Welcome, Dear Reader…

…to a many-storied house of oddities, a veritable museum of esoterica, an emporium of wonder, magic, and science.

Steamboats and Frock Coats is a Steampunk Literary Society dedicated to publishing the most fantastical, mystical, weird, and worldly balladry created by the pen (or keyboard). Our goal for the moment is to publish, twice-yearly, a journal of the highest caliber in a steam-inspired world. Before firing up your fountain plume, please take a moment and carefully read the submission guidelines.

Submission Guidelines for Steamboats and Frock Coats:

1. Poetry, prose, creative non-fiction, and art of all forms is all welcomed and accepted, HOWEVER, please adhere to Victorian, Romantic, and Transcendentalist standards. If you do not know your literary movements, please refer to the works of Poe, Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, Keats, Blake, and the like. I will accept free-form poetry a-la T.S. Eliot, however it HAS TO BE BEAUTIFULLY and FANTASTICALLY composed. This is not to say that your work isn’t amazing, only that we’re trying to create the feel and theme of Victorian Romanticism with the science, myth, and mystery of a steampunk world. The goal here is authenticity (late 1800s up to the 1920s), but as art is art, due license with appropriate anachronism and phantasmagoria is welcomed and appreciated.

2. Publications will be at each Equinox pending enough material, starting with the Autumnal Equinox of 2011 (September 21st). If picked, your work will be published on the blog first, and then in a short-run literary magazine which will be peddled at various Steampunk conventions and shows, proceeds going to the next issue. There is no payment for this, only publication credits and the joy of seeing your work in print.

3. SUBMISSION DETAILS: Please email your submissions to delphimusic@gmail.com and allow two weeks for a reply. Our editors are sticklers for line-breaks and spacing, per Victorian standards, so please make sure that IF YOU SEND YOUR SUBMISSION IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL, be aware of your line breaks. We will also accept submissions in Word documents as well.

4. If published, you MAY publish your work elsewhere as it does NOT become sole property of the Steamboats and Frock Coats. It is merely a vehicle for creative expression. Your work will receive full credit and authorship will remain solely in your hands.

5. In conclusion, HAVE FUN with this project! Send us your tales of science fiction, fantasy, and yes, even some bawdiness. We do not want to be known as a publisher of only erotica; however, creative, satirical, burlesque, and bawdy work will definitely be read, considered, and selections will be included. Horror, humor, science fiction, and speculative fiction are appreciated and will be devoured rapaciously.

Sincerely, your dearest editors,
Delphi Agatha Colquhoun and Jack Satan, Risk Poet, Esq.