MORTAR MAGAZINE evolves the idea that writing can and should be incisive, coming in at the edges, doing that elusive something that makes us question motive, genre, meaning, or narrative itself.

While we accept any prose or poetry submissions, we have a soft spot in our hearts for of-the-moment writing, in the sense of experimental forms and new voices. As a visual, mortar exists on the boundaries of the big, the obvious, the flashier brick. Mortar occupies the outskirts. We’re looking for those strong mortar voices: women, gender-nonconforming, and non-heteronormative writers, speaking from the experience of living and writing in 2017.

Ideally we won’t be able to articulate—or at least anticipate—what we want: in a nutshell, we’re hoping to be surprised. We want the going-over-the-top-of-the-rollercoaster intake of breath, the thrill that comes from the writing that is confidently new and clearly on a forward trajectory.

Please submit using the form below, or email files to magazinemortar@gmail.com. We welcome simultaneous, unpublished submissions, but please keep us informed of any submissions that are accepted elsewhere.