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Variant Literature
@variantlit.bsky.social
960 followers 310 following 110 posts
Variant Literature is a small press and magazine.

http://variantlit.com/

Submissions open now!
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Very excited to announce our nominations for the Monarch Queer Literary Awards!
Variant Lit Monarch Queer Literary Awards 2026 nominees: Parker Logan, Oliver Brooks, Michael Agunbiade, Hongwei Bao, Shauna Friesen, Isaiah Gardner, Kit Evans
November 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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variantlit.com/submit/
Photo of Japanese maple tree with orange leaves in fall against blue sky. Text: Variant Lit open all November for poetry and prose. Free subs. We pay $10.
November 2, 2025 at 7:51 PM
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Keep sending us your poems and prose! We'd love to see more weird stuff in the poetry queue. If you're not sure it makes sense, but couldn't imagine it any other way, our submissions are open!

variantlit.com/submit/
Screenshot of open categories for Variant submissions: flash prose or micro series, literary fiction, speculative fiction, or poetry.
October 31, 2025 at 2:04 AM
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Hey are you busy today? (Don't worry, this isn't a creepy vague text received on a Sunday morning, just a reminder that we're open in all categories!)

variantlit.com/submit/
Screen shot of Variant Literature's submissions page: open in all categories.
October 26, 2025 at 6:24 PM
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We can't wait to read your work!

variantlit.com/submit/
Text on blue background: "we're open for submissions" and "submit your poetry, flash prose, and fiction to Variant Literature between October 21 and December 4"
October 21, 2025 at 1:55 PM
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Submissions for poetry and prose open tomorrow!
Variant logo with text: "publisher of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction" and "we're excited to announce that magazine submissions for poetry and prose open October 21, 2025"
October 20, 2025 at 2:35 PM
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Variant Lit mag logo on photo of moon in blue afternoon sky with text POETRY AND PROSE SUBMISSIONS OPEN OCTOBER 21
October 16, 2025 at 10:05 PM
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The Single Life by Jeremy Radin
from Variant Lit Issue 12
Text from the poem The Single Life by Jeremy Radin: A couple was picnicking in the park. I was there to go to the public garden for a couple sprigs of wild rosemary to tuck into my stew. A little songbird alighted as I passed them, its little face a spray of scarlet. The boyfriend said Wow, what a lovely bird, it’s got such gorgeous coloring. & I did not say it then, but I knew that it was blood— two blocks away a flock of them had slaughtered & picked clean a horse.
October 16, 2025 at 1:15 AM
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Meet Tori Walters, Managing Editor of Flash Prose and Micros!

"I am looking for work that dives deeper, goes a shade more vulnerable—and does so in a way that feels fully realized within the constraint of flash prose."
October 15, 2025 at 12:44 AM
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Meet Suzy Eynon, Managing Editor of Long Form Fiction! @suzyeynon.bsky.social

She's the author of the novella Terrestrial (Malarkey Books, 2026) and the prose chapbooks Being Seen (Ethel) and Commuting (Ghost City Press Summer Series).
October 13, 2025 at 4:33 PM
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Announcing our Best of the Net nominations!

Michael Agunbiade — “the new testament”

Erica Dawson — “On Craft”

griffin epstein — “well-adjusted”

Isaiah Gardner — “To the Gay Man at My Little Brother’s High School Graduation”
Variant Lit Best of the Net nominations: Michael Agunbiade — “the new testament” Erica Dawson — “On Craft” griffin epstein — “well-adjusted” Isaiah Gardner — “To the Gay Man at My Little Brother’s High School Graduation” Mara Lee Grayson — “How to be the Mother of a Missing Daughter” E. Peregrine — “High Noon” Ron Riekki — “The Opposite of Dusk” Emily Rinkema — “The Interview”
October 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
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Meet David Elliot Eisenstat, our Managing Poetry Editor!
A Brooklyn-based poet, David’s work has appeared in THINK, The Pierian, and Rust & Moth, among others. You can read more of his poems at davideisenstat.com/poetry.
October 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM
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Guess what? We're opening for poetry and prose submissions later this month! Official date coming soon!
Variant Lit logo in black and white with text: "Get ready! We're opening for poetry and prose this month!"
October 10, 2025 at 1:32 AM
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Highlighting issue 21 work ✨️

"How to Be a Sixteen-Year-Old Trans Teenager in America, Instructions:" by Kit Evans

variantlit.com/how-to-be-a-...
Poem "How to Be a Sixteen-Year-Old Trans Teenager in America, Instructions:" by Kit Evans Text: Never wear your own clothes. Dig through your brother’s drawers. Slide on those low-riding men’s jeans. Buy a chest binder on the internet, don’t tell your mother. Don’t let her chop it to shreds with her sewing scissors. Steal men’s deodorant from the Fred Meyer near your high school. Slip into too-big sweatshirts, be shapeless. Razor the waves off your head, watch it fall in tufts, like it never belonged to you.
September 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
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Read the poem "Woman Posing as Bell Pepper" by Laurel Benjamin from issue 21

variantlit.com/woman-posing...
Poem: "Woman Posing as Bell Pepper" After Edward Weston’s photograph “Pepper No. 30” By Laurel Benjamin This is the part where I remove my skirt, shirt, and everything else. Curl hands over shoulders, squinch my knees until my shoulders
July 8, 2025 at 3:01 PM
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Read the rest of the poem "Ginsberg in Purgatory" by @oliverbrooks.bsky.social from Variant issue 21:

variantlit.com/ginsberg-in-...
From the poem "Ginsberg in Purgatory" by Oliver Brooks "While we’re here in hell’s waiting room, surrounded by tabloids and hairdo mags,                I touch your hand and feel absurd. I want                to worship at the church of your dirt, smell"
June 28, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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Issue 21 Prose

variantlit.com/issue-twenty...
List of Variant issue 21 prose contributors: Nicole Desjardins Gowdy, Angela Townsend, Matthew Jakubowski, Rachel Salguero Kowalsky, Andrew Graham Martin, Derek Shirae, Laci Mosier, Sonny Fillmore, Matthew Wood, and J.M. Vesper
June 13, 2025 at 7:59 PM
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Join MJ Gomez and Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott for Birdsong, Wildfires, and Faith: A Poetry Reading hosted by Variant Lit. Sunday, June 22 10 a.m. EST / 3 p.m. BST. Live on Zoom.

@bluejayverses.bsky.social @iamgoingtocry.bsky.social @kithbooks.bsky.social

Register:
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Join MJ Gomez and Qetsi’ah Joachim-Baggott for Birdsong, Wildfires, and Faith: A Poetry Reading hosted by Variant Lit. Sunday, June 22 at 10 a.m. EST / 3 p.m. BST. Live on Zoom
June 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
variantlit.bsky.social
Happy Independent Bookstore Day! What are some of your favorite independent bookstores to order from or visit?
Independent Bookstore Day logo with blue and cream background. Saturday April 26, 2025
April 26, 2025 at 5:35 PM
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Happy Poetry Month!
Check out our issue 20 poetry:

variantlit.com/issue-twenty/
Variant issue 20 poetry: Kissing in America by Parker Logan Not Today by Julie Weiss On Craft by Erica Dawson The Water Cycle by Para Vadhahong Five o’clock Shadow in Philly by Allen Means Beyond the Frost by Richard Jordan Cooking Lesson by Shira Haus Golden by Aekta Khubchandani Softening Gravity by McCaela Prentice How to be the Mother of a Missing Daughter by Mara Lee Grayson The New Testament by Michael Agubiade
April 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
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One more spotlight on our issue 20 prose ✨️

variantlit.com/issue-twenty/
List of prose contributors from Variant issue 20: The Spirit Fisher by Tom Lee Song of Reason by Jennifer McMahon Soft and Warm Against Me by Evan Morgan Williams A Legacy of Birds by Thom Hawkins Spine of Hard Bone by by e. säfverblad nelson The Opposite of Dusk by Ron Riekki Pogo by Suzanne C Martinez The Man in the Corner of My Eye by Nathaniel Mumau We Blazed by Amethyst Loscocco Zizzi by Hongwei Bao The Girl Most Likely To by Sarah Freligh Sail On, Valhallan by Travis Flatt Clutch by Stephanie Frazee T4.N1. by Beth Sherman The Ways We Orbit by Kyle Weik
March 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
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Submissions for short fiction, flash prose, micro series, and poetry currently open! Submissions are always free.

variantlit.com/submit/
Variant Lit Press and Magazine black and white logo on "open for submissions" blue text background
March 16, 2025 at 5:25 PM
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Today's poem: "Not Today" by @colourofpoetry.bsky.social

variantlit.com/not-today/
"One street could span miles when measured through a mother's eyes. Three streets, a hike through a forest or a journey across a river. Dare me to hold my breath underwater that long, I tell my daughter, and I'll drown." From the poem "Not Today" by Julie Weiss published by Variant Lit
March 15, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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Mark your calendar!! Todd Dillard and Ben Kline will be reading this Friday, Dec 13th at 9pm EST via Zoom. Hope y'all can make it!! ♥️
Register here: tiny.cc/zehvzz
December 10, 2024 at 5:57 PM
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November 25, 2024 at 8:06 PM