Fiction Guidelines

We are looking for

         work that pushes the culture

         work that questions assumptions

         work that moves us to reconsider.

We are not looking for

        genre fiction (mystery, cowboy, gothic, romance, etc.)

        work whose primary purpose is didactic, political, religious, or pornographic.

We have a bias in favor of stories that bring human beings to life quickly and deftly through vivid images and revealing action.  We care less about plot, theme, and ultimate meaning than about the people we meet in the fiction we read.   We want them to stay with us.

This is an experimental journal, so you get points for creating your own new fictional techniques, or using old ones in innovative ways, for doing something other fiction writers will wish they would have thought of first.

We're suckers for prose with some style.

We are willing to look at fiction of any length, but of course it is much easier for us to publish something short than something longer.

Please send only unpublished work.  Simultaneous submissions are fine so long as you let us know.

Send electronic versions (as plain text or as Microsoft Word attachments) to the email address "FictionEditor" at squarelake.com.  Send paper to:

            Fiction Editor

            Square Lake

            6041 Palatine Ave. N.

            Seattle, WA 98103

Please include a brief bio.  No return postage is required if you don't need your manuscript back and an email response is okay with you.