Submitting to Hypnagogic Peacock
I read everything I receive. I read it seriously. I do not rush.
Hypnagogic Peacock publishes poetry, hybrid writing, creative-criticism, practice-based research and transdisciplinary work that cannot be categorised without losing something essential. If your work sits cleanly in a single genre, the journal is probably not the right home for it. If it does something that you cannot fully account for, if it arrived by routes you cannot entirely retrace, send it.
Competence is the floor, not the ceiling. I am interested in work that has taken a genuine risk and survived it. Work that is formally strange for reasons the work itself demands, not for effect. Work that knows something and cannot say it any other way.
What we publish
The press publishes vesical work — work that lives in the overlap between things and could only exist in that space. Between writing genres. Between the literary and the scholarly. Between disciplines. The overlap is the only criterion.
Academic affiliation, publication history or credentials of any kind are not necessary. You are not required to identify as a writer, a researcher, an academic or anything else. If your work has not found a home elsewhere because the available homes were not built for it, send it here.
What to send
Three to six poems, or up to 5,000 words of prose, hybrid or practice-based work. Longer work considered by prior discusiion. A single PDF or Word document. Your name and contact details in the body of the email, no anonymisation required.
Visual work is welcome where it is integral to the submission — where the writing would be diminished without it. Please do not submit visual work alone. Images should be sent as high resolution JPEGs or PNGs (minimum 300dpi). Rights and reproduction will be discussed directly with contributors on acceptance.
Include a single line with your submission naming what your work sits between. Not what it is about. Not what influences it. Simply: what does it sit between. Two words, two phrases, two disciplines - or more. This is all we need beyond the work itself.
I do not want the work explained. If it requires explanation it is not ready.
If your work makes knowledge claims in conversation with a field or a body of knowledge, please include endnote references. I accept Chicago style referencing - endnotes and bibliography. Referenced work is eligible for DOI registration and full academic citability. If your work is primarily literary or artistic, references are not required. If you are unsure whether to include references, write to me before submitting.
IS MY WORK RIGHT FOR HYPNAGOGIC PEACOCK?
SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN UNTIL OCTOBER 31ST 2026.
Send to
submissions@vesicapress.co.uk Subject line: HP SUBMISSION — [YOUR NAME] Response time: 8 weeks after submissions close. I respond to everything.