Elastic’s first issue, to be published in March 2025, will be on the theme of dying. Submit pitches or finished work until September 23 to submissions@elasticmag.com.


There are so many ways to die. There are big deaths and little deaths, sudden deaths and slow dissolutions. We might print an essay in which a biologist is decomposed by his fungi, a short story on stellar death, kaleidoscopic renderings of wilting plants or decaying teeth or discarded fingernails, photographs of rotting fruit. Maybe the self at the center of a poem is extinguished in the piece’s marginalia. Maybe the narrative gradually unravels, deconstructing itself. We are looking for pieces that interpret the theme widely and playfully. Think transitory states, rebirth, decomposition, disappearance. 


We’ll be publishing poetry, essays and short fiction (of up to 4,500 words), and visual art of all kinds. But the goal is to frequently and gleefully blur genre lines and expand the idea of the page and the canvas. We also welcome joint projects and work that combines visual and written elements. We pay relatively well for a small magazine.