Libre wants to publish writing about mental health, whether that takes the shape and structure of surrealist short story, true-to-life flash fiction, micro CNF memoir, brief essay, or visual art.
We’re especially in love with a lyrical turn of phrase & writing that reddens with prophetic wisdom. We’re interested in essays that bravely look beneath the baklavaic nature of genre, that aren’t afraid of light research or the well-placed realist anecdote in mythic context. Write to us about phenomena of the mind, steep her in scene & symbol.
Tell us about the time your brain went sideways. We’re here to prove the existence of ourselves.
Please keep longer prose submissions (both fiction and CNF) bearable--our max word limit is 1,500.
Poetry submissions have no word count, but we consider 5 poems per submission our sweet spot.
If you consider your prose piece "flash", do consider mentioning that in your cover letter.
As for formatting, please use Times New Roman, size 12 pt font, and a color like black will do.
We prefer .docx files over PDFs.
Double-spacing is a friend for our weary eyes, unless otherwise stated.
As for art submissions, while we don't require it, we would love to read a paragraph about the inspiration behind your work. Please include it as part of your cover letter.
We highly encourage simultaneous submissions as we’re well-versed in the trials and tribulations of publishing. We're honored you're considering us in the first place. Writers and artists have to eat, and to eat, they must publish. Waiting for word is an excruciating process, and we will do our best to get back to you within two months' time. All we ask for is prompt notification that a piece has been accepted elsewhere.
Please wait six months after submitting to do so again. If you've recently been published in Libre, please wait nine months before submitting to us again.
As a humble start-up, we can’t offer much in the way of payment, but we’re proud to offer our writers and artists $5 per story, essay, artwork, and photograph. For Issues, we pay $20 per piece. The payment will be issued through the contributor’s preferred method of payment (PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle). You're lending us a piece of yourselves; the least we can do is pay you the price of a side of fries. Your art is worthy of payment, and we sincerely hope that we'll be able to offer more substantial funding in the future.
Libre holds serial rights for six months after publication. Authors and artists agree not to publish or reprint for that amount of time. After this allotted time is up, all rights revert back to the author/artist.
Other important things to understand:
Submissions are published on a rolling basis unless otherwise stated.
We do publish issues every 3-6 months. These are usually themed, announced via social media.
It may take us up to 2 months to respond to your submission. We’ll do our best to beat those odds.