Chroma

Chroma: A Queer Literary and Arts Journal is based in London and is published twice a year. Ben Fergusson is the editor. Saradha Soobrayen is the poetry editor and Andras Gerevich, Sophie Mayer, Mike Upton and Pascal O’Loughlin are the commissioning editors. Like many arts organizations in the UK, Chroma receives support from Arts Council England.

Noted gay literature pioneer, Richard Labonte, calls Chroma, “the premier print magazine for gay and lesbian prose writers, poets and artists.” Submissions are accepted from all people who identify as queer, regardless of their sexual orientation. Issues are themed and the scheduled themes are provided more than two years in advance. The next available submission deadline is August 1, 2010. The theme for that issue (#12) is Youth. The February 1, 2011 submission deadline is for Issue 13 the theme of which is “Faith.”

Chroma’s recent 2009 International Queer Writing Competition winners were announced on their website with prizes awarded to three poets and three short story writers. Additional contest submissions were acknowledged as “poetry shortlist” and “short story shortlist.”

Issue 7, the theme of which was “There” featured the work of LGBT writers and artists from around the world. Some represented writers received their first English translation with that issue.

The magazine appears to represent a full range of queer and LGBT sub groups rather than focusing on gay men or lesbians as is the case with some niche publications in the LGBT community.

There are very specific submission parameters provided by the editors. Submissions must be identified as either a prose, poetry or art submission in the subject line. Work must be submitted in Word (.doc) format or .rtf. No other formats are accepted. Prose writers may submit only one story at at time which may not have been published previously. 5,000 words is the maximum length. Poetry submissions may be no more than three poems at a time and poems should not exceed sixty lines per poem.

The notification time is within three months. The editors acknowledge that they wish they were able to provide more personal responses to submissions but, at present, they are not staffed to do so. If writers have not gotten a response before the issue for which they submitted work is published, they are no being considered for that issue. In some cases, a writer or artist’s work may not be able to be used in a current issue but the quality of the submission catches the eye of the editors. In those cases, the writer will be asked to submit additional examples of their work for possible inclusion in a future issue.

DB