The cause of Roman poet Ovid’s exile was “carmen et error”, a poem and a mistake. We want your poems and your mistakes. Fiction that falls between genres. Weird, wild poems. Anything speculative, daring, or just plain odd. Carmen et Error is a micro-journal/newsletter that features three-four pieces of exceptional work each quarter.

We’re looking for great work, although we don’t mind if it’s a little rough around the edges (we’ll forgive an error or two)!  If you want to get a feel for what we like, take a look at our past issues.

SUBMISSIONS

• • Submit up to two pieces in a .docx or .pdf document to carmenetsubmissions@gmail.com. Please make sure the name of the document is the name of the piece so “Jabberwocky_poem” rather than “Carmen_submission”.

• • Poems should be no more than 40(ish) lines. Fictions no more than 400(ish) words.

• • We publish translations where permission to publish is secured in advance from the original author or their estate.

• • A cover letter is not necessary but say hi!

• • Please include a short biographical statementof no more than 100 words.

• • Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know ASAP if its accepted elsewhere.

• We do not publish or platform hate speech in any way. No transphobia/racism/sexism etc., please.
• We do not accept submissions written by AI, and reserve the right to permanently ban “writers” of AI fiction from future submissions opportunities.
• We aim to reply to your submission within two weeks of submissions closing. Please query if you have not heard back in that time.
• We ask for non-exclusive, one-time, worldwide rights to publish your work in digital formats, and then to archive it indefinitely. We also nominate our published works for prizes including the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions and Best of the Net. If we do choose your work, we will email at the time to confirm.
• We are unfortunately unable to pay contributors at this time, and we make no money from your work. However, we occasionally run events and readings through The Braag and we do ask contributors to fill paid readings slots at our online events.