SUBMISSIONS
APROSEXIA LIT is an International poetry journal dedicated to publishing the best poetry that shows what makes neurodivergent, cognitively challenged and disabled creativity fundamentally different from the neurotypical and able-bodied, and inherently dissimilar lived experience. The journal's overarching goal is to impress its readership with first-rate work, without placing undue emphasis on what makes illness legible to the "average reader" (if there is such a thing), but instead get to the heart of what it means to see and process the nature of the world is singular ways, and creative work doesn't fit dominant trends, or neat, handy boxes neatly preoccupied with encapsulating “universal truths.” Because there's no reason that it should.
In other words, we'd like to showcase poetry unconcerned with masking, or pandering to a theoretically “typical” readership. We believe that the offbeat and the strange can thrive on its own terms; that inherent differences are strengths; and we want to put down assumptions that the art of neurodivergent and challenged minds needs to be accessible to a neurotypical or able bodied on the first go. Getting along in the world is hard enough as it is—and we maintain that no artist should be preoccupied with being all things to all people.
Becuase that's just twaddle, and art shouldn’t have to be safe to be seen.
❖ ◈ ❖
APROSEXIA LIT publishes poetry & poetry adjacent work in English. For the time being that doesn't include translation. However, we welcome submissions from wherever you happen to be in the world.
We are now open for submissions, and will be on a rolling basis. Our new publication schedule has yet TBD, but will be dependent on the volume of submissions we receive. We expect this will also affect response time, but we hope that it will shorten our turn-around. The aim is to see the wait counted in weeks, and not months.
We will post better estimates once our new system has a chance to find its stride.
APROSEXIA LIT is an open access journal. We do not charge reading or submission fees, and as long as we remain active in this form, we never will. At this time, APROSEXIA is not a paying market—but we are actively working to change that.
Full guidelines appear below.
CONTENT
Send your strange and wonderful, offbeat and disturbing [within reason—APROSEXIA LIT isn’t about horror or the experience of abuse for the sake of it]; your dream logic; the stuff you write, and love, but no one seems to get; the inexplicable difficulties you experience in a difficult world; your awkward misinterpretations of neurotypical expectations. Most especially, you are invited to share your joy—even if it is bittersweet—and wherever and however you happen to find it. Whether manic, abstract, or mundane—we'd like to see it. This isn't the place where you need to mask what makes your work strange; unusual; wonderful.
The hope is that APROSEXIA LIT represents a chance for you to send work out into the world that comes from an origin of neurodivergent and invisibly challenged perspective, but isn't required to address the trauma of mental health or disability explicitly—although, if it does, APROSEXIA is a place where it may find a home, as well. If you would like to send something in to be considered, please do.
It should go without saying, but any work that advocates or glorifies hurt or harm will be obliterated from the APROSEXIA inbox.
INSTRUCTIONS
Please send us 3–5 poems, but no more than 10 pages. A new poem should begin a new page.
We can only accept .doc, .docx, .rft, and .txt files, and now .pdf!
Name your file like so:
lastname_firstname_month.[file format]
If you send a file named in any other way it runs a high risk of being lost. And if that happens, it's gone—and it's probably not coming back. [For the sake of our health, our relationships, and the well being of our pets, we need to stay realistic about our organizational skills and limitations with short term memory.)
Send your work to: submissions@aprosexia.org
Many of you will know the drill—but just to be sure that we're all on the same page:
✬ Previously unpublished work only.
✬ Simultaneous submissions are encouraged—but, be courteous and withdraw any piece if it finds a home elsewhere.
✬ If we can't give your work a home this go round, allow six months between submissions.
APROSEXIA absolutely wants to see what you, and your fabulous brain, can do. We also favor showcasing multiple pieces by the same poet. Send us your very best work. If we're not able to offer you a spot on the first go, you're welcome to submit again, just allow a little breather and opportunity for others to submit their work in the meantime.
✬ We don't accept work produced by, or with, or through iteration of LLM, “AI,” or any other machine-based composition aids.
There are a number of reasons behind this, but first amongst them is that we do not regard this technology as fair use. Without exception, the data used to train these models has not been acquired in good faith, with appropriate permissions, and definitely lacking genuine compensation. Using these tools to produce creative work also disregards the asymmetric levels of time and effort put in by unequal creators. If you disagree with this, that's your prerogative—but our inbox is not the place to challenge our position.
✬ APROSEXIA is not a paying market, but we are actively working to change that in the near future.
✬ APROSEXIA LIT doesn't, nor will it ever, charge reading fees.
✬ We ask for first serial rights, and the right to archive your published work indefinitely. [As our issues are designed as self-contained publications, the effort that would go into altering them retroactively isn't feasible. This means that for as long as our issues can be maintained on online, they will be. If you're not okay with this we won't be able to publish your work.]
✬ Copyright always remains with you, as the author—but, if you publish work featured APROSEXIA LIT elsewhere, we ask that you credit our good taste. Also, congratulations—and we would love to know the good news—as well as include it under your bio on the contributors section of the website.
DISCLAIMER
APROSEXIA LIT operates under the assumption that people who do and say hateful things should find their produce has rapidly decomposed in the fridge overnight; milk products purchased at market gone sour on the way home; just one sock of any pair ever return to them from the dryer; and anything that they've ever truly wanted from life to remain forever out of reach. If you're someone who feels compelled to spew intolerance and malice at other human beings—especially if those qualities are reflected in your writing—go away. We hope you're about to be chased off a cliff, in melodramatically hostile rain—throw down to the rocks of a raging and polluted sea—by angry villagers wielding sharp and fiery objects.