971 MENU reads year-round, and we are pleased to consider well-crafted, unpublished work submitted by any author (if it was posted to a blog, it is considered to have been published). We put out a maximum of five very short stories each month, as well as occasional nonfiction.
We’re looking for stories, pure and simple. Impressions, gestures, sketches, recollections and reflections are occasionally momentarily interesting, but stories are memorable -- they vibrate. We’re after the vibrations, the sublime.
Vibrations arise out of tension and action (think guitar strings). Tension in a story arises where people encounter things. Their actions in these situations reveal a bit of character, causing readers to vibrate with both thoughts and feelings. This is what is meant by resonating with readers. Sketches (and the other things listed above) lack tension, action or both, but stories lack neither.
Send us a story. We love stories. We eat them up. It doesn’t matter whether they actually look like stories, as long as they do the above.
See about for more thoughts on stories, very short ones in particular.
Submit by emailing your original story to: 971menu@gmail.com .
We believe in rapid response, and will almost always reply within a week or two, if not within a day or two. If it has been a month or more since you submitted, please send a follow-up.
We can’t pay you for your work. Sorry about that.
971 MENU asks for exclusive electronic rights to your work for one month, and everlasting, non-exclusive electronic rights for inclusion in our archive.
Your work belongs to you. After it has run on the site, feel free to publish it elsewhere, but please mention the fact that it was first published here.
971
MENU loves to hear from you! Send questions, comments, praise or blame
to: 971menu@gmail.com .
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© 2006-2008
971 MENU