Geist is the Canadian magazine of ideas & culture—fact + fiction, photography, comix, essays, revi
Geist is the Canadian magazine of ideas and culture, with a strong literary focus and a sense of humour. The Geist tone is intelligent, plain-talking, inclusive and offbeat. Each issue reflects a convergence of fiction, non-fiction, photography, comix, reviews, little-known facts of interest, poetry, cartography and the legendary Geist crossword puzzle. At the heart of our enter
prise is the imaginary country that some of us inhabit from time to time, and which often has something to do with Canada.
"A hole in the heart sounds poetic; a romantic affliction for those of us who are unlucky in love. I should be so lucky as to be unlucky in love."
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—Issue 124. From the dispatch "My Body Is a Wonderland" by Ian Roy
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Read more at geist.com/fact/my-body-is-a-wonderland
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Image: Caro Dubois, Dreaming for Holidays, 2022, mixed media collage
💥Submissions deadline extended!💥
We will be accepting *non-fiction* and *comics* submissions until September 9, 2024 at midnight. You have another two weeks to send us your finest work!
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Fiction and poetry submissions will close at the regular deadline on Monday, August 26 at midnight.
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As always, we welcome personal narrative, writing grounded in a sense of place, and work that explores the everyday humour and strangeness of life.
For non-fiction submissions, shorter pieces (800 to ~1500 words) for our Notes & Dispatches section and longer essays (up to 5000 words) are both welcome. We publish comics up to 8 pages.
Please read our full submission guidelines at geist.com/submit.
"Outside, there’s a half-dozen protesters holding pizza-box signs. I spot Larry and try to drop my eyes, but they’re already approaching with a pamphlet that reads ABOLISH THE DAM. Beneath the letters, a crude drawing of a withered salmon in a choker. Larry says they’re shutting it down, tomorrow night. It’s all over Twitter, digital wildfire. 'Join us?'"
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From the short story "The Business of Salvation" by David Huebert.
—Issue 124
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Read more at www.geist.com/fiction/the-business-of-salvation
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David Huebert
"Imagine your hands in a brook / as not-real hands. Do you remember a special / green life?"
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—From the poem, "Return to the Lake of Shining Waters" by Andrea Scott, First Prize Winner of the 2022 Erasure Poetry Contest, published in Issue 123
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Read Andrea's poem on our website: geist.com/contests/return-to-the-lake-of-shining-waters
Collage by Andrea Scott
"Ward, I wish I could endure it / for your sake."
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—From the poem, "June Cleaver Lies in Bed" by K.R. Segriff, Second Prize Winner of the 2022 Erasure Poetry Contest, published in Issue 123
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Read K.R.'s poem on our website: geist.com/contests/june-cleaver-lies-in-bed
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2023 PolterGeist Writing Contest!
Congratulations to Jennifer, Tyler and Hsien 🎉 The winning stories and essays will be published in Geist 127, out this fall =)
Read more about the contest: www.geist.com/contests/winners-of-the-2023-poltergeist-writing-contest
Thank you to all who submitted!
"Oh, but her hands utter, / sigh wild fingers, shudder"
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—From the poem, "Ghosting" by kerry doyle, Third Prize Winner of the 2022 Erasure Poetry Contest, published in Issue 123
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Read kerry's poem on our website: www.geist.com/contests/ghosting
Geist Magazine invites submissions in nonfiction, fiction, poetry and comics.
As always, we welcome personal narrative, writing grounded in a sense of place, and work that explores the everyday humour and strangeness of life.
We are particularly interested in reading nonfiction at this time, both shorter (800 to ~1500 words) and longer (up to 5000 words) essays.
Deadline: August 26, 2024 at midnight.
Please read our submission guidelines at buff.ly/3WAmhYG
"You tell me how it is / rare for a physicist to be an expert / on time. I say that it is fundamental / to understand time and space to be / an active participant of history or / the future. You speak of how time / is an emergent property woven into / the fabric of reality. I bring emphasis / to tenses."
