Noneuclidean Cafe is currently Closed to Submissions.
 

Submission Guidelines

Announcements - March 10, 2008 (jump to Guidelines)

2007 and 2008 have been a time of great personal change, and those changes have impacted Noneuclidean Cafe's turnaround time and its publication schedule.  (If you want more background, you can read more here.)  To get back on a regular schedule, Noneuclidean Cafe is doing the following:

• Noneuclidean Cafe will publish a Winter-Spring Double Issue in April. 

• We are closed to new submissions, so that we can catch up on our current slushpile queue, as well as work on putting out the Double Issue. 

• We won't be publishing a Summer Issue this year.

• We'll get back on our regular schedule with the Fall issue.

Fiction

Noneuclidean Cafe is open to any well-written short fiction.  We are particularly attracted to literary uses of genre.  Think of what Dostoevsky did with the mystery story in The Brothers Karamazov, or the science fiction writing of Stanislaw Lem.  Think of the horror stories Kafka wrote.  Please check out What We Are Looking For.  For additional insights, you can also look at Suggested Reading and and our editor's blog, Slushpile Musings.

No minimum length.  Maximum length: 6000 words.  If you feel a longer story is a great fit for Noneuclidean Cafe, please query first. 

Please submit the full text.  Please do not submit more than one short story at one time, i.e., no multiple submissions.

We are also open to graphic fiction.

Poetry

We are particularly fond of poetry written in formal meter, which still manages to achieve a naturalness of voice.  However, we are open to any style, including experimental.   For additional insights, you can check out What We Look for in Poetry and Working with Meter and Rhyme on our editor's blog.

Please submit poetry in sets of 3 to 5 poems, attached to a single email, in a single file.  Please do not submit more than 5 poems at any one time.  We normally look to publish multiple poems by a poet in the same issue, to give readers a sense of the poet's range.  So while we will consider submissions of a single poem, it increases your chances of acceptance if you send multiple poems as part of the same submission.

Science Writing

Noneuclidean Cafe is looking to expand the articles we publish to include science writing.  Pieces should be written for the general educated reader.  Please query with your idea for the article, or submit full text.  Please do not submit more than one article at one time. 

Interviews and Book Reviews

If  you would like to do an interview or book review for Noneuclidean Cafe, please send a query to with "Query" in the Subject line.  We are looking for more book reviewers at this point. 

If you would like a book to be considered for review, please email to arrange.  Again, please include the word "Query" in the Subject line.

Photography

Noneuclidean Cafe is looking for photos to use for issue covers and to accompany pieces.  Noneuclidean Cafe will also consider individual photos and sets of photos as stand-alone pieces.  If you are interested in submitting photos, please query to , with "Query" in the Subject line.

Submitting

1. Use standard formatting.

2. Include your name, contact info, word count and the title of the work on the manuscript.

3. Save as .rtf or .txt file.

   • Please do not embed your story or poems in the email. 

   • Due to viruses and greater file size, Noneuclidean Cafe would prefer not to receive .doc files, and may at its discretion delete emails containing .doc files unread.

4. Name the file "YourName_StoryTitle.rtf", e.g., "Tolstoy_WarAndPeace.rtf".

5. Put "Submission" in subject line, followed by story title, e.g., "Submission: War and Peace"

6. Submit to

Note:

1. Unless "Submission" or "Query" is in the subject header, emails to with be automatically deleted. 

2. If you have a program that filters or challenges emails, add Noneuclidean Cafe's email address to your allowed list at the time of submission so that you will receive a response.

3. Simultaneous submissions are okay.  Please note in cover letter that the work is being submitted elsewhere.  Please notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.

4. No multiple submissions. 

5. We do not accept unsolicited submissions of reprints.

6. Please do not summarize your story, provide an outline, note the themes, or otherwise comment on your submission in the cover letter.

7. Noneuclidean Cafe is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts.

8. We provide feedback on rejections where time permits and we think we have something useful to contribute.  Please don't take lack of feedback as a comment on the quality of the work—it is a comment on how hectic our schedule was when we read the piece, or that we just didn't have anything useful to say.

9. We attempt to respond to queries within two weeks, and to submissions within one month.  (To date, our average response time has been significantly better than that goal.)  Upon submission, you should receive a receipt email.  If you have submitted a piece and not heard back within 45 days, feel free to send a follow-up email.

10. Noneuclidean Cafe's goal has been to provide both a fast turnaround time (see slushpile statistics) and personal notes with rejections.  As the number of submissions we receive goes up, our top goal will remain keeping our turnaround time fast.  We will also continue to provide personal notes as often as we can, but it's become impossible to do so in all cases.  Please be assured every submission is read and considered, even if we can't always provide a personal note.

11. Upon acceptance, we will email you a contract.

12. We automatically add writers whose work is accepted to our mailing list to receive notification when new issues come online.  This is done so you'll have an announcement of the issue when your work comes out.  If you don't want to be added to the list, let us know.

13. In response to feedback from some writers that they prefer not to use PayPal, we have added the option of payment by an Amazon Gift Certificate.

Rights

Noneuclidean Cafe acquires Exclusive First Worldwide Web publication rights for 120 days after publication, as well as the non-exclusive right to archive the work on the Noneuclidean Cafe website, and the one-time non-exclusive right to anthologize the work in a print and/or electronic format.  Copyright remains with the author.  Noneuclidean Cafe requests that any work that is re-published elsewhere contain a "First published in Noneuclidean Cafe" acknowledgement.

The author represents that he/she fully owns the submitted work, and all characters used in the work.

Noneuclidean Cafe accepts no liability arising from the publication of any work submitted.

Submission to Noneuclidean Cafe constitutes acceptance of these terms.

Payment

Starting with our Fall, 2006 Issue (Volume 2, Issue 1), Noneuclidean Cafe will pay the following rates:

• $5.00 per original short story, article or work of creative non-fiction.

• $5.00 per set of original poems.  The $5.00 is a flat fee, regardless of the number of poems in the set.

• $2.50 per original book review.

Our default method of payment is PayPal.  However, since a number of writers have said in their cover letters that they won't use PayPal, we have added the option of making payments through an Amazon gift certificate.

We do not currently pay for Book Excerpts, Reprints, Photos or Interviews.