“Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.”

― Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality

PRISM International invites submissions for its upcoming FILTH issue 64.1, edited by Ayda Niknami and Zahra Mayeesha.

A Latin aphorism, popularized by Carl Jung, states In sterquiliniis invenitur (“in filth it shall be found”). One way of interpreting this is that what we desire most is often found in the places we most fear to look. Filth is natural, primal, embodied—yet we treat it with stigma, fear, or disgust. We avoid filth and are simultaneously attracted to it. What are you afraid to find in your own filth? What do you find, despite your expectations, when you transgress into filth—acceptance and transformation, or self-loathing and degradation? 

We are looking for submissions that confront and live in the discomfort of filth—whether that lies in waste, eroticism, depravity, dirt, or something else entirely. What does the germ of filth give birth to, spread to? What does it inspire in you—vulnerability, liberation, or ostracism? What happens to filth if you resist the moralization of it? We dare you to befoul the beautiful, and to make beauty out of the profane. Send us prose, poetry, or hybrid pieces that explore the terrors and joys of desire, in all its baseness.

Check out the guidelines and submit here: 

https://prisminternational.submittable.com/submit

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We are accepting prose (approximately 4,000 words or less), and poetry (up to four poems, to a maximum of six pages). Please submit via Submittable. We pay $40 per printed page of prose and $45 per printed page of poetry. 

PRISM international publishes exciting, original material from established and emerging writers in Canada and around the world. Due to the high volume of submissions we receive each month, reply times range between 2 to 6 months, depending on the time of year. Please note: PRISM does not accept submissions from current and incoming students and faculty of the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Program (this includes the UBC Optional-Residency MFA Program). Work submitted by incoming students prior to their acceptance to the UBC Creative Writing Program, if still under consideration, must be withdrawn. In order to submit, UBC alumni cannot have taken a UBC Creative Writing Program course during the previous two years. PRISM does not publish the same writer twice in a publication year. 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• For contest entries, please refer to our contest page.
• Submit only one piece at a time, unless you are submitting flash fiction or non-fiction (under 1,000 words), in which case you may submit up to three pieces in a single document.
• Our recommended length for submissions is approximately 4,000 words or less. We have a limited page count per issue and aim to offer a platform for as many talented writers as possible. While we accept prose submissions of up to 25 pages (6,250 words), we must emphasize that it is only exceptional pieces of this length that will receive publication.
• For non-fiction, send original, unpublished literary essays, personal essays, hybrid-genre works, and literary journalism. Please note that we do not publish rhetorical, academic, or strictly journalistic non-fiction.
• Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please specify the genre of your submission in your cover letter.
• In your cover letter, please include your full contact information (including email address) and a short bio (approximately 50 words).
• All submissions should be set in Times New Roman, 12-point font.
• Submissions must be previously unpublished, in print and online.
• We accept simultaneous submissions. If your piece is accepted elsewhere, please let us know immediately.
• We purchase first North American serial rights, and pay $40/printed page for prose and $45/printed page for poetry. Contributors will receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears.
• We strongly encourage submissions from Black and Indigenous writers, writers of colour, writers with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ writers, and writers from other intersectional and marginalized groups, including low-income earners. If you identify as one or more of the above and would like to let us know, please mention it in your cover letter.