Submission Guidelines
As the title of our journal states, we seek to publish fiction that 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 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.
Incarnation will consider short fictional works of any genre, provided that they meet the standards stated above, and the guidelines enumerated below.
- Submissions should be thoughtful and well written, conforming to proper English grammar and spelling standards, dialogue excluded.
- Submissions should be in a state of relative completion, and formatted in a regular manner.
- Submissions should be free of all gratuitous or excessive violence, swearing, or sexual content. The ability to imply such things without showing them is one of the marks of a skilled writer.
- 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 be effective in film, but they are not effective in fiction.
- Though Incarnation is staffed by Catholics, this does not prevent us from accepting works written by non-Catholics. However, we will not publish explicitly anti-Catholic works.
- While we may consider fiction of any length, we are primarily looking for shorter works of 2,000-10,000 words. Works that exceed this length have considerably less chance of being accepted.
- 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.
- 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.
As our journal is in its infancy, we are not able to offer royalties at this time, though we hope to be able to do so in the future. Our authors retain all rights to their works, and are free to publish and submit them elsewhere.
Authors will be notified by email once their submissions have been reviewed. If a submission 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 the work is publishable as-is, we will request permission to publish it.