Kaliopes Webzine - open for submissions

as promised, the English version (translated by Jacques himself - I had to cross São Paulo under a thunderstorm to a medical appointment; thanks, Jacques!):

PROJECT KALÍOPES

Kalíopes is a Brazilian free webzine in PDF format specialized in the Fantasy genre. The magazine's main goal is to increase the genre's exposition in Brazilian fandom. A second goal is to widen the horizons of readers and writers alike, publishing stories that defy standards, break paradigms and bring something new to the genre as a whole.

The magazine will have four annual editions, plus another special theme edition. Regular editions will be released every three months, beginning around March 2008. The special edition may be edited at any time along the year. In its contents are scheduled reviews, interviews, news, articles and specially fiction.

Kalíopes will cover news about Fantasy production in Brazil and all over the world. It is Kalíopes' mission to inform readers and to promote the reading of world production, so to strengthen Brazilian writers' cultural and literary repertoire. It is also Kaliopes' mission to export Brazilian fiction. Kalíopes will be, mostly, a short fiction magazine, open to eventual pieces of poetry and serialized novellas. Only one submission per author will be accepted, with limits between 1.000 and 5.000 words.

Articles obey the same criteria, but with an upper limit of 2.500 words. Reviews must have between 450 and 500 words. All texts must be sent only during the submission call period, to be published in e-mail lists, discussion boards and social networks all over the internet. Contributions by foreign authors of fiction and articles are welcome, since written in Portuguese, Spanish, English or French, being these last three due to translation. Being free, Kalíopes will not pay for any published material. However, it is the will of its creators to pursue financial sustainability and future payment of it's contributors.

The PDF file of each edition will be hosted at Clube dos Leitores de Ficção Científica do Brasil's website (www.clfc.org.br - Brazilian Science Fiction Reader's Club). A blog for communication with readers and news posts will also be put online. Again, suggestions and contributions are welcome.

Submissions are open from 1st January 2008 to 15th February 2008. The magazine's publication will happen by the end of March 2008.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

SHORT FICTION - 1.000 to 5.000 words. What we want is imaginative and different fiction, from concept to execution. We believe that to be well-written and funny is just the most basic thing in any fiction. Kalíopes wants more: thought-provoking, innovative, multicultural fiction full with content and meaning. More specifically, Kalíopes wants new approaches to Fantasy. New themes, new results. We want provocative texts, with permission to use harsh vocabulary, violence, heresy and sex. We also want texts full of passion, beauty, grace and humor, poetry and huge epic scope. Beyond everything, we want the new and the shocking. We want new fables, new mythologies. What we definitely don't want are derivative fiction from RPGs, animes, videogames and Tolkenian fantasy, aesthetical or ideological conservatism, well-mannered behaviour, no plot worldbuilding and melodrama. Everything that makes no effort to create new approaches. Finally, we are not interested in magical realism.

Fantasy fiction clichés, or traditional elements, like vampires, elves, Tolkenian fantasy in general, angels and demons, or overused plots like chosen orphans and quests for magical objects, will be discarded, unless they have extremely original approaches. Still, the mere presence of this kind of element counts negatively to the material's selection. So, be it urban fantasy, heroic fantasy, dark fantasy, magical surrealism, gothic, New Weird, high-fantasy, heroic or epic, wuxia or revisions of traditional myths, every text must be a Kaliope. Every short story, a muse in itself.

Kalíopes' crew will tell the author, previous to the publication of the magazine, which submissions were accepted and which ones were rejected. Due to the number of submissions, answers to the rejected authors may be delayed. Editors may also ask the authors corrections or alterations in the texts, as to use rejected but potentially interesting pieces of fiction.

REVIEWS

Reviews of Fantasy fiction published in Brazil or abroad and in any media. Priority will be given to literature fiction, but comics and movies are not discarded. Kalíopes' crew believes that divulgation of fiction published in foreign languages and countries will help broaden Brazilian readers' repertoire. Reviews should be impartial, looking for positive and negative points of the given fiction, being allowed to reveal part of the its plot but only without spoilers. Besides the text, reviewers should include the name and a brief bio of the reviewed author, the own reviewers name and bio, a picture of the reviewed fiction and information like price and where to buy the item. International e-commerce sites like Amazon.com should be prioritized, but other shopping points are also valid.

Reviews should also be rated. The system is intended to inform the reader, in a direct way, the opinion of the reviewer. Rates will be given from 1 to 5 points. Fractions, like 4,5, are allowed. As the magazine´s audience increases, we hope there will be a network of regular and trustworthy reviewers, giving credibility to the opinions given in the section.

ARTICLES

Any theme involving Fantasy is allowed, given it is not an attack to author X or Y, even less propagation of racist, sexist, homophobic or gratuitously offensive ideas. Manifestos, critiques, praises or "scene reports" are more than welcome.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustrators interested in contributing with the magazine's front cover or internal pages are also welcome. The art should follow the same premises of short fiction: it must be provocative, innovative and imaginative.

FORMAT AND ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSIONS

All the material submitted must be followed by the author's full name, it's "pen name" and brief bio in the heading of the e-mail. All the texts must be sent in .doc format, Arial 12 font, 1,5 space between lines. Word count must be respected. Address for submissions is revistakaliopes@gmail.com.

PUBLICATION TERMS

All the texts published in Kalíopes will be under Creative Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Brazil Commons. Authors' rights will be kept by the authors, but the magazine and it's contents may be freely copied and distributed, since done with noncommercial purposes.

Jacques Barcia - Editor
jacquesbarcia@gmail.com