Website
Type Of Publisher
Magazine
Genres Published
Audio, Essays, Fiction, Poetry, Reviews, Visual Art
Year Established
2019
Address
Tempe, AZ
Name
Nathaniel Buckingham
Title
Editor-in-Chief
Email
Mission Statement / Editorial Focus
Suburbia Journal wants to peel back the façades and expose the gross, absurd realities lurking behind the Suburban-Capitalist “Utopia," the smiling Nuclear Family, the “normal neighborhood” and the straight, happy, white, home-owning, monogamously homogenous molds boxing us in. We want explorations, especially, from underrepresented writers and voices like BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ and gender-fluid individuals, the houseless, the incarcerated—all those who have been disallowed, punished, or been devastated by the grotesquery of the status quo, the bottom line, the privilege and the desecrations of our environments (whatever that means to you). On the flipside, Suburbia is meant to also represent the positive aspects of the term: our community, inclusion, expansion, and shelter. A utopian literary and artistic neighborhood. To be more literal, we intend our mission statement to be an encompassing yet guiding direction for exceptional, innovative fiction, poetry, and artwork. If it's original in concept, content, language, or otherwise shatters walls, we're interested in considering it.
Accepts Unsolicited Submissions
Yes
Do You Have Any Cover Letter Advice?
Be a bit personal, a bit spicy. Tell us about your relationship with writing, your journey, and definitely include a third-person bio with all relevant publications and awards. DO NOT explain your story in your cover letter; let us explore it.
What Do You Look For In A Submission?
Originality, sharp language, strangeness circumstances, characters, and plots we haven't read before. We enjoy the absurd, the daring, the mixed-media and the weird. Absolutely zero racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia are tolerated.
What Advice Do You Have For First-time Submitters?
Mention that you're unpublished/this is your first time submitting in your cover letter. We actually LOVE being someone's first publication, and usually look more favorably upon a story or poem knowing this is your first venture into the void.
Do You Have A Favorite Unsolicited Submission Discovery Or Anecdote?
Our 2022 flash fiction contest winner "All the Dead Girls Are Beautiful" in Issue V is one of my absolute favorite stories EVER. It fulfills every checkbox that Suburbia likes to see. If you're looking to submit to us, read that.
Who Is Your Ideal Reader?
Someone who eagerly wishes to explore the strange and the unexplored before. Someone who wants to see what's behind the Yellow Wallpaper and the smiling Nuclear Family. Let's get strange.
