TRUNK STORIES is a magazine of literary fantasy, science fiction, and horror as well as nonfiction, and poetry of interest to the speculative fiction audience.

If you want to get a story out of your trunk and into mine, send it as an e-mail attachment (in either ASCII or RTF format) to: TrunkStories@earthlink.net.

Please query before submitting essays, book/record/film reviews, or any piece that runs significantly longer than 10,000 words. I will only consider one piece of fiction/nonfiction (or 5 poems) from an author at one time. Please double-space your submission and use a standard serif font. I am not interested in previously published material. I will consider simultaneous submissions but please indicate this on the cover letter.

Some topics that will get you a quick and appreciative read are: pirates, surgery, early recording devices, "Turn of the Screw" style ghost stories, identity-slip sf (think Philip K. Dick), Italian genre films of the 60s, Sunday comics pages, cockroaches and less than useful inventions.

My typical response time is 6-8 weeks.

At this time, I am paying only in contributor copies for first North American rights.

I am aiming for biannual publication but I will wait until I have enough solid and quality material to fill the pages.

The OAQ [Occasionally Asked Questions]:

Q: Do you really want "trunk stories" (ie, stories that are so outstandingly weird that they have never been published, despite multiple submissions)? Or is the title of the magazine a metaphor?
A: A little of both actually. I wanted to start a 'zine that would reflect my taste in short fiction and not be controlled by the commercial market. My notion is that there are so few short fiction markets these days, that a lot of first class work ends up languishing in the actual and metaphorical trunk—particularly the in-between genre material that I find the most interesting. I also just liked the sound and solidity of the name. It has the feel of old pulp magazines. I do, however, have an interest in stories containing images that inexplicably linger in the mind, even if the story itself requires polish. I am happy to work with a new writer to try and effect that polish.

Q: What is the projected circulation of Trunk Stories?
A: I'm doing an initial print run of 300 with the second issue. As I develop my contacts and increase the magazine's exposure, I hope to grow this number (duh).

Q: What is the word count limit on stories?
A: I don't have an absolute limit but 10,000 is close to the upper reaches. I would consider running a story over two issues but TS isn't frequent enough for a longer serialization.

Q: Are you also interested in SF or fantasy poetry?
A: I am interested in strong, evocative poetry that happens to have horrific or fantastic overtones. In my book this covers most of the best poetry from John Milton to Wallace Stevens. I will probably only run 2 or 3 poems per issue. Warning: I will ask for rewrites if I like a poem but don't feel that it's quite there.

Q: Should I send you everything I have ever written?
A: No. I am only looking at one piece of fiction/nonfiction (or 5 poems) from any individual writer at one time. I am the complete staff of Trunk Stories and I want to get to everyone as quickly as possible. Once you have my reply to your first submission, you can feel free to submit something else. I do ask, with second or third submissions, that you try to send me things that don't have exactly the same "problems" (it's all subjective, I know) as the first piece I reviewed.

Thank you for your interest,
William Smith, editor