Verklempt! is now accepting submissions for our upcoming issue ב!

Submission Guidelines

Please note that our submission guidelines have changed since the first issue, so please read carefully before submitting.

All submitted pieces must fit into one of four categories: fiction, poetry, translation, and visual art. Additionally, submissions will only be considered for publication if they relate, in some way, to the theme of the Verklempt! issue for which they were submitted. To submit an essay, please see the instructions at the bottom of this page for essay pitching guidelines.

Verklempt! is interested in publishing works by Jewish artists and writers, whether or not their artwork engages with Jewish ideas or themes. The pieces you submit do not need to relate to or be informed by Judaism or Jewish life, although submissions that do are more than welcome. Above all, we are looking for submissions that are original, thoughtful, engaging, and informed.

At this time, we are unable to offer any prize money for published work. We are a young, volunteer, nonprofit organization and we are working to make that possible in the future!

Please note – several actual human beings on our editorial staff read and review every single submission. We will get back to you, even if it takes us longer than expected. We take the time to carefully review each piece with the attention it deserves. We are a volunteer team of students and artists so we cannot always work as fast as we hope. Please bear with us.

Current Theme: Zion

Issue Bet of Verklempt! seeks submissions related to the theme of Zion. Not Zionism, not proto-zionism, not anti-zionism, not post-zionism. Zion. Just those four letters.

A word that has, in modern times, been cornered into one specific political understanding, Zion has historically floated in a cloud of meanings, impossible to pin down. Most simply, it is a placename, referring to the land of Israel, but also sometimes referring to only Jerusalem, or even to a particular hill within Jerusalem. It can also refer to the Jewish people or, conversely, to whatever it is that the Jewish people are lacking: their land, their nationhood, their Temple, the world to come. Zion is about dreams and aspirations, it is about progress and the creation of a better society, but it is also about return, and it carries with it a heavily nostalgic mood.

At its core, Zion is best understood as a longing, albeit a deeply complicated and self-contradictory one. It is a present longing that strives at once for both the past and the future. It is the act of longing, but it also refers to the object of longing, and to those who long as well.

We are seeking submissions that contemplate these ideas embedded in Zion, with the care and nuance they necessitate. Submitters are encouraged to approach the theme from any angle they wish. You can engage with modern discourse on Zion, historical contemplations of Zion, or you can work with any other lens, be it spiritual, agricultural, etymological, philosophical, or otherwise. Pieces that deal with the theme more abstractly — perhaps by engaging with themes of longing, exile, land, aspirations, etc. — are also encouraged.

- We are accepting a maximum of one short story for review per issue, no word limit.
- Please submit as a single PDF, with your first and last name in the title of the document.
- We are accepting a maximum of five poems for review per issue, no word limit.
- Please submit all your poetry in a single PDF, with your first and last name in the title of the document.
- We are accepting a maximum of three works of translation for review per issue, no word limit.
- We are looking for translations of texts belonging to any literary form, including fiction, poetry, screenplays/playscripts, Jewish texts, and so on.
- We are accepting translations of pieces into English, and the translations can be from any language associated with a Jewish community, past or present. This is an intentionally expansive and ambiguous definition and we are looking for translators who are interested in grappling with the question of what constitutes a Jewish work of literature. We anticipate most translations will be from modern Hebrew, biblical Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Aramaic, and other languages traditionally conceived as Jewish languages. But we are also excited to see translations from any other language or dialect, as long as the language of the original work, the content of the original work, or the author of the original work was/is engaged in Jewish life, to any degree.
- Please submit as a single PDF, with your first and last name in the title of the document.
- For visual art (including drawing, painting, photography, and other media), please submit a portfolio of your work (between 5-15 pieces).
- We recommend that you provide us with a written overview/synopsis of the pieces included in your portfolio. The more we know about how you approach your craft, the easier it is for us to understand and engage with your work.
- Please provide the title of each piece in your portfolio. If any pieces are untitled, please clearly indicate when that is the case.
- Please submit as a single PDF, with your first and last name in the title of the document.
We are currently accepting pitches for essays at writer@havurah.art. We are not accepting drafts of complete essays. In your pitch, please provide 1-2 detailed paragraphs about your idea for the piece and a bit of background about yourself. If your pitch is accepted, somebody on our editorial team will work with you through several drafts until it is ready for publication. Please note, essays should also relate to the current issue’s theme.
What we are looking for:
- Thoughtful and engaging cultural criticism, relating to Jewish community, culture, art, thought
- Reflections on something that Jews are thinking about, but which media outlets are not writing about
- Reviews of ideas floating around in Jewish art, music, theater, TV, and literature
- Essays that are interested in previously overlooked elements of Jewish culture
- Historical or archival pieces that relate to the present
- Personal essays that relate to the greater Jewish world
What we are not looking for:
- Ideology, politics, dogma, etc.
- Hot takes that are simply hot, but which do not take
- Personal essays on why it is hard to be a Jew
- Any personal essays that are strictly personal
- The most recent anti-semitsic scandal on Twitter
- Stale critiques of Zionism
- Stale critiques of anti-Zionism
- News reporting
- Religious articles, like Divrei Torah