Become a part of the Hearth & Coffin family. Submit and share today.
While studying creative writing in college, I often wondered if I would ever realistically work in publishing. I thought the concept was thrilling; publishing new works, uplifting fellow writers, networking with them, reading creative goodies yet unseen by the public and having the honor to be the one to share the best among them. Would I come across a story written by the presently-unknown next Maya Angelou?
Over subsequent years, life took me in a different direction. I'm not disappointed in the least. I love what I do for work; I am still writing for a living, after all. My byline has appeared in countless nooks and crannies, big and small, all around the country. A relative once told me that she knew of my work because she Googled me. Mama, does that mean I made it?
One night while sitting in my apartment with my partner in Montrose, Houston, it occurred to me that while I didn't end up working in publishing, I could still uplift the voices of other writers looking to share their works with the world.
An ambitious project was born: An online literary journal named Hearth & Coffin.
I settled on a name that elicited both feelings of comfort and dread. Life and death. Here and eternity. The lifecycles of all of us—writers and poets, creatives and not, aesthetes and utilitarians—are united in what we feel; or rather, what narratives on a page have the capacity to make us feel, regardless of our lives.
Hearth & Coffin Literary Journal has been a long-time-coming labor of love for this scruffy writer. I am thrilled to stand with my friend and colleague (and extraordinary poet) Rachael Matthews and present it to you all today.
Submissions for Volume One, Issue One open today, November 1, 2020, and close on February 28, 2021. The theme for Issue One is Conception—submissions (prose and poetry alike) should refer to this theme in some way. We want to know what this word means to you; what stories it stirs within you. This could be different from what it means to your best friend, which is different from what it means to the Queen of England, which is different from what it means to the guy who smokes on the stairs outside of your apartment, and so on. Show us, don't tell us.
Your works of prose and poetry may be submitted via email to submissions@hearthandcoffin.com.
For more information on submissions including word count caps and guidelines, please visit our FAQ page.
Welcome to Hearth & Coffin. I'm so glad you're here.
Thank you all and happy writing,
Barrett White
Editor-in-chief