Navigation

Artifice is a nonprofit literary magazine, published twice annually, that aims, by content and context, to showcase creative work aware of its own artifice. The things we like, we like more than we can stand.


Artifice Magazine's currently-reading book recommendations, reviews, favorite quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists

 

The Wishlist


Of course submissions are in no way limited to the following. But here are some things that we'd be pretty excited to see in our submissions. And don't forget to visit the Wishlist Archives.

  • A dictionary in miniature
  • An encyclopedia in miniature
  • A thesaurus in miniature
  • Something that includes a Greek chorus
  • A timebomb, ticking or otherwise
  • 5 photos with captions
  • The contents of a specialists' drawer
  • 1 story of heroism ending with the word "sandwich"
  • 1 police blotter
  • 24 want ads
  • 16 missed connections
  • 2 redactions
  • 2 ransom notes
  • 2 responses to ransom notes
  • 2 stories written in bad faith
  • A narrative in the form of a maze
  • A maze in the form of a narrative
  • 1 bundle of hate mail tied with a ribbon
  • 1 bundle of love letters tied with a shoelace
  • 4 stories, fictional or not, that would embarrass the author if we printed them
  • 3 choose-your-own adventures
  • 3 adventures you chose on your own
  • 2 poems that require legal advice
  • 2 poems that require bodyguards
  • Proof that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
  • 1 intellectual property rights minefield
  • 1 story torn from a book-keeping badger
  • Baby teeth
  • 1 frozen dinner
  • 1 audio cassette of yourself banging your face against a cake with squishy noises
  • 1 poem in anagrams
  • 3 of the saddest sentences ever written
  • An assortment of graphs
  • 1 flowchart
  • A series of sticky notes (we won't limit you to Post-Its)
  • 1 engaging Powerpoint presentation
  • A wall
  • 3 poems that would make good pets
  • 4 poems that use clipart/small pictures as punctuation
  • 2 stories written in the form of menus
  • 5 stories containing no characters
  • 17 one-line poems
  • 1 story in which the narrator passionately hates the reader, real or implied
  • 5 poems or stories in the form of equations
  • 3 poems created by elliding words from Project Gutenburg, Wikipedia, US Weekly or People Magazine quotations (ellided words should be included, but struck through or x'd out)
  • 1 poem cycle in which each poem in the cycle uses a different form
  • 1 "real" essay on the subject of "fake" essays
  • 1 "fake" essay on the subject of "real" essays
  • 1 concrete poem
  • 1 Literary/Horror/Western/Conspiracy story (that is, a story that's all four at once)
  • 3 stories starring historical personages
  • 3 poems created from tabloid articles via the cut-up method
  • 4 labyrinths created using parentheses, footnotes, endnotes, etc
  • 3 comics (.pdf format, please)
  • 5 stories that involve pictures, not as illustrations, but as an integral part of the stories themselves
  • 7 diagrams of horrible machines
  • 1 story designed for easy disassembly and transport
  • 1 story torn from a bookkeeping ledger
  • 1 mathematical proof
  • 3 stories or poems in the form of rules to an imaginary game
  • 4 stories that involve giant animals in some way
  • 2 poems based in whole or in part on Akira Kurosawa movies
  • 3 poems or stories based on internet memes
  • 3 pieces that will stump our graphic designer
  • 1 ode written in code
  • 1 poem meant to be included in an errata
  • 20-30 (at least!) drawings for a corner-of-the-magazine flipbook (Submit as .pdf; on acceptance, high res images will be needed)
  • 1 book review collaboration between the reviewer and the reviewed
  • 6 detonated bombs
  • 2 poems you wouldn't show your mother
  • 2 poems you wouldn't show your father
  • 1 piece, any form, called "A Basic Guide to Science"
  • 2 stories or poems that involve folding or cutting the paper on which they are printed
  • 2 stories that require active reader participation
  • 1 story in the form of a multiple-choice personality inventory, such as the MMPI
  • 1 poem in the form of restaurant orders called out by the expediter and shouted back by the line cooks
  • 1 piece you'd tell a child not to put in their mouth
  • 3 halves of a story
  • 1 game code that unlocks a secret level
  • 3 instants
  • 3 instances
  • 1 Schrödinger's box
  • 1 Nutrition Facts Label
  • A couple good jokes
  • 1 story that is entirely true
  • 1 story that is entirely truthful
  • 1 story that is entirely "true"
  • 1 poem in anagrams

Plus, you're probably wondering who our favorite writers are. The indirect answer is over at Goodreads.

Want to help us out? Submit here.

Got an idea for our wishlist? Shoot us an email or say hi on Facebook.