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LOST SOULS will be open for print submissions shortly. Submissions for the blog are open from March 2025.
LOST SOULS is looking for submissions of dark and intelligent fiction and nonfiction, including poetry, short stories, narrative nonfiction, essays and cultural and social commentary.
The magazine is seeking to perform a re-animation in Australian publishing. Specifically, to revive exploration of things unsettling, horrific, strange, taboo, weird, uncanny, futuristic and/or fantastic through works of poetry, fiction, memoir and nonfiction. So that writers in Australia can try and make sense of the fear from a world that seems to teeter on the edge of destruction. Reveal uncomfortable truths. Or, perhaps, simply enjoy writing about the grotesque and supernatural.
All contributions and work for the magazine, including those responsible for its development and management, is currently performed on a volunteer basis. The way work is performed will be reviewed upon publication of the first and second issues.
The magazine will be sold at a price to cover the costs of production (e.g. printing, website hosting). Once the level of interest in the magazine is established for its first two issues, and more is learned about its viability, income and expenditure for the magazine will be reviewed to determine what is possible for payments to contributors and related financial arrangements in the future. We also review our processes regularly and aim to support writers to make the process as easy and rewarding as possible, including feedback and suggested edits.
For the print magazine, the editors would like to consider the following kinds of pieces.
1. Intelligent fiction (horror, weird, supernatural, gothic and/or science fiction) that critiques social attitudes, beliefs and conditions of life now, in the future or in the past (2,000 – 5,000 words).
2. Memoir or personal essay that reveals or helps shed light on difficult or challenging things ignored or hidden by society, family and culture (1,000 – 2,000 words).
3. Feature articles, profiles or interviews involving authors, filmmakers, artists and others focused on work with dark elements (1,000 – 2,000 words).
4. Essay/commentary, or reviews on dark and literary books, films, music, digital and board games, installations, computer programs and technology and other works of art, and (1,000 – 2,000 words).
5. Poetry that explores the darker side of human and nonhuman experiences.
Submissions will be reviewed by a small group of editors and writers with relevant expertise for consideration to be published. Some submissions selected for publication will appear in print and online.
For the blog, the editors welcome pieces of a short length (400-800 words) based on the criteria above.
Submissions
REVIEW
Ben O'Mara
November 2024
Aliens: Bishop is a franchise tie-in novel that is a gritty and thought provoking addition to the Alien universe.
REVIEW
Ali Alizadeh
January 2025
Pascal Plantea's film Les Chambres Rogues (Red Rooms) takes viewers on a terrifying journey into mental spaces as dark as the horrors of the dark web.
REVIEW
Phoebe Lupton
December 2024
Naomi Klein's Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World draws on memoir-cultural criticism to reveal a disturbing lack of kindness in the era of misinformation.
Lost Souls Magazine in print and online is proudly independent.
We are based in Melbourne and Canberra.
The design and development of this website was based on a scoping of best practice and relevant examples. Work included websites for Heat Magazine, Meanjin, Overland, The New Yorker, Rue Morgue, Dark Mountain, The Dark and Weird Studies.
We acknowledge, recognize and pay our respect to the Ancestors, Elders and families of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung of the Kulin who are the traditional owners of lands where we work and live in Victoria, and the Ngunnawal who are the traditional custodians of land in the Australian Capital Territory.
