We are happy to announce that we are now accepting submissions of unsolicited manuscripts.

While we have been accepting submissions for quite some time, we thought it would be a good thing to actually announce it.

We have also updated our submission guidelines to give a more concrete idea of the ideal length we are looking for.

Below are our updated submission guidelines:

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As the title of our journal states, we seek to publish fiction which is consistent with the principles of a moral imagination. Roughly, this “moral imagination” may be defined as an imagination formed by the morals and customs of Western culture. Any author who takes his writing seriously will understand that he is not writing merely from his own limited experience or view of the world. He is working within a tradition that extends back over 2500 years, all the way back to Homer and Hesiod. The writer of fiction is working in the company of Cervantes and Shakespeare, Dante and Dostoevsky, all the “Greats” of the past centuries. The modern author may innovate, but he cannot innovate out of nothing. 

This being the case, we expect our authors to have some familiarity with, and respect for, the classics of Western literature. We hope that our writers will take seriously the task of contributing to the Western canon well-crafted works of enduring merit. We are looking for stories that go deeper than mere entertainment, stories that grapple with the questions of our age without losing sight of, or continuity with, the great works of the past. Keep in mind that the works of literature which endure from age to age are typically those which address perennial human questions and experiences, because, though civilizations change over the centuries, human nature does not change.   

That being said, Incarnation accepts submissions of fictional literature of any length or genre in line with the above, and the following guidelines. 

1. Submissions should be thoughtful and well written, conforming to proper English grammar and spelling standards, dialogue excluded.
2. Submissions should be free of all gratuitous or excessively graphic violence, swearing, or nudity. The ability to imply such things without showing them is one of the marks of a skilled writer.
3. Submissions should be free of material intended merely to take up unnecessary space. Overly extended action scenes, unnecessarily melodramatic dialogue, and other “sensational” material may work in movies, but they do not work in fiction. 
4. While we are a Catholic publication run by Catholics, this does not prevent us from accepting works written by non-Catholics. Our only caveat is that we will not publish work that is explicitly anti-Catholic.
5. Submissions should be in a state of relative completion. Please check your grammar and formatting thoroughly before submission. A basic formatting guide can be found here.
6. While we may consider fiction of any length, we are primarily looking for shorter works of 2,000-10,000 words. If your work exceeds this length it has considerably less chance of being accepted.
7. All submissions should be converted to Word documents and sent to submissions@incarnationjournal.com with the author’s name and “Submission” in the subject line.

While our ultimate goal is to give our authors some sort of compensation for their writing, it is not possible at this time. While the journal is in its infancy, authors must be willing to contribute their work more or less for free. We do not assume any rights to the work of our authors, besides that of publishing it in the journal; the author retains complete ownership of his work. 

You will be notified by email once your submission has been reviewed. If it is rejected we will try to explain the reason for rejection; if we think it could be published with some revision, we will offer editorial advice and the possibility of resubmission. If it is publishable as-is, we will request permission to publish it.

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In Christ,

Thomas Greninger

Publisher | Incarnation