--about humanity, about the world/universe around us. We're likely to reject stories that leave us feeling hopeless or depressed.

Careful attention to craft is equally important. We want polished work that displays an accomplished level of expertise. We're looking for talented writers, both new and established. In the end, we're more interested in your work than your resume.

Above all, surprise and delight us with your vision.

Submissions and Response Times

• We accept simultaneous submissions. If a piece is accepted elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible by sending an email to query@cezannescarrot.org.
• We accept reprints as long as the author has retained all rights to the piece. (Or has regained rights.) In your cover letter, tell us where and when the piece was originally published.
• Submit only one piece per category, and then wait to hear from us before submitting again.
• We read continually, all year long.
• Regretfully, we are unable to comment on submissions.
• To make sure that our response makes it past your spam filters, add editors@cezannescarrot.org to your address book or list of allowed addresses.
• Response times will vary. If it's been four months since you submitted and you haven't heard anything, send an email to query@cezannescarrot.org.

Payment

• We pay $10 for each story we publish. Payment will be made via PayPal to the email address on your submission (or to another you specify) upon publication.

How to Submit

• Email your submission to the appropriate email address (see individual sections for more information). Snail mail submissions will be discarded without response.
• Please include this information in a cover letter:
  • Your full name (and pen name, if appropriate)
  • Your mailing address
  • Your telephone number
  • For prose, the title and word count
  • A brief bio—up to 100 words
• NOTE: By submitting, you are affirming that the work is entirely your own creation, that you own the copyright to the work, and that the work's publication in Cezanne's Carrot would not violate the rights of any publication, organization, or individual.

Please read the specific guidelines for each genre:
Fiction          Creative Nonfiction

If Your Work is Accepted:

• We will ask for a clean copy of your story in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) or RTF.
• We will ask for a contributor's statement (100 words max.), a photo, and your email, website, or blog address if you'd like it posted with your bio.
• We'll ask you to agree to a simple email contract that gives us permission to publish your story.
• We reserve the right to correct usage, punctuation, and grammar problems. We may request other changes, as needed. Authors will have the opportunity to review substantive changes before the story is published.

Rights for All Works Accepted by Cezanne's Carrot

Cezanne's Carrot asks for the exclusive right to publish your work electronically for the three months. We ask for the right to maintain your work in the archives indefinitely or until you ask us to remove it. We also ask for one-time rights to publish your work in a future print and/or electronic anthology.

Authors retain the copyright to their work.

If your work is subsequently published elsewhere, we ask that Cezanne's Carrot be credited in the acknowledgement.

Fiction

We accept flash fiction and short stories from 100 to 3,000 words. Novel excerpts are acceptable if they stand on their own and stay within the word limit.

We accept: metaphysical, literary, visionary, magical realism, irrealism, surrealism, humor, experimental, speculative, and other genres as long as the work is literary and embraces our metaphysical mission and theme. We don't want to see: horror, gore, murders, serial-killers, abuse or drug stories, vampires and monsters, political stories, stories written for children, or stories that primarily promote an agenda or a particular religion.

Qualities we look for in fiction:

• Three-dimensional characters that do more than just serve a plot
• Good use of imagery and detail
• Realistic dialogue
• A beginning, middle, and end (doesn't need to be as clearly defined in flash or experimental works, but we do like to see some sense of movement or change)
• Smooth, tight prose that is the result of several, careful edits

Fiction writers may submit one story, pasted in the body of an email. Stories sent as attachments will not be opened, read, or responded to. Put your last name and the title of the work in the subject line.

Submit to: fiction@cezannescarrot.org

Creative Nonfiction

Give us your compelling personal stories, told in 100 to 3,000 words.

We accept personal essays and memoirs that deal with topics related to our theme. We're not looking for how-to articles, scholarly discussions, or political or dogmatic essays.

Qualities we look for in creative nonfiction:

• Good use of storytelling devices: imagery, plot, distinctive details, dialogue, etc.
• Tight prose that's gone through more than one good edit
• Emotional honesty and involvement in the piece
• Work that does more than simply describe an incident or experience
• Work that explores a universal theme within a personal story

Writers may submit one story, pasted in the body of an email. Stories sent as attachments will not be opened, read, or responded to. Put your last name and the title of the work in the subject line.

Submit to: nonfiction@cezannescarrot.org