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—From the poem, "A Love Poem, Also a Physics Poem" by Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Issue 123
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Read Sneha's poem on our website: geist.com/poetry/a-love-poem-also-a-physics-poem!
"Most North American homes are so hermetically sealed that we suffocate ourselves trying to keep the natural world from getting in, but here, rooms are divided by shoji—sliding doors with translucent paper between wood frames. This house by the lake is porous."
—Issue 123. From the photography feature and essay "On Lake Saiko" by Leanne Dunic (facebook.com/leannedunic), about her artist residency in Japan and a super natural forest and convening with creatures.
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Read more at geist.com/photography/on-lake-saiko
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Image: Leanne Dunic
"In every photo, my brother struck a rigid military pose, channelling the Grenztruppen, the tension that hung over everything. I lay awake at night on the sagging mattress, bracing myself for Skylab's impact."
—Issue 123. From the dispatch "My Summer Behind the Iron Curtain" by Sara Graefe, about Skylab and East Germany and a child's angst.
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Read more at geist.com/fact/my-summer-behind-the-iron-curtain
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Image: Sean William Randall, 2, 5, 7, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 36in x 36in.
www.seanwilliamrandall.com
💫 Geist 126 is out now! 💫 Notes & Dispatches from KELLY BOUCHARD, DAYNA MAHANNAH, EM DIAL and ERNIE KROEGER.
Plus! New fiction by KATE CAYLEY, feature essays from JOSEPH PEARSON and JEROME STUEART, new poetry by EVELYN LAU. And much much more!
Incredible cover art by 💢 SANDEEP JOHAL 💢 (Sandeep Johal ART)
Get the issue (subscribe!) at geist.com/subscribe-online/geist-126
"... Then one day I simply did it, / that thing I'd always looked for through th edream window, / spurred on by the neighbour's cat who left small offerings ..."
—From the poem, "The Gravedigger" by Sarah Wolfson, exploring embodiment and moving beyond the screen, from issue 123
Read Sarah's poem on our website—www.geist.com/poetry/the-gravedigger
Announcing the first-ever PolterGEIST Writing Contest Shortlist ⭐
Thank you to the many writers who submitted! And big congrats to eight shortlisted writers 💫
Stay tuned—winners will be announced soon!
“After the neighbour moved to Europe, Lumpy moved in full time.”
—From the comix dispatch, "She Came In Through the Window" by Luca Cara Seccafien, about love and grief and unexpectedness, from issue 123
Image: “She Came In Through the Window” by Luca Cara Seccafien
Read Luca's comic on our website: www.geist.com/comics/she-came-in-through-the-window 🐈
We'd never encourage you to eavesdrop, but...
Send us the best one-liners you've overheard—on the street, at the bus stop, in line for coffee—and you might see them in our next issue!
Reply via form at geist.com/overheard
"There's so much to say and I don't know how to say it. Am I meant to bend down on my knees in supplication, beg him to make me stay? Am I meant to reach for him with my mouth? Am I meant to tell him that this is entirely and yet totally not about him, that I'm giving up my life for no reason at all?"
From the short story "Satellite" by Toby Sharpe, about longing and changing and leaving.
—Issue 123
Image: Rydel Cerezo, "Gilles and Andreas," 2019, rydelcerezo.com
Read more at geist.com/fiction/satellite
One week left to submit to the The 19th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest!
Send us a story and a postcard—the relationship can be as strong or as tangential as you like, so long as there is a clear connection between the story and the image. The story can be fiction or non-fiction; maximum length is 500 words.
You have until Monday, June 3, 2024 at 11:59PM PDT to put the finishing touches on your best Postcard Lit. All winning entries will be published in Geist and on geist.com.
First Prize: $500
Second Prize: $250
Third Prize: $150
More details and link to submit at geist.com/contests
"I crouched at the edge of a tidal pool and stared. As always when tidal pools are gazed into, the pool incrementally revealed its depths, changing from lifeless puddle to miniature sea, streaked with movement, even of struggle and desire."
