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About

Lost Souls is a magazine which delights in the dark, the strange, and the beautiful. We want to explore the edges of the macabre, and find the joy and delight in the unusual and the challenging. These aesthetics guide our focus, and we are seeking works which explore these experiences and themes. Style and experimentation are encouraged, and our goal is that, no matter what the content is, it is beautiful and thought provoking.

Our tastes and audiences are diverse, but across all formats we are especially interested in works which do the following:

explore the fears, uncertainties, the “macabre”, threats and dangers from the past, in the present and/or from possible futures
reveal or shed light on uncomfortable truths
critique or challenge social attitudes, beliefs and conditions of life, and/or
draw on the grotesque, mysterious, weird, fantastic, uncanny, “awe-inspiring” and/or supernatural.

We suggest reading prior issues of the magazine to get a feel for our style. You can see specific submission guidelines for each format below.

Focus and Themes

Lost Souls magazine is seeking submission of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Visual Art for our biannual print publication. We are open for submission during the following time periods:

31st October – 31st December (Australian contributors)
1st January – 31st January (First Nations and Indigenous Authors)
1st February – 14th February (contributors from anywhere in the world)

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Payment and Rights, Content Warning, Contributor Diversity, Other Information

Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry

Visual Art and Photography

How to Submit

Submissions

Lost Souls magazine believes strongly that artists are remunerated for their skills and work. We offer a $70 flat rate payment per fiction or nonfiction work, or per collection of poems or artworks. We also will provide you with a gratis digital copy of the issue you are featured in.

Lost Souls seeks first worldwide exclusive rights for print and digital publication for six months, with non-exclusive rights to host your work on our website in perpetuity, and reprint in any Lost Souls anthologies.

Content Warning

Lost Souls is a magazine of the macabre and the beautiful. This may include themes which are challenging. Please include clear content warnings on your header page in the top right, below word count. Please do no submit works featuring excessive gratuitous violence, on page sexual violence, or violence against children.

First Nations Contributors

Lost Souls acknowledges that there have been stories told on the lands we work for generations before our arrival here. We are especially interested in celebrating the works of First Nations Australians, as well as First Nations people from around the world. Our submission period is extended for First Nations authors to allow greater time and consideration for pieces that writers may want to submit. This extended period is for writers of Indigenous backgrounds, and not for stories which contain elements of First Nations storytelling.

Diversity Statement

Lost Souls Magazine is dedicated to presenting a diverse range of authors and voices. We highly encourage members of the LGBTQI+ Community, disabled writers, and writers from socio-linguistically diverse backgrounds to submit their works for our consideration. Lost Souls is committed to celebrating diversity within the arts. If you feel comfortable, we encourage submitters to include diversity information in their cover letter.

Debut Authors

Lost Souls wants to highlight and promote the work of debut authors. Please indicate in your cover letter if you are a debut author. For us, debut means no works of any length previously published through a professional setting, including self published.

AI Statement

Lost Souls magazine will not accept stories written by or with the support of generative AI or LLM technology.

Payment and Rights, Content Warning, Contributor Diversity, Other Information

Lost Souls magazine is seeking submissions of fiction that focus on “dark, strange and beautiful” aesthetics, experiences and/or themes. We are not limited by genre, and will accept all forms of speculative and literary fiction, including:

horror (e.g. supernatural, folk horror, psychological, body horror)
fantasy (e.g. paranormal romance, gothic, monster stories, dark fantasy, dark fairy tales, occult, dark urban)
science fiction (e.g. cyberpunk, grim dark, dystopian, post-apocalyptic), and
weird fiction, visceral literary fiction, magic realism.

Stories which feature erotica or sexually explicit content; stories reliant on unusual formatting; unexamined or uncritical representation of oppressive systems; and works which seek to undermine or belittle the experiences of vulnerable people will not be a good fit for our publication.

Details

Word limit: 1,500 to 4,000 words

File: Docx

Format: Shunn Modern Manuscript Format

Language: English

Reprints: No

Translations: No

Multiple Submissions: No. Please wait for a response before submitting again.

