The Strip
Website
This publisher has not updated their site since 2014. DO NOT SEND YOUR WORK!
From the Editor
We basically started The Strip because we think McSweeney’s is a big fat sellout and we do not understand how people have perfected an invisibility cloak but the Paris Review can’t accept electronic submissions. The Strip is in large part about stroking our own egos and amusing ourselves. And what publication isn’t? We value being honest so much that we’ll do it right here: we, The Editors, have some monumental egos. We do care about your writing and the fact that you submitted. That’s why, before we publish an issue, every submission will get one-sentence-minimum feedback stating at least one real, actual reason we didn’t accept the work, such as: “I saw the title and in the vast pile, yours looked depressingly boring.” or “Hey, you probably have something there, but you used a grocer’s apostrophe and I just wasn’t having it today.” or “I’d publish this, but if anyone is going to get published for writing about my exes, it’s me.” Genre divisions are stupid and for booksellers. We are writers. Do you write? Send us your stuff so we can mock it or publish it. We don’t give a shit if you want to call it a lyric prose flash short short or a novella in sestina form. We’re just going to call it writing.
Submissions
We don’t publish work that’s “good” or “conforms to literary conventions” or has “the old verities and truths of the heart.” We love that speech, but William Faulkner is dead and he certainly doesn’t run this publication. We take work we fucking like. Our selection process is totally subjective and we don’t have to justify it to you. This is American writing – you know it when you see it. We want stories that knock us on our asses. We don’t want a cover letter. If we don’t know you, we don’t care who you are. We only care about how you write. Did you write this poem while taking care of your cancerous mother? Are terrorists killing people in some malaria-ridden country? In this moment, the one in which we’re reading and trying to escape all that, that matters less than your use of an Oxford comma.
Upcoming
Every issue has a contest that the Editors refer to as “The Gamble” (yeah, Vegas and stripping metaphors run rampant at The Strip). Visit the site for the full guidelines, but here is a summary. “The Gamble” consists of two parts. 1) One Story Stud For one quarter (3 months for the guys and gals without green visors) your story is up for individual downloading (in addition to being included in the full issue), like songs on iTunes. You get paid in increasing increments when you hit 25, 50, and 100 downloads. 2) The Full Jackpot: One story stud is a solo effort, but the full issue is a team bet. This is the one game when the house is betting on you. If we hit a jackpot, everyone wins, including the readers. A partial jackpot occurs at 250 downloads, full jackpot at 500.
Information
Editors Name Hilary Gan, Melissa Gutierrez, John Dwyer
Print publication? No
Approx. Response Time? Less than 1 month
How often do you publish? Quarterly
Year Founded? 2013
Do you pay? Yes, see “The Gamble”
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Contact
Twitter @TheStripShort
Email the.strip.site@gmail.com
Show of irreverence and use of cuss words – is that how you want to differentiate yourselves? And is it how American writing is defined?