From the dispatch "The Lowest Tide" by Sara Cassidy, who is pulled to the ocean's edge by the phenomena of in syzygy.
—Issue 123
Read more at geist.com/fact/the-lowest-tide
💫 Meet Oluwatoke Adejoye, Managing Director! 💫
Oluwatoke Adejoye holds an MFA from the UBC School of Creative Writing and was once the Managing Editor at PRISM international. Her nonfiction is forthcoming in Harvard University's Transition Magazine and her fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly.
💫 Meet Dayna Mahannah, Editor-in-Chief! 💫
Dayna joined Geist in April as interim editor-in-chief. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio at SFU. Fostering community amongst writers and supporting underrepresented voices is important to her.
Dayna’s writing appears in Electric Literature, TRUE Africa and HELD Magazine, and is forthcoming in Geist. She believes in print :)
"In films, the falling woman makes herself the main character by the force of her final act. She is the dramatic locus, the black hole of narrative. I always longed to be the protagonist, the falling woman—impelled by unruly passion, driven by beauty and desire, turned into stone, drowned in flowers."
Gabrielle Marceau's essay, "Main Character," scavenges cinema for the recurring image of a falling woman who falls far beyond the camera's frame.
—Issue 123
Read more at geist.com/fact/main-character
Good news! The deadline to submit to the The 19th Annual Geist Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest has been extended!
How it works: Send us a story and a postcard—the relationship can be as strong or as tangential as you like, so long as there is a clear connection between the story and the image. The story can be fiction or non-fiction; maximum length is 500 words.
You have until Monday, June 3, 2024 at 11:59PM PDT to put the finishing touches on your best Postcard Lit. All winning entries will be published in Geist and on geist.com.
First Prize: $500
Second Prize: $250
Third Prize: $150
More details / submit: geist.com/contests
💫 Geist is wowed!!!
Three National Magazine Award nominations! 💫
BIG CONGRATULATIONS:
Eleanor Panno, for the nomination of their moving comic "The Broch" in the category One-of-a-Kind Storytelling. Issue no. 124.
Christine Lai, for the nomination of her stunning piece on postcards, "Now Must Say Goodbye" in the category Essays. Issue no. 124.
Minelle Mahtani, for asking deep questions in "Looking for a Place to Happen" which is nominated in the category Essays. Issue no. 125.
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Shoutout to Geist's wonderful editor-in-chief Emma Cleary for her editorial contributions! 💥
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Congrats to all of this year's nominees!
3 weeks left to submit!
Deadline: May 20, 2024 at 11:59PM PDT.
Send us a story and a postcard—the relationship can be as strong or as tangential as you like, so long as there is a clear connection between the story and the image. Fiction + non-fiction welcome. Maximum length: 500 words.
Cash prizes!
Entry Fee: $25
Additional entries: $5.
Visit geist.com/contests.
Geist is open for submissions in nonfiction, fiction, poetry and comics! Deadline: May 6, 2024.
Submit now at https://www.geist.com/submission/submit
The 19th Annual Literal Literary Postcard Story Contest is now open for submissions! Top 3 entries will be published in Geist and on geist.com.
Entry fee: $25
Additional entries: $5
Deadline: May 20, 2024
Submit now at https://www.geist.com/contests/the-19th-annual-literal-literary-postcard-story-contest!
1) Send us a story and a postcard—the relationship can be as strong or as tangential as you like, so long as there is a clear connection between the story and the image.
Geist 125 is out now! Notes & Dispatches by Eimear Laffan, J.R. Patterson, rob mclennan, and Jade Wallace.
Plus fiction from Angélique Lalonde, poetry from Jane Shi, feature essay from Minelle Mahtani, and much more!
Gorgeous cover art by Alexander Hernandez.
geist.com/subscribe-online/geist-125
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