Submissions wanted (in/unscripted) | up to CAD$140 per piece

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: THE VERMIN

Deadline: 27 June 2025

CALL FOR PITCHES + SUBMISSIONS
Issue 03: (un/in)scripted

“Was the Palestinian revolution really written on the void, an artifice superimposed on nothingness, and is the white page, and every little blank space between the words, more real than the black characters themselves?” Prisoner of Love, Jean Genet

The Vermin is returning for its third issue! We’re looking for work that explores the theme “(un/in)scripted.”

Inscription is the marking and cutting of a material surface toward the production of meaning or signification which can include writing, printing, casting reliefs, cutting or burning, circumcision, and other bodily modifications. In our moment of being inundated by documentation of catastrophe, we are also paradoxically facing a moment of people, places, and things being erased from the public record. Yet the absence of a mark might also be an inscription: how might we trace silences, erasures and excisions, trauma, spaces between words? (Un/in)scripted is a politically urgent invitation toward questioning both the marked and unmarked surface – that which has been written, that which has been left unsaid, or that which has been written only through its non-writing.

(Un/in)scription is a forum for questioning publishing within a publication – a self-reflexive terrain to examine what we are both doing and not doing when we write, print, and disseminate. We are interested in the theme of inscription both literally (e.g., writing, printing, mediality and materiality such as paper or celluloid film, photographic contact, cutting performances and book arts) but also conceptually (e.g., requiems or glorifications of media and counter media, trauma and the unassimilable and uninscribed, the inscriptions of absence, and more). Inscription is the moment that the concrete and the abstract; the psychic and the corporeal; the literal and figurative, meet and produce one another.

As always, The Vermin is an anti-capitalist multi-genre (and anti-genre) publication, and we invite a plethora of interpretations of the theme and strongly encourage experiments with form.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• All submissions must be sent to theverminmag@gmail.com with the subject: “submission to Issue 3.” The email should include the title of the work(s), your name, where you are based, and a short bio. If you request to remain anonymous, please let us know.

• Files should be saved under your last name, and the title of work: for example, “LASTNAME_ TitleOfWork”

• Submissions for images and artwork should be saved by number, (e.g., LASTNAME_title1, LASTNAME_title2, etc.)

• Submissions must be original and unpublished.

PITCH GUIDELINES:

• All pitches must be sent to theverminmag@gmail.com with the subject: “Pitch to Issue 3.” The email should include the title of the work(s), your name, where you are based, and a short bio. If you request to remain anonymous, please let us know.

• We are not accepting pitches for poetry – poetry pieces must be complete at time of submission.

• If you are pitching a nonfiction piece, please let us know when you expect to complete the work. We are hoping for a 2-month turnaround time once the piece has been approved.

• Files should be saved under your last name, and the title of work with the word pitch in it: for example, “Pitch_LASTNAME_ TitleOfWork”

COMPENSATION:

 
The Vermin is a volunteer-run, donation-funded publication. As we continue to crowdfund and grow our magazine, we have been able to slowly increase our honorariums.

For issue 03, we will be offering honorariums in the following breakdown:

• Poems, short-form pieces, visual art pieces: CAD$70

• Long-form pieces (over 900 words): CAD$140

• In addition, all contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the magazine.

DEADLINE:

11:59pm EST, June 27, 2025.

For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Submissions, look here.

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CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

• Questions/submissions: theverminmag@gmail.com

• Website: https://thevermin.ca/

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: The Vermin is a Toronto-based literary magazine that publishes subversive and expository writing across fiction, nonfiction, criticism, and visual art. It features essays, short stories, poetry, and artwork that explore themes such as consumption, psychoanalysis, and cultural resistance. The publication aims to provide a platform for voices from the margins and challenge dominant narratives through experimental and politically engaged content. More information here.

• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook and at SuccessfulPitches.com.

• Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile.

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