PLEASE read and reread these guidelines carefully, seriously, patiently, and with the greatest attention you can muster in this Age of Distractions. It will help your chances enormously. Thank you!

SaragunSprings values AUTHENTICITY in Art.

We like short prose, the short poem, and photographs that are art.

In an Age of Lies, we look for TRUTH over the so-called “craft” of the writing schools: at all levels – big time, every time.

We want to showcase works that explore the Human Spirit, and are WRITTEN BY HUMANS for that purpose.

(Please send Robot-written works to Robot Editors. Human works which explore humans and technology are fine: see Kurt Vonnegut.)

We like Human Passion, Human Humor, Human Tragedy, and Human Imagination.

Please send: one short short story, short story, or novel excerpt (up to 5,000 words; exceptions are possible for exceptional work/s).

Or: five short poems (or one long poem. You decide on length but the short poem is the poem of our age (see Charles Bukowski); series are good, too).

Or: one creative micro-essay or essay, any topic (creative is key) (up to 5,000 words but exceptions are possible, etc.).

Artwork: we want photographs that are art (send five or less).

Other items we might look at include: one-act plays; short, independent film scripts that are readable as literature; literary comic strips; translations.

But all work should be in English.

The quicker you can get it done (the shorter the word count), the better we like it (we’re like Edgar Allan Poe in that way); but it has to be complete, and full, too.

Please include a brief cover letter that says hello and says who you are, in an original way (since you are an original).

We are generally repelled by pornography and gore (do not send, it will be looked at only long enough to tell what it is before being flushed), but we invite works that explore sexuality or violence (see Charles Bukowski).

Please follow all the usual protocols for submitting to quality art and literary magazines and sites. Standard fonts and set-ups, etc. If you don’t know what the standard protocols are, please don’t submit until you do (research it), then send.

We don’t have time for nonsense or folks who haven’t done their homework. It will be rapidly deleted.

Being short of cash at the moment, the only pay we can offer right now is literary and artistic glory. (It’s worth a lot.) Many of the writers in the list below wrote for free for much or all of their careers; Herman Melville is a great example; James Joyce was never paid more than a pittance except by patrons much later.

Never fear rejection: it’s a learning process; NEVER take it personally; learn from it and forge ahead. (“Never hurry, never rest,” said Goethe.)

If you send something authentic, we will read it, and respond in kind, and you will have gained at least two new readers in that way, even if we can’t publish it right now.

The Editors are open-hearted, deadly-serious artists (just the two of us) from the Seattle and Chicago areas, USA (still proud to be Americans even though…).

We will usually get back to you within a few weeks at most; usually much sooner. Please wait at least one month before contacting us again (in most cases).

A few writers and artists we mutually admire include:

Shirley Jackson; Charles Bukowski; Kurt Vonnegut; Dorothy Parker; Dr. Hunter S. Thompson; Omar Kayyam; Edward Fitzgerald; Bob Dylan; Muddy Waters; Stephen King; Harold Bloom; John Irving; the Brownings; the Brontes; Kate Bush; Marianne Faithfull; William S. Burroughs; Pablo Picasso; Salvador Dali; Carson McCullers; James Thurber; Eudora Welty; Howlin’ Wolf; Vincent Van Gogh; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Herman Melville; Ralph Ellison; Emily Dickinson; Walt Whitman; Washington Irving; Henry David Thoreau; Henry James; Edgar Allan Poe; Bram Stoker; Arthur Conan Doyle; Franz Kafka; Jorge Luis Borges; Robert Frost; T.S. Eliot; Carl Sandburg; Abe Lincoln; Saul Bellow; Langston Hughes; George Orwell; Flannery O’Connor; Charles Dickens; Edvard Munch; Mark Twain; John and Paul; Mick and Keith; Leonard Cohen; Kris Kristofferson; Kurt Cobain; Jeff Tweedy; Jim Morrison; all Native American and Wiccan Nature Worshipers; Albert Einstein the philosopher; Ernest Hemingway; James Joyce; Leonardo da Vinci; William Shakespeare; and Jesus Christ, the greatest Poet, Parabolist, and Story-teller who ever put feet on Planet Earth, and never accepted money for anything he did (just food, lodging, and wine).

Submit to: saragunsprings@gmail.com