Submitting to The Angler
Note: Submissions are now CLOSED (as of September 30, 2009).
Thank you for your interest in The Angler. If you have a story you wish to submit, please consider the advice in the "What to submit" section below. In a lot of cases you will probably have to make some small revisions to your story to make it suitable for The Angler. If you haven't noticed already, The Angler is published by an active beer writer, amateur craftbrewer, kite-flyer, and idler. Most of the readers coming to this site are folks that are into the do-it-yourself mode, and people in life's slow lane, and people far to the left on the political spectrum. To get an idea about what sort of stories I'm looking for, please read the back issues (available here online).
IMPORTANT: If you have a story of less than 750 words that specifically references a craft beer and/or takes place in a bar, you can email those stories directly to me at theangler at donavanhall dot net. Such stories get special consideration because I also publish a craft beer periodical with a local paper distribution on Long Island. I publish one or two of these type of stories in each issue. See The Beer Hall for more info.
Submission Guidelines
I'm looking for topical fiction and creative non-fiction. I prefer short stories and first person essays. I do not consider poetry.
Together with your submission, please include a cover letter stating where you heard about The Angler. Also include a contributor biography written in the third person, not to exceed 250 words. In your biography, please provide a selection of your prior publications, if any, and links if the publications are in online magazines or journals.
Simultaneous submission of the same story to a different magazine is fine, just let me know if some other lucky editor has the privilege of publishing your story before I do. Also, previously published work is fine, as long as the original publisher is okay with it. If you have posted your story on your website, that's fine with me. I don't consider posting of stories on personal, author websites as being prior publication. You should include information about simultaneous submission and the prior publication history of the story in your cover letter.
Please limit yourself to only one submission per author at a time. Once I have made a decision concerning your submitted work, you may then submit another work for consideration.
Authors retain the copyright for the work submitted to The Angler. All I ask for is the permission (1) to keep a permanent archive copy of the work on the magazine's website, and (2) to reprint your story in a future print or online anthology. If your work is published originally in The Angler and then some other publisher with excellent taste in literature reprints your work, I ask that The Angler be acknowledged as the original publisher and a link provided to this web site. Submission implies consent to this request.
What to submit
What I'm looking for are well written stories. I'm interested in literary fiction. Rarely will I consider a genre-piece for publication unless the story pushes or bends the genre formula. I prefer works with strong characters, an original voice, and fresh situations.
I am especially interested in publishing experimental fiction. Here's a list of some of the writers whose experimental writings I enjoy: Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce, and Julio Cortazar. I'm also a consumer of books by the OuLiPo-ists, cf. Raymond Queneau, George Perec, Italo Calvino, etc.
Please do not send poetry. I am not qualified to evaluate poetry. I enjoy reading poetry, but am not in a postion to publish it.
I'm also looking for creative non-fiction on the following topics: literature, writing, the writing life, authors, food, dining, beer, brewing, wine, cheese, the gourmet life, travel, jazz, film as art, fishing, loafing, doing-it-yourself, the craft lifestyle, quitting your day job, etc. Please send a query letter first.
Submit general queries to theangler at donavanhall dot net.
