IS YOUR WORK RIGHT FOR US?
Ask yourself one question: does your work live in the overlap?
Not: is it well-written. Not: is it experimental. Not: does it combine two things.
The question is structural. Does your work exist in the space between two things - and would it lose something essential if it were moved into either element alone? If the answer is yes, it may be vesical. If it could sit comfortably in a single genre, discipline or register without loss, it is probably not right for Hypnagogic Peacock.
Some examples of what we mean:
A poem is not vesical simply because it references philosophy. It is vesical if the philosophical thinking and the poetic form are doing the same work simultaneously - if neither could do what the other does, and neither can be removed without the piece collapsing.
A piece of practice-based research is not vesical simply because it includes creative work alongside an academic argument. It is vesical if the creative practice and the research methodology are genuinely indistinguishable - if the making is the thinking.
A hybrid essay is not vesical simply because it is unusual. It is vesical if its hybrid form is the only possible form for what it knows.
The test is not what your work contains. It is what your work requires.
If you are still unsure, write to us before submitting. We would rather answer a question than receive a piece that has been held back by uncertainty.
On citations and references
If your work makes claims that are in conversation with other knowledge - if it genuinely engages with a field, a text, a body of thinking - please include references. We accept Chicago, MLA or APA. Referenced work is eligible for DOI registration and full academic citability, which means it can be cited in academic writing as a serious contribution to a field.
If your work is purely creative - a poem, an experimental prose piece, formally innovative fiction - references are not expected and not required. Your work will be published with the same seriousness as the referenced pieces. It simply exists in a different relationship to the citeable archive, which is entirely appropriate.
If you are unsure whether your work should include references - if it sits somewhere between the two, if it draws on research without being a research text - write to us before submitting. We would rather answer a question than receive a piece that has been held back by uncertainty.
On peer review
Hypnagogic Peacock is editorially curated rather than peer reviewed. For academic writers this is worth knowing. For purely creative writers it is largely irrelevant - poetry and experimental fiction have never been peer reviewed and the absence of it here changes nothing about the seriousness with which your work will be read.
For academic writers: we operate in the tradition of the Journal of Artistic Research. Named editors, published criteria, genuine feedback, DOIs for all published work, indexed in DOAJ. The work published here is fully citable. We simply believe that editorial rigour is more appropriate than anonymous peer review for the work we publish.
Prize nominations
Hypnagogic Peacock actively considers published work for prize nominations. Poetry published in the journal may be nominated for the Forward Prizes and the Pushcart Prize. Formally innovative fiction is eligible for consideration for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. We nominate work we believe in - not every published piece will be put forward, but we advocate seriously for the writing we publish and will always let contributors know if their work is being nominated.
What we do not publish
Workshop poems. Competent, careful, indistinguishable. Work that uses difficulty as a mask for having nothing to say. Experimental form without experimental thinking. Genre fiction that does not push against its genre. Academic writing that has not found a form. Work that explains itself.
We do not ask whether work is poetry or criticism or research. We ask whether it knows something and whether it could only exist in the form it has taken. If the answer to both is yes - send it.