What is Unreal City?

Unreal City is an online literary journal. We publish stories, poetry, essays, reviews, selections from novels and works-in-progress, and articles on literary and other cultural subjects.

Is there any special focus to your journal?

The only criteria we have for including a piece is its sheen of vivid intelligence.  Our first issue, for instance, includes neosurrealist verse, an article on cutting-edge Japanese pop culture, an elegaic Western, a socioeconomic piece on the literary situation, poetry ranging from vers libre to the formal sonnet, and more.

The common denominator? Evident craftsmanship on the part of the writers.

What makes Unreal City any different from other literary journals?

Quality. Other journals are hideous.  

What Unreal City want to do is to provide an outlet for interesting and individual writing in an age when marketing imperatives, academic torpor, and workshop herd-mentality all combine to sand away individual characteristics, leaving only limp verbiage on trivial subjects.

We try to select work that is good but is not the usual numb fare found in more standardized literary journals: ie, we dislike formless verbal meandering, self-centered confessional whining, trendy carnalities, ethnocentric egotism, political correctness and politically incorrect ravings. But -- really superb style can rescue anything, so even there we may relent.

Individuality of either substance or style, ideally both, is what catches our eye. That is what we hope to find, and bring to the public.

So you're offering the public -- what? High literature? Low pop? Literary experiments?

Intelligent entertainment. But don't take our word for it. Take the Taste Test. Every literary journal comes down to one thing: the ability of the editors to pick something interesting. Read an issue. If you see something you like, that's all you need to know. Stop by again and read the next.

How often do issues appear?

Whenever the editors get around to it. Say quarterly.

Do you have any plans to come out with a print version, or perhaps ebooks?

We are currently in discussion with a small Upstate New York publishing house about the possibility of producing an ebook and a paperback edition tentatively entitled The Unreal City Reader.

How can I submit a piece to Unreal City?

You can't. We don't accept submissions. If we did, we'd be drowned in a tide of mind-numbing excrement, like the other journals. The Atlantic Monthly, for example, receives 50,000 submissions a year, and publishes 30 to 35. It is fair to assume that their cat box receives regular re-lining. The situation's impossible, and we pass on it.

Authors and works appear in Unreal City by invitation only. If we come across a writer that is dazzlingly good, or just plain interesting in some manner, we seek them out and contact them.

How do you find them?

Our spies are everywhere.

If I send a piece anyway, will you give me hearfelt and incisive personal comments on my piece, despite rejecting it?

No. We are editors. We have no hearts, feelings, or personalities. We will tear it to shreds in our blood-dappled fingers, laughing maniacally. Send it to the Paris Review or The New Yorker. They love helping newbies.

Do you review books?

Sure. Fiction, poetry, non-fiction -- email us, and we'll tell you where to send it.

Be it noted: (a) there are no returns, (b) if it's really awful, rather than trash it, we will probably not print a review. We'd rather point people to good things than dump on bad ones.

What about payment? Copyright?

Simple. We pay nothing, and all copyright remains in the hands of the author. Unreal City makes no legal claim on material submitted. (Beyond notifying the world that all pieces appearing herein are copyrighted material and the property of the author.) The author can indulge in multiple submissions to other publications, or sell his or her piece elsewhere.

We make no claims on the author's work whatsoever, and will take the work off the site if the author asks or sells it elsewhere. All we want to do is present good work to the public. 

Can I subscribe to Unreal City? How?

Yes, you can. The cost of an annual subscription is absurdly affordable $9.95. Send us an email to our subscriptions department and we'll send you an email that tells you where to send the check or money order. You can also pay us by credit card through Paypal. Make the payment out to unrealcity@davidpascal.com.

What do I get if I subscribe?

Eternal glory, the forgiveness of sins, membership in the Cultural Elite, and the sniffles and gratitude of our ragged editors and staff, who, when they spot you, will not beat you upside the head with their shoes for being the cheap bastard that you would otherwise be. 

Plus, Unreal City will send you each issue via email throughout the term of your subscription as a superbly formatted .PDF file which you can read on the (free) Adobe Acrobat Ebook Reader at your leisure.

Paid subscribers will also not have to log onto the web to read each issue, thus sparing their gentle minds from exposure to cataracts of ads and porn, and sparing their checkbooks paying AOL and the Phone Company exorbitant mounting logon costs far, far in excess of our own humble fee.

Unreal City will also send send subscribers a free electronic newsletter with local and international news about developments in the field of writing and publishing, if and when our editorial staff feels like it.

Do my chances of being invited for publication rise if I subscribe or contribute?

Astronomically. But it's no guarantee.

Do you accept donations?

Of course. Huge ones, preferably. Cash, laptops, jewelry -- we don't care. Though online publication is less costly as paper publication, putting it together, reviewing it, finding decent work, paying for internet hosting, dealing with all the correspondence involved, etcetera, does cost some money and does take considerable time. Financial aid would definitely help, and be most gratefully received.

(Contributors donating more than the subscription fee receive free subscriptions as well, and will, if they so desire, be mentioned with thanks on our site.)

Again, donations via credit card are acceptable through Paypal. Contact us for details. Or, you can send us an email, and we'll tell you where to snail-mail your check, money order, or whatever.

I'd like to make a comment about your publication, as well as the snide and insolent tone of your cocky FAQ.  How can I get in touch with the editors?

Email all praise and any positive suggestions and comments to unrealcomments@unrealcity.us. Deposit all wails, criticisms, and execration to wastebasket@yourhouse.hold.

Have a nice day.