Symphonie's Gift Has Closed Indefinitely to Submissions

Symphonie's Gift began as a kitchen sink press outlet for literary dark fiction and ran for eight issues between 1995 and 1997. We offered a place to submit stories that fit neither the horror or fantasy mold and that were literary but never boring. The guidelines were relatively loose as we felt that some of the best work out there is "indescribable."

The reviews were great, and the stories routinely garnered award nominations and honorable mentions in mainstream venues. A.R. Morlan, Charlee Jacobs, William R. Eakin and others made the 'zine a literary success. Of course, sales remained low.

Since then, many popular terms have come around to describe the indescribable. We have transgressive, slipsteam, magic realism, and others. In each case, both author and editor have a very clear view of what each of these terms mean. It is the contention of Symphonie's Gift that popularization of such terms has not so much freed author and editor from boundaries, but rather reinforced them, and that some of the most interesting work goes unseen for not fitting a mold.

Symphonie's Gift has been resurrected to again address "the other" in dark fiction.

Guidelines

1) Send stories and scanned artwork to Bryan@BryanBergMedia.net - in the email text or as an rtf, doc, pdf, or jpg attachment. I seem to spend about as much time formating to individual editorial quirks for e-subs as I do writing lately ... e-subs should be efficient, and some semblance of "standard manuscript format" is fine.

If you have photographs, artwork, or other media that goes with your story, that is great - it's encouraged in fact - but email first so we can figure out the best presentation for your work.

2) Word limits: There are no word limits. But this is the Internet and frankly, the shorter the better.

3) Issues: Issue #8 appeared in print in 1998. We are calling this "Issue #9" and it is ongoing. Depending on how things shape up, I may release a PDF "best of's" in a more traditional format. In such a case, I will ask permission from authors and artists I want to include. For now, works will appear as web pages and/or individual PDFs.

4) What I like: in my spare time, I read Calvino, Borges, Thuciydes, Plutarch, Aimee Bender, Bulfinch, H. G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, Thomas Pynchon. That is, literary work beyond the ordinary.

5) Seeking: Flash and short fiction, photography, scanned artwork.

If you have other ideas, such as music or animations, I'm all for it and query (bryan@bryanbergmedia.net) me before sending.

5) Feeback and Response Time: What someone dislikes, another buys, and I don't see the point in a detailed response that does not request a re-write for publication. If the content or tone doesn't fit, I may note that for clarity of your next submission.

Send SG your best, unplaceable story - I may want to use it, and rejections will likely read "Not right for SG at this time." SG attempts to maintain short response times, often within days, though some responses have taken up to 3 months.

6) Payment: I offer no payment at this time. I will of course publish a link to your website or page with your story, along with a bio if you desire. We'll see how this goes, but I received some of my favorite work before SG became a paying market.

7) Rights: Symphonie's Gift requests First Electronic Publishing Rights, allowing that SG may publish the work here as a webpage and or PDF file.

Creators should bear in mind that most magazines will not publish pieces that have been published in print or on the web, so for all intents and purposes work published here can only be marketed as a reprint, drastically limiting the number of markets that will accept the work as well as the pay rate it can later receive. It is up to you, the author, to decide if publishing your work at this website and giving up your First Publishing Right for no payment other than exposure, is really what you want to do.

I strongly advise that this not be a first market to try for your work, but rather a place for that story you truly believe in that has not found a home, or for published material within your rights to submit for publication and that you'd like to see gain further exposure.

Reprints, original fiction, and artwork, or other, will be mailed to Bryan Lindenberger at Symphonie's Gift (bryan@bryanbergmedia.net).

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