“Without mystery, without curiosity and without the form imposed by a partial answer, there can be no stories – only confessions, communiques, memories and fragments of autobiographical fantasy which for the moment pass as novels.”
John Berger, ‘A Story for Aesop‘

The first issue of the Dark Mountain journal will be published in May 2010.

This is where the voices of Uncivilisation come together, where the process of unwinding the old stories and hammering out new ones begins. It will have the dangerous beauty of torchlight reflecting off a blade in the darkness.

We are looking for submissions: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, writing which blurs the boundaries between all of these and writing which has no interest in boundaries. We are also looking for illustrations and illustrators.

If you are considering sending us your work, please take time to read what follows.

Submission guidelines

Before considering submitting anything, please read through this website carefully. In particular, read our manifesto, and the principles of Uncivilisation. These are the basis on which we will be publishing. If they don’t excite you, please don’t submit.

• We are open both to already completed work and to proposals or suggestions. There are no prescribed word limits, though we are unlikely to publish anything too vast.
• We don’t care who you are. We intend to publish both established writers and new voices.
• Our standards are high, and we will have limited space in each issue. We will only be able to use the very best of what we receive, which means that some people will be disappointed. Don’t assume this means we will never publish you, or that no-one else will.
• We are looking for something special: writing which challenges preconceptions, questions our place in the world, raises hairs on the backs of our necks, shows what writing and storytelling is capable of in desperate times. We are not looking for agitprop, ‘how to’ guides to ‘saving the world’, conventional nature poetry or anything which could comfortably find a home elsewhere. Surprise us.
• Submissions or proposals should be sent to info@dark-mountain.net The submissions deadline is midnight on 31st December 2009. We will read and carefully consider everything we receive. We will reply, too, to everyone who submits work; but it may take us a while. We’re a small, overworked, spare time operation. So please be patient.