submit

long con magazine is a canadian quarterly for art about art.

Based in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (halifax, nova scotia), we welcome submissions from established & emerging artists who currently live in canada.

Submissions are accepted year-round on a rolling basis. For submission calls & announcements, follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter.

ISSUE 2.1 extended deadline: May 14, 2025

our permanent theme:
"art about art"

long con was founded on the idea that all artworks exist in conversation with all other artworks, and the magazine’s purpose is to publish artworks that bring this long conversation to the surface.

For long con, “art about art” means artworks created in direct response to other objects, artifacts, or performances that can be considered “art”—including all forms of writing; gallery & theatre arts; pop culture (fashion, sports, comics); infrastructure (monuments, architecture, tools); ephemera (ads, memes, user manuals); propaganda (parades, political speeches); and non-human creations (elephant paintings, bird nests, insect dances).

Despite this expansiveness in our definition of “art,” we do not publish artworks that skip over engagement with individual objects, artifacts, and performances in order to respond only to the entirety of an artist’s oeuvre or an artistic movement, period, or form.

If you’re still not sure whether your artwork would be a good fit, please ask us at longconmag@gmail.com.

what to submit

Literary submissions must be unpublished in any print or digital form.
• Creative nonfiction (up to 3000 words)
• Fiction & scripts for stage or screen (up to 3000 words)
• Poetry & prose poetry (up to 6 pages)
• Translations of any of the above forms (up to 3000 words of prose or 6 pages of poetry)

Visual submissions & other artworks (e.g., audio & video) must be unpublished in any print or digital magazine, anthology, or book but may have been otherwise already exhibited, performed, released, or circulated. You may submit up to 6 individual artworks.

For us to consider publishing your artwork, you must include a writer/artist statement that identifies⁠—by title, creator name, and year, whenever possible⁠—the object(s), artifact(s), or performance(s) to which your artwork responds. See past issues for examples.

details

We encourage simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it as soon as possible.

We encourage collective submissions, meaning works through which two or more artists create a shared response to another work of art or culture. When artists are responding to one another’s work, we call that ‘collaboration’ and publish it only through Collusion Books, our chapbook press for collaborative poetry projects.

Response time is 1 to 4 months, depending on when you submit. We do not respond to off-theme submissions and those sent by email without prior approval.

Contributor compensation is CAD$20 per issue, regardless of form, number, or length of piece(s) contributed and regardless of number of members in a collective, sent by e-transfer. We are working to increase compensation. Please note that long con does not make a profit, and all editors work on a volunteer basis.

Past contributors are not republished for one year, so please wait before submitting again. If we’ve published you as a solo artist but you wish to submit a collaborative piece (or vice versa), you may disregard this waiting period.

Copyright always remains with you, the writer(s) or artist(s). Through contributor payment, long con purchases only the right to publish your work for the first time in periodical form. You don’t need our permission to re-publish or otherwise present your work after its inclusion in a long con issue.

commitments

Anyone who submits AI-generated content, under the guise of it being human-created artwork, will be permanently banned from publication in long con. Any of their previous long con publications will be replaced with a notice of their ban, and any outstanding contributor compensation will be cancelled. Use of algorithmic tools within larger creative processes is permitted if acknowledged and explained via the submission form. (Declaring is zero-risk: no ban will be imposed on the basis of an unsatisfactory explanation.)

In recognition of the many historical and immediate barriers to artistic creation and recognition, we prioritize submissions from First Nation, Inuit, Métis, and other Indigenous artists; Black artists, Brown artists, artists of colour, and other racialized artists; 2SLGBTQIA+ artists; artists with disabilities or chronic illnesses; and artists with experiences of trauma, incarceration, poverty, or displacement.

Help us make more informed editorial decisions by identifying any backgrounds or experiences that have made it more difficult for you to create art or be recognized for your artistic labour. Backgrounds and experiences don’t need to be addressed in your submission, bio, or artist statement: include them in the field “Additional notes for the editors” to ensure they remain confidential.

If your name(s), artistic name(s), or pronouns change after we’ve published you, we would be very happy to help you celebrate by quickly correcting our website: please feel free to let us know at longconmag@gmail.com.

Having trouble with the submission form?
Email us at longconmag@gmail.com

long con magazine submission form

ISSUE 2.1 extended deadline: May 14, 2025

Submission requirements: *

I am / we are / one of us is a current resident of Canada.
Each piece I am / we are submitting is a response, prompted in some way by at least one other object, artifact, or performance that I/we did not create.
For each submitted piece, my / our artist statement clearly identifies the object(s), artifact(s), or performance(s) to which my/our artwork responds—including a title, creator name, and year whenever possible.

By submitting to long con, you claim each of the above. Nevertheless, please tick each box.

We cannot consider or respond to submissions that do not consider and respond to our submission requirements. We are very grateful to writers & artists who do carefully consider these requirements, as we understand it can require more time and effort than typical submission processes.

How did you discover our magazine? (optional)

long con magazine exists entirely online, so it's very helpful for us to know which social media platforms, websites, or previous contributors are helping new folks discover us.

1. Writer/Artist Info

Name *

Collectives: enter the name of each member, or enter the name of the collective.

Email *

Collectives: enter the email address of one member, or enter the best email address for contacting all collaborators.

Additional email(s)

For collectives only: enter the email addresses of all remaining members, separated by commas.

Location (confidential) *

We currently publish only writers/artists living in Canada or writer/artist collectives with at least one member currently living in Canada.

Your location(s) will not be published unless included in your biographical statement.

Collectives: enter the location of each member, or enter the central location of the collective.

Biographical statement(s) *

Write your biographical statement in the 3rd person (not using "I"/"we") and include your pronouns ("they"/"she"/"he" or similar).

Collectives: enter short bios for each member or the description of the collective (ideally with list of members).

Additional notes for the editors (optional & confidential)

Your additional notes will not be published, but your backgrounds and experiences (especially those posing barriers to artistic creation or recognition) may help our editors make more informed decisions when curating an issue.

Primary artist website

Collectives: enter up to one website for each member (separated by commas) or the website of the collective.

Instagram

Collectives: enter up to one account for each member (separated by commas) or the account of the collective.

Bluesky

Collectives: enter up to one account for each member (separated by commas) or the account of the collective.

Other social media

Enter any number of social media accounts (separated by commas).

Because long con magazine is a digital publication, our ability to tag contributors in promotional social media posts is crucial to sharing the work in each issue. If you use Instagram or Bluesky to share your writing or artwork or to connect with others, please consider entering your profile URL(s) and following us (@longconmagazine).

2. Submission

A submission method will appear once you select your primary art form.

Primary art form of submission *

Creative nonfiction
Fiction / script
Poetry / prose poetry
Visual or other (e.g., audio, video)

If submitting a series that combines a literary form with a visual or other form (e.g., poems with illustrations or a short story with an audio reading), please select the relevant literary category.

Submission title(s) *

Please enter each artwork's title on a new line.
For visual & other applicable artworks, please include relevant gallery label information (such as year of creation/release, medium of creation, and artwork dimensions) in parentheses after each title.

Have you used any algorithmic tool(s) in the creation of any of the above artworks?

3. Writer/Artist Statement(s)

Writer/artist statements are published alongside accepted pieces.

For each piece you submit, include a writer/artist statement that clearly identifies the object(s), artifact(s), or performance(s) that your piece responds to—including a title, creator name, and year whenever possible. If your piece responds to many works by the same creator (e.g., 'Picasso's Blue Period'), you must identify one or more works of special significance to your response piece. This specificity plays a large role in how we consider submissions for publication.

If your piece responds in an obvious way (for example, if piece work lifts words, images, or other content from another work), then your writer/artist statement could be very short. If the way you're responding is not obvious, your artist statement may need to be longer, identifying the existing object(s), artifact(s), or performance(s) and also explaining exactly how your artwork is a response. You might also describe historical context or your personal encounter with the object(s), performance(s), artifact(s), etc.

If you submit a sequence or series of artworks (such as a musical album, a photographic essay, or a series of poems) that responds to the same object(s), artifact(s), or performance(s), you can include a single artist statement for the whole sequence or series.

Writer/Artist Statement(s) *

Writer/artist statement(s) must be written in 1st person (using "I"/"we").
We appreciate writer/artist statements under 100 words, but we understand that some statements could, should, or must be longer.