About

Strangers & Karma accepts submissions of short stories, poetry, and visual art. While artists may submit what they wish, we encourage submissions to carry rich undertones of sarcasm, constructive confrontations, and when appropriate the proper use of irony… puncuation… and spelling.

Once a submission is accepted, Karma’s editors will review and discuss with the artist what the piece means. Then, the artist and managing editor discuss grammatical edits as well as cohesion and flow. Once finalized and approved by the artist, the submission is posted to strangersandkarma.com, provided the following metrics are followed:

keep it clean; hate speech, rants, overly disparaging or defamatory language and imagery will result in submission termination
no plagiarism of any kind; all submissions are checked prior to posting
submit work and inquiries to writer@strangersandkarma.com

While you’re here, check out our contributors

What We Want
Strangers & Karma is looking to build an organic readership while providing an outlet for writers to contribute their work. We want to remove typical publishing struggles such as queries and following specific topics or genres. This journal was created to give reprieve from these painstaking endeavors as well as engage artists we love and promote their work.

Payment
Strangers & Karma is strictly a not-for-profit online arts journal. Payments are calculated according to our running budget and the individual submission’s editing needs. All staff are paid per submission, and we pay all artists for accepted submissions prior to posting. We only publish when we have the budget to do so; we keep the process fluid with soft deadlines. So far, this practice has given us some truly meaningful connections.

Self Promotion & Bio
Each artist is encouraged to include a short bio and plug work and/or social media (@) at the end of the submission, within the same document to ensure it’s properly applied to the post.

Approvals & Turnaround
Submissions are published within two weeks of the finalized piece, unless the work is part of a larger scope, as with anthologies and collaborations.

Writers must send all approvals via email.

Short Story Submissions
Below are selections authored by Karma Contributor, Anthony Coleman, to give the writers an idea of creative freedoms, but the submission may be any body of work not exceeding 4K words.

https://thefictionpool.wordpress.com/2020/04/21/the-most-photographed-mountain-in-japan-by-tony-coleman/

https://queenmobs.com/2020/02/satire-booking-a-flight-to-mars-on-www-earthairlines-com/

Media & Other Visual Aid for Written Submissions
Include licensed media and/or one’s own artwork within the submission as desired, with proper credentials listed within the submission. Karma will assist the writer in sourcing licensed media if such needs are indicated during the submission process.

Thank you for visiting Strangers & Karma.

Kayla Sosa, Managing Editor

Kayla is a freelance writer, copywriter, editor, and researcher. She has worked on articles, textbooks, and novels. She has collaborated with New York Times bestselling authors, as well as contributors to The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The London Review of Books, GQ, Vice, and more.

Kayla has decades of experience in academia and writing. She cut her teeth in the world of philosophy as a junior professor while focusing on Classical Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism. She is an accredited teacher of English as a foreign language and has traveled the world teaching people of all ages how to effectively communicate in English.

For inquiries, please email.

Anthony Coleman, Author

Anthony Coleman is an English language teacher and freelance writer from Liverpool, England. He graduated from Oxford Brookes University and has lived and worked in Kanagawa, Japan and Guadalajara, Mexico. In his spare time, he enjoys playing football, reading novels and visiting cities of cultural interest.

For inquiries, please email.

Sylvia Van Nooten, Asemic Artist

Sylvia Van Nooten is an asemic artist and a writer living in western Colorado. She grew up in Berkeley before relocating to Milan, Italy, at the age of thirty. She lived in Italy for ten years. While there, she taught English as a foreign language. She also wrote a novel and numerous short stories. It was there she found her passion for creating visual art. Her more recent work has appeared in The South Florida Poetry Journal, Experiment-O, The Raw Art Review, and Women Asemic Artists.

@sylviavannooten

Blaire Grady, Founder, Content Curator

Blaire began her career in publishing as a graphic artist, producing visual works for the masses, but she prefers things in small batches with soft deadlines and fair wages. These are things that do not come easily in commercial graphic design. So, she now works exclusively with other artists to co-produce and promote unique, intellectual experiences here at Strangers & Karma.

Blaire uses the knowledge and skills she gained as a graphic artist for over twelve years, particularly in music promotions, corporate branding, professional sports and entertainment (I know, right?) to launch and maintain Strangers & Karma. These tasks include creative curation, collaborative ideation, copyediting, and project coordination for a community of fellow artists including writers, poets, illustrators, painters, photographers, and craftspeople.

For inquiries, please email.

Come to Karma✨