skear zines
Skear Zines is a collective of three artist writers who are interested in collaboration, making a difference, curiosity and love.
We are on hiatus for 2024.
We are on hiatus for 2024.
call out! 2023 - now closed
Skear Zines is looking for zines that sow the seeds of our futures!
What world do you want your writing to build?
We’re looking for spells, speculative flash fiction, magic realism, thrutopias, entangled memoirs, literary maps, or any other writing ways that manifest desirable thrivable futures.
These can straddle prose and poetry, fiction and memoir, narrative and non-consecutive sequences, short or longer pieces (anything from 50 – 2400 words), fragments or some other experimental form. We’re open to combining image with text, embedding web-based audio into the zines and other things we’ve not yet thought of.
Skear Zines is looking for zines that sow the seeds of our futures!
What world do you want your writing to build?
We’re looking for spells, speculative flash fiction, magic realism, thrutopias, entangled memoirs, literary maps, or any other writing ways that manifest desirable thrivable futures.
These can straddle prose and poetry, fiction and memoir, narrative and non-consecutive sequences, short or longer pieces (anything from 50 – 2400 words), fragments or some other experimental form. We’re open to combining image with text, embedding web-based audio into the zines and other things we’ve not yet thought of.
We aren’t looking for longer speculative fiction, instructive journalism, polemics or problem solving. This is a zine call-out! Please consider that container when thinking about your submission. We encourage you to explore Skear Zines by looking at our past Zines on our website. We want to work with writers who are interested in collaboration and willing to work closely with an editor to bring the zine to life. We’re particularly interested in working with people who haven’t been published or whose work has been overlooked.
Each zine is a folded A3 sheet, printed on recycled coffee cups.
Due to postage costs we can only work with writers who either live in the UK or have a contact in the UK we can send the work to.
If you have writing that is suitable to be worked into a zine format, send that. If it isn’t completely finished, just on its way, please add a few sentences detailing your vision. Send between 50 – 1200 words to skearzines @ gmail.com in a single word document, with “Zine Call Out! 2023” in the email header, and your name as the doc title.
Dates you need to know
Applications open: NOW!
Submissions close: 2300 BST Tuesday 13th June 2023
Writers contacted: week of 10th July
Editing and formatting: Aug – Oct
Launch: mid November 2023
We encourage you to explore Skear Zines by looking at our past Zines on our website.
Dates you need to know
Applications open: NOW!
Submissions close: 2300 BST Tuesday 13th June 2023
Writers contacted: week of 10th July
Editing and formatting: Aug – Oct
Launch: mid November 2023
We encourage you to explore Skear Zines by looking at our past Zines on our website.
FAQs
Can two writers submit for one zine?
We are happy to work with existing collaborators, as long the word count fits the criteria and you are both willing to work with us on editing your work, if necessary.
Can I submit my own artwork with my writing?
You’re most welcome to submit your original artwork with your writing, although we can’t guarantee to accept it alongside the writing (see below). Keep in mind that it’ll need to be visually legible at a small size, and reproduced in a limited ink palette, so it won’t be possible to reproduce photo-quality colour. Have a look at our past zines for examples of what’s possible.
Will you take all the work I submit?
The zine is the queen of the editing process. The format for your work decides what of the work you submit will best fit. It might be that we cannot fit all the writing comfortably in the zine we think is best suited to the writing, and will give more space for the work to breathe within the folds.
Does it need to be finished?
If you think this call out is perfect for what you’re working on and your writing is well on its way while not finished, please send it with a few sentences detailing your vision for its completion.
Does the work need to be thematically linked?
Do consider how your writing will cohere as one zine. It can be separate texts which accumulate to more than them solo, or it can be a single piece of prose. Be intuitive is probably the best way to approach what to submit. Or have a look at the zines we’ve published previously.
How do I know which format of zine my writing will be set in?
You won’t, and we won’t, until we’ve selected the writing and had conversations with the writers about their aspirations for the work and our own responses to it.
Do I have to be based in the UK to submit?
Due to postage costs we can only work with writers who either live in the UK or have a contact in the UK we can post the zines to.
How many zines will be printed from my submission?
Print run is 40 zines
Writer receives 20 zines for their use
Skear Zines retains 20 zines for review/promo & to cover paper and printing costs
Are you looking for any subjects or themes in particular?
See 2023 call out. Also bear in mind what we say on the About page. Skear Zines responds to the writers we work with. It aims to resist homogenisation, and celebrate querenesse. We want to give space to those voices that might not fit into traditional publishing models, voices that have been sidelined or as yet unheard, voices that have small (yet big) things to say, voices that will sing in unconventional forms.
FAQs
Can two writers submit for one zine?
We are happy to work with existing collaborators, as long the word count fits the criteria and you are both willing to work with us on editing your work, if necessary.
Can I submit my own artwork with my writing?
You’re most welcome to submit your original artwork with your writing, although we can’t guarantee to accept it alongside the writing (see below). Keep in mind that it’ll need to be visually legible at a small size, and reproduced in a limited ink palette, so it won’t be possible to reproduce photo-quality colour. Have a look at our past zines for examples of what’s possible.
Will you take all the work I submit?
The zine is the queen of the editing process. The format for your work decides what of the work you submit will best fit. It might be that we cannot fit all the writing comfortably in the zine we think is best suited to the writing, and will give more space for the work to breathe within the folds.
Does it need to be finished?
If you think this call out is perfect for what you’re working on and your writing is well on its way while not finished, please send it with a few sentences detailing your vision for its completion.
Does the work need to be thematically linked?
Do consider how your writing will cohere as one zine. It can be separate texts which accumulate to more than them solo, or it can be a single piece of prose. Be intuitive is probably the best way to approach what to submit. Or have a look at the zines we’ve published previously.
How do I know which format of zine my writing will be set in?
You won’t, and we won’t, until we’ve selected the writing and had conversations with the writers about their aspirations for the work and our own responses to it.
Do I have to be based in the UK to submit?
Due to postage costs we can only work with writers who either live in the UK or have a contact in the UK we can post the zines to.
How many zines will be printed from my submission?
Print run is 40 zines
Writer receives 20 zines for their use
Skear Zines retains 20 zines for review/promo & to cover paper and printing costs
Are you looking for any subjects or themes in particular?
See 2023 call out. Also bear in mind what we say on the About page. Skear Zines responds to the writers we work with. It aims to resist homogenisation, and celebrate querenesse. We want to give space to those voices that might not fit into traditional publishing models, voices that have been sidelined or as yet unheard, voices that have small (yet big) things to say, voices that will sing in unconventional forms.