Einstein's Tongue
The Short Version:
We are a multi-disciplinary journal. As such, we are interested in electronically publishing written, visual, and audio pieces in nearly all disciplines, including (but not limited to) literary fiction and non-fiction, art, music, science, language, history, and philosophy. We are happy to consider anything that is well-executed and demonstrates an original and/or unusual creative, poetic, scientific, technical, or exploratory vision. Attach submissions as Word documents, .mp3 files, or .jpeg files. Only original, previously unpublished or undistributed work may be submitted. Please include a biographical statement with your submission. Reports in 2-4 weeks. Einstein's Tongue retains first serial rights to publication and electronic distribution only. We regret that we are currently unable to offer payment to our authors. No print version of Einstein's Tongue exists, nor will there ever be one.
The Long Version:
Whimsy and genius are difficult to define, but here’s a start:
Whimsy is a refreshing perspective, an odd idea, a flight of fancy, a statement out of step with the ordinary. As commonly understood, genius is about individual talent, extraordinary intellectual aptitude, startling creative power…all that stuff. We want to see what’s happening at the interesting edges of various disciplines and at the exciting outer reaches of interesting people’s thoughts.
Genius is probably not a perpetual state, but a state that is occasionally glimpsed by the best minds as they, like Socrates’ lovers (not his lovers, but the flying lovers he spoke of in this context), rise from time to time above the clouds and are rewarded with a glimpse of the sublime, before the wheel of existence begins its downward swoop once more. In other words, no, you don't have to have an IQ of 220 to submit material to us, because heaven knows we certainly don't (although Angela does have her moments).
Whimsical genius is difficult to define, but – like pornography – we know it when we see it. We suspect that many of you do, too, so we operate on a version of the honor system; if you catch yourself committing a creative act of whimsical genius, you are expected to turn yourself (or, more specifically, your creative product) in. If you are doing something that is productively out of the bounds of the expected, we want to know about it.
That said, however, we have some hang-ups, preferences, and pre-conceived notions. Here’s a representative sampling:
We want fiction, non-fiction, essays, reviews, poetry, and intelligent, delightful stuff from any discipline and many media. The limitations of technology prevent an all-inclusive embrace of forms--a photograph of your sculpture is an inadequate representation, but it is probably better than nothing. We will consider excerpts from unpublished novels, too, but please query first for pieces over 2,500 words. We will also consider squibs, one-liners, and the like for inclusion, so if you worry that your piece is too short, it probably isn't.
If it’s precious, self-conscious, or tremblingly earnest for the sake of being earnest, it’s not Einstein’s Tongue material.
We will consider nudity, especially gratuitous nudity, which is way better than earnest nudity.
Accounts or depictions of gratuitous violence, especially sexual violence, especially against children (or the otherwise dis- or under- enfranchised), are repellent to us.
We like stuff that is quirky or unusual, but organically or holistically so. We respect integrity, and as we venture afield of the ordinary, it is revealed more obviously as the core of creativity.
No stories about writers writing. For that matter, no paintings about painters painting, or reviews of reviewers reviewing. There’s enough to contemplate without making one’s own craft the sole subject of one’s meditations.
We are lighthearted but sincere (without being smarmy) about this journal. We hope you will be, too. If, as Samuel Adams said, love truly is the soul of genius, then passion is the soul of whimsy.
You will, of course, retain the copyright to your work, unless you don't want it any more, in which case we will hang onto it for you. We keep a box of old copyrights by the door, next to the umbrella rack. The same rules apply to both--don't leave with one that isn't yours.