Shaking like a Mountain invites fiction, creative non-fiction and poems that respond to specific songs, musicians, or bands. While the work needs to be related to music, it will be judged on its literary merits. In other words, you will not be punished for your musical tastes. Please follow the genre-specific directions below to ensure that your work is read in a timely fashion.
Response times likely will range from five minutes to six weeks to three months to never, in the event that the email server eats your work (it happens). If you haven’t received a response within two months, send an email with the word Query on the subject line. Simultaneous submissions are accepted with the hope that you will let SLAM know if the work is accepted elsewhere. Previously published work may also be submitted, but please specify where the work originally appeared in the body of the email. By publishing your work, SLAM obtains first North American Serial and/or Electronic Rights. Rights revert back to the author after when online publication ends (approximately 120 days or until a new issue is published). If your work is chosen for future print versions of Shaking like a Mountain, further publishing rights will be negotiated. Lastly, the founders of Shaking like a Mountain did not intentionally choose a name that would form the acronym SLAM. Frankly, if they had realized this sooner, they may have considered alternate names, such as Shaking like a Jello-mold.
We ask only that you follow these tedious guidelines to make handling the work more efficient.
Poetry: All forms of poetry will be considered for publication. If you have a Shakespearean sonnet based on Radiohead’s “I Might Be Wrong,” we’d love to see it. Submit 1-5 poems in any style via email to editors@shakinglikeamountain.com. Write Poetry Submission on the subject line of the message. Poems should be attached to the email as Microsoft Word files, with the title of the piece as the file name (ex: the crying puppy.doc). If you do not have Microsoft Word then the manuscript should appear in the body of the email. With every submission, please provide a cover page naming the song, the artist, and the rationale for the piece--example: Here’s a poem called Mr. Pitiful. The speaker/poet and his sad plight are inspired by soul great Otis Redding and his song of the same name. Your name should only appear on the cover page in the body of the email. If your name is printed on the manuscript itself, we will not read the piece.
Fiction: We are interested in all styles of short fiction, from flash fiction onward. Although pieces under 5000 words are preferred, longer pieces may be considered if they get things shaking from the start. To avoid confusion, please submit only one piece of fiction per email. However, you are welcome to submit up to three pieces per quarter. Submit manuscripts to editors@shakinglikeamountain.com. Write Fiction Submission on the subject line of the message. Then follow the directions detailed above.
Nonfiction: We would love to see personal narratives that are driven by music. Please stay away from reviews of bands, songs, or albums. We are looking for essays. Unless you believe you can make a review sound a lot like a personal essay and fool us into reading the entire piece before realizing we’ve been had, then please write something else. For technical guidelines, see Fiction guidelines and replace the words Fiction Submission with Nonfiction Submission on the subject line.
In the event that your work is published, bio information will be requested.
As mentioned earlier, all work will be judged on its literary felicities. The specific musical reference will not impede our judgment of your work. That is not to say, however, that we will not judge you personally for your choice in music.