*****Subs Closed*****
Be sure to have read the About and Science Fiction Haiku & Artwork Submission Guidelines page for The Starlight SciFaiku Review to best understand the Geist of this literary journal, what we’re looking for and our requirements.
We accept only science fiction haiku, the closely related forms of senryu and tanka, and their sequences for this literary journal.
Please read Tom Brinck’s SciFaiku Manifesto to gain a complete understanding of this splendid form of science fiction poetry. It is a short and engaging read — and highly recommended!
SciFaiku is born of contemporary international haiku. SciFaiku, like traditional haiku, usually contain about 17 syllables, known as on or morae, in three metrical phrases of 5-7-5 but arranged in three lines per the English literary adaptation of modern haiku. There is flexibility here, both in the number of lines and in the syllable count but a draconian brevity is an absolute must and an electrical clarity of thought and explosively vivid imagery are ruthlessly prized.
Like traditional haiku, SciFaiku should ideally contain a kireji or verbal caesura, a cutting word. However, a kigo, or seasonal word, is not a requirement and could perhaps prove to be an almost comically burdensome element to include in SciFaiku anyway, but we’d love to see it where you can manage it! Importantly, whereas traditional haiku emphasizes nature, SciFaiku is concerned with science fiction, which may or may not even reference nature — we’ll leave that up to you — but it should definitely include science and technology words that evoke the wondrous world of science fiction. Titles are also optional.
SciFaiku Submission Guidelines
Submission of Unpublished Work
We accept submission of your original, unpublished work. We are not accepting work that has previously appeared in publication or that has already been selected by another publisher to appear in publication. Note: Self-published work is fine to submit.
Batch Limit
You may submit up to ten, but no fewer than three (with sequences being the exception: a sequence can exceed [10] linked scifaiku but must not consist of less than [3] scifaiku — no min. on sequences following these guidelines, with a max. of [10]), science fiction haiku, senryu, and tanka, in total. These should be submitted in one batch.
Manuscript & File Format Guidelines
Adhering to the industry standard manuscript format is the default, of course, and so it will always suffice. Remember, the idea behind such formatting is to improve the readability of your manuscript by editors, simple as that, it’s not designed to be oppressive. That said, the following guidelines are important to this publishing house, for all work submitted, including short forms. You’ll notice that our guidelines adhere to the standard manuscript format for the most part, but not entirely, as is the case with most publishers — we know what we like, and we’re going for a certain aesthetic.
Adhering to our specific guidelines facilitates ease of digital transferability of your work in addition to the aforementioned readability and aesthetic.
- Left-aligned title (for short form work)
- Byline (skip it, we look at name placement from a whole-page aesthetic)
- Left-aligned text
- One-inch margins all around
- 12-pt font
- Times New Roman
- Black ‘ink’
- Double spaced for long form (not necessary for short form)
- One space after a period, not two
- File must be submitted in an editable format, specifically, a Word Document (.doc).
- ATTENTION: Do not try to submit a Word .docx file (that’s .docX), our web hosting service will not allow a .docx file to be uploaded and so we have blocked that file type in the submission form. This issue has absolutely given us the bivering shitz but there is no working around it. Simply save your .docx file as a .doc file, it’s very quick and easy to do: Open the document > File > Save As > This PC > Location > Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc) > Save (you don’t need to rename it, it creates a new file).
Although not required, please include a short writer/author bio.
We look forward to reviewing your work!