Simultaneous Submissions: Yes, but please inform us straight away if your story is accepted elsewhere

Fiction

Lost Souls will consider various kinds of nonfiction, including memoir, personal essay, life writing, travel pieces, features, profiles, essay/commentary and short reviews.

We are most interested in nonfiction work that:

reveals or helps shed light on difficult or challenging things ignored or hidden by society, family and culture
shares insights from authors, illustrators, filmmakers, artists and others focused on dark, strange and beautiful works
explores books, films, music, digital and board games, installations, computer programs and technology and other works of art

We are most excited about nonfiction writing that speaks to present day trends, issues and topics, while being informed by the past. We enjoy reading different and/or creative perspectives, and clear, relatable and/or accessible narrative styles.

We encourage use of references in the print magazine, but only a small number (e.g. three - five). We can publish a longer list of references online. Please use in text numbering (superscript) and a numbered reference list as endnotes. You must make sure that quotes and attributions are accurate.

Pitching

We are always looking for nonfiction pieces for the print magazine and blog. Please email ben(at)lostsouls.net.au and explain your proposed article in around 150 words, including description of: the kind of nonfiction story; your topic and its unique “angle” (what key argument or theme differentiates your piece from other stories on the topic); and its features that help engage our audience. Please also let us know when you will be able to send the finished piece.

Details

Word limit: 1,000 to 2,000 words

File: Docx

Format: Shunn Modern Manuscript Format

Language: English

Reprints: No

Translations: No

Multiple Submissions: No. Please wait for a response before submitting again.

Simultaneous Submissions: No

Lost Souls Blog (unpaid)

We welcome pieces of a short length (400-800 words) based on the print submissions guidelines.

We are most interested in reviews, pieces of commentary and critique about present day culture, society, books, films, games, art and similar topics. Please read other blog pieces to get a sense of what we publish.

Please send a short pitch (150 – 200 words) for potential pieces and a short bio (2-3 sentences).

Currently, we do not pay for blog pieces. However, publication in the blog can help to share your work with a relevant audience and gives you “priority consideration” in submission for the print journal.

Nonfiction

Poetry

Lost Souls is eager to publish poetry that explores the darker side of human and nonhuman experiences. We welcome experimental forms, both fixed and free verse, with a focus on vivid imagery and strong emotional through lines.

Details
Line limit: 20 lines

Page limit per poem: 2
File: Docx
Format: 1.5 line spacing, one poem per page
Reprints: no
Translations: no
Multiple Submissions: maximum of 3 poems
Simultaneous Submissions: No

Visual Art and Photography

Lost Souls seeks to include visual art within every issue to complement our prose and poetry. We will consider art in any medium so long as it is able to be provided to us in a digital format. We deeply enjoy seeing the wide ranges of subjects and mediums that artists are engaging with. Visual works do need to be able to be provided in digital form for publication. Lost Souls will consider single page comic or graphic novel style works.

Lost Souls is published in black and white, so please consider this when submitting your work.

Please submit up to five lower resolution thumbnails for consideration as an attachment to your submission. Please also include a short cover letter with some information about your creative practice and any other relevant information about your pieces.

Details
File: JPEG, PNG, TIFF
Multiple Submissions: up to five artwork thumbnails

How to Submit

Lost Souls receives submissions via email. You can send through all types of submissions to submit(at)lostsouls.net.au. When sending in your submission, please follow the formatting guidance below. To prevent our filters from sending your email to spam, please use the following format for your subject line:

SUBMISSION - [submission type e.g. FICTION] - [title of work] - [your name]

The body of your email can contain a few sentences about you, but please keep the bulk of information about yourself and your work to your cover letter.

Any submissions which do not meet our requirements in terms of file format, layout, or content expectations will be rejected unread. We ask that you double check that you have followed all our requirements to make sure that your work gets seen by one of our first readers.

Cover Letter
Please include a short cover letter with your submission, which can include information about you as an author, your story, and any other relevant background information. Please keep this letter brief. A couple of paragraphs to know more about you as a writer is all we need.

Attachments
Please include all written submissions as a Docx file and all images as JPEGs or PNGs. Files that do not meet this format will not be accepted.

Acknowledgement: these guidelines were based on a review of relevant work and research, best practice examples and outcomes from the magazine's initial establishment